Critical Introduction

Welcome to our blog “Bridging the 60s Gap!” We are a group of freshmen in ENGL101 at The University of Maryland, College Park Scholars Program, studying the intersection between the Civil Rights Movement and the Women’s Rights Movement. Our class has been analyzing the time period of the 1960s since it was a progressive time in American history, which brought upon monumental changes in thoughts and outlooks. Many people of this time realized that equality was not a reality, especially African American women. It was a time where people began standing up for their rights. We studied two speeches: “Ain’t I A Woman” by Sojourner Truth and “Equal Rights For Women” by Shirley Chisholm. These two speeches are very similar in terms of the speaker’s ethos and their content. They do, however, differ in their audience, tone, and their approach to establish their respective arguments to address the inequality towards minorities especially African American women. In the two speeches, “Equal Rights” by Shirley Chisholm and “Ain’t I A Woman” by Sojourner Truth, the two women use their African American background to passionately advocate the need for equal rights for all people and strongly criticize the double standard men place against women.

Sojourner Truth in "Ain't I A Woman" argues primarily to eliminate the double standard instilled into society by men towards women. Her main goal was to rally the women at the National Women's Convention in 1851 to stand by her in the fight for the Abolitionist movement and the Feminist movements in the mid-1800s. Shirley Chisholm in "Equal Rights for Women" argue primarily to pass her amendment for equal rights to all people because of her background as an African American Congresswoman. We hope that our audience will understand the importance of the Civil Rights and Women's Rights Movements. As we observed the movements in two different time periods, the 1850s and the 1960s, we can apply our knowledge of discrimination to present day. Although many have addressed the inequality and have implemented change, it is difficult and hard to accept that even now there are still many parallel examples of racism and sexism in the news. It is important to acknowledge the prejudices and address them. As the youth of this nation, it is our duty as citizens to understand the issues of racism and sexism and speak out about them and work towards eliminating unjust discrimination.

Both of the presented texts make similar but very different arguments. While both speakers argued for the equal rights of men and women, they made their arguments with different devices. Chisholm focused her argument more on logos, Truth used pathos to strengthen her argument. Both women spoke in a time where they found racial discrimination as well as discrimination due to gender unacceptable. In a time of restlessness, both women are asking to be given equal not “special rights”.They give heed to the idea that these issues stem from feelings of privilege and that the unjust treatment could be handled more easily than people make it seem. The argument that our blog proposed about the texts connections is that while these women fought for these rights in two totally different time periods, the rhetorical devices and urgency in their speeches were very similar. On the surface it appears that these two texts are completely different because one fights mainly for civil rights and one fights for equal treatment of women in the workforce. However, after analyzing both speeches we found that this is not the case.

The posts discuss the discrimination of both African Americans and women during the 1960s. To properly analyze the speeches by Truth and Chisholm we looked at what they wrote and the events occurring at the time. By focusing on the factual evidence of discrimination dictated by Truth and Chisholm our posts are reliable and straightforward. For example, Truth writes about the injustices she has experienced both as a woman and African American. These topics of feminism and civil rights seem to be resurfacing during our time with the same sense of urgency that they began with. We live in a time where our people want politicians to focus on the pay gap and the glass ceiling. We also live in a time where the Black Lives Matter movement has made itself the voice of a people that sometimes cannot find a voice.  Our blog discusses the components of the writings, mainly the experiences, so our audience will understand the reality of discrimination. Not only will they understand the reality of discrimination, they will understand what people wanted to be done about it years ago, and what can be done about it in our time. 

We began with introducing the ethos of the speeches so it understood why the authors are qualified to speak on the discrimination of African Americans and women. This would also give the readers a better understanding of the authors' themselves. Once the reliability of the speeches has been established the exigency of the issue follows. The reader will now be aware of the speech's purpose and hopefully feel more engaged in the cause. Now that the reader is engaged in the issue, factual knowledge has to be applied. With logos the audience can have a background in the subject and follow the fact, based component of the speeches. Kairos follows, furthering the historical, factual understanding the reader gains. Once the reader understands that part of the speech, our blog attempts to personalize the issues discussed in writings. We do this by analyzing the audience, causing the reader to understand that actual people were affected by the discrimination.

Through our text we hope that the readers feel connected to the text we have shared. We hope that we have inspired them to dig deeper in the issues of racism and sexism with our study of the intersection of the Civil Rights and Women's Rights Movements during the 1850s and the 1960s. The more knowledge you have on a topic the more leverage you have when trying to push for what you deserve. A good number of our readers will be young women aspiring to have successful careers. We want to encourage them to not settle and continue to fight for their rights. As Truth and Chisholm did not accept their "fate" we hope that the readers see they do not have to accept theirs. And although we have come a far way with progressive changes, we still have some way to go.