Welcome to this program titled in her own words. This is a program for a few by flair, which stands for the First Ladies Association for research and education. My name is mayra, garden and i am so happy that youve joined us for this very interesting look at four different first ladies and there were topple responses. Before we began this afternoon, i would like to thank the institution lifetime members, american university, wandering university, the White House Historical association, the Massachusetts Historical Society and our newest and our girl lifetime institutional member, the gerald our ford president ial aisle they think the next two minutes to introduce for people who will be part of this afternoons programs. Were gonna be starting with nancy tegan smith. Nancy as former director of the president ial materials division. I think archives record administration. She has written, lectured and published on first ladies. Since the 1980 with Lady Bird Johnson, Michelle Obama and the records modern first ladies, a Founding Member and inaugural lifetime member of flare, she serves as our Vice President and dr. Diana karlyn is professor amaretto of communication at st. Louis university. And a retired professor of communication studies. At the university of kansas. She has a research and talk about first ladies for 30 years, and has written chapters on martha washington, Lady Bird Johnson, barbara bush, Hillary Clinton and Michelle Obama. Dana is also a Founding Member and inaugural lifetime member of flare, and she served the organization as our treasurer. Dr. Angela tina it is professor and chair of communications at stone hill college. Her research focuses on american womens activism spanning from the early 19th century to the current day. In addition to the presentation on first ladies, she has published several rhetorical studies of hillary rob him clinton. And it is an inaugural lifetime member of player. Finally, but certainly not least, doctor tammy b. Hill. Tammy is the associate professor of communication and a senior associate dean of the college of communication at western university. The doctors books include the rhetoric of republican motherhood and the spouses of president ial nominees, 1992 through 2016. Along and michelle, first ladies in a new era, and connecting with constituents, identification building and blocking in the contemporary nationalist convention addresses. Tammy is also an inaugural lifetime member of slayer. It is my pleasure this moment to turn the program over two nancy kegan smith. Nancy, you are muted. It is a pleasure to be here today. And to welcome all of our people. And i think we have a very Interesting Program lined up. First ladies and their speeches have often tackled issues as leaders in society. Lady bird johnson said that while john had no assigned to duty, a podium is there. If she chooses to use it. From the very Rich Holdings of the president ial library, of the National Archives and Records Administration and first lady, we will hear 14 segments of speeches by barbara, bush Hillary Clinton, laura, bush and Michelle Obama which had a powerful impact after watching these on will analyze and discuss. We can go to the next slide on bush. Mrs. Bushs humor and annotated towards one is important in life this clearly shown in a speech she made at Wellesley College on june 1st, 19 and 90. She has not been the first choice. And her selection caused controversy on the campus. Lets see and hear some of her speech. Diana . I know your first choice today was alice walker. I guess now i know. Known for the color purple, instead youve got me. Known for the color of my hair. As set off from wellesley, i hope many of you will consider making three very special choices. The first is to believe in something you will than yourself. To get involved in some of the big ideas of our time. I chose a receipt because i honestly believe that if more people could read, write, and comprehend, we would be that much closer to solving so many of the problems that plagued our nation. And our society. And early on, i made another choice. Which i hope you will make as well. Whether you are talking about education, career, or service, you are talking about life. And life really must have joy. Its supposed to be fun. One of the reasons i made the most important decisions of my life, to marry george bush, is because he made me laugh. Its, true sometimes we laugh through our tears, but that shared laughter hasnt been one of our strongest bonds. Find the joy in life. Because i was a paris buhler said on his day off, life moves pretty fast. If you dont stop and looking around once in a while, youre gonna miss it. [applause] im not gonna tell george that you clapped more for harris than you clapped for george. The third choice that might not be missed, is to cherish your human connection. Your relationships with family and friends. For several years you have had impressed upon the importance to your career, dedication and hard work, and of course thats true. But as important as your obligations as a doctor, a lawyer, a Business Leader will be, you are a human being first. And those human connections with, spaces with children, with france, are the most important investments he will ever make. From that powerful speech we will go to the mrs. Clinton. She was clearly a first lady with many different public roles. One of which way is to plant a first lady to push strongly to the world for equal rights to women. Lets hear some of her there is one message that echoes forth from this conference. Let it be that human rights at womens rights and womens rights are human rights, once and for all. And among those rights are the rights to speak freely in the right to be heard. Women must enjoy the right to participate fully in the social and political lives of their countries, if we want freedom and democracy to thrive and indoor. It is indefensible that many women in non governmental organizations who wish to participate in this conference have not been able to attend, or have been prohibited from fully taking part. Let me be clear. Freedom means the rights of people to assemble, organize, and debate openly. It means respecting the views of those who may disagree with the views of their governments. It means not taking citizens away from their loved ones and jailing them, mistreating them or denying them their freedom or dignity, because of the peaceful expression of their ideas and opinions. Mrs. Johnson, mrs. Bushs early role is defined by unexpected national tragedy, 9 11, on november 17th, 2001. Laura bush made history at advocating for a worldwide effort to focus on the brutal treatment of afghan womans children, by the taliban regime during the weekly president ial radio address. Mrs. Bush was the first first lady to deliberately address it is entirely. Good morning. Laura bush. Delivering this weeks radio address to kick off the worldwide efforts focusing on the brutality against women and children, against the Paris Network in the regime and support in afghanistan. The taliban. That regime is now risk for across much of the country. And the people of afghan, especially, women are rejoicing. Afghan women know through hard experience that the rest of the worlds the brutal oppression of women is the simple goal of the terrorist. Long before the current war began, the taliban its paris allies were making the lives of children and women in afghanistan miserable. 70 of the Afghan People are malnourished. One in every four children it wont live past the age of five, because health care is not available. In may of 2013, in her Speech University business, challenged this in a way only mrs. Obama could do, to make educational hiring and example. When it comes to getting an education, to many of our young people just cannot be bothered. Today, instead of walking files every day to schools and sitting on couches for hours playing video games and watching movies, the dream of being a teacher a lawyer or Business Leader is fantasizing about being a ball or a rapper. Right now one in three African Americans are dropping out of high school. Only one in five African Americans between the ages of 25 and 29 have gotten a college degree. Its very clear today, getting an education is as important, if not more important, that it was back when this university was founded. As my husband has said often, please stand up and reject the slander that says a black child with a book is trying to act white. In short, be an example of excellence for the next generation. And do everything you can to help them understand the power and purpose of a good education. We have now heard four segments with first ladies where theyve effectively used their podium on subjects as different us a role of a woman in society. On the taliban. A human life. And on the enslaved education. I would now like to turn over to the, panel to my good friend and colleague, they and their calling. To start this discussion and analysis. Of these and other first ladies. Thank, you. Nancy and and tammy are joining me here. Were gonna run this more or less like a panel. So youll see all of this. As nancy, said were just gonna take the speeches in order. And also probably throw in some examples of some other women, to have that particular speech. I would say please put your question there is an email address and questions, too. You dont have to ask about first ladies and questions with any other also. As nancy said when she started, Barbara Bushs speech was mired in controversy. Alice walker was the choice, and when she turned it down the administration decided on barbara bush. I did a lot of research on this for the library. And among the many papers i fans relates to it, where the scheduling papers were they had originally decided to put this invitation and as if it were any other message. They werent aware of what had happened to get barbara the invitation. At one point they were not even sure they were going to because [inaudible] its going to be in town and had another commitment in boston, today vacate something. So they decided to do it and when they worked on this speech they worked on it and along with [inaudible] so why isnt that much different than other addresses. This speech was one of the top 100 speeches in the 20th century, as was Hillary Clintons regime speech. George h. W. Bush did not have a speech in the top 100, but barbara did. So we kind of kick this off, you know, commencement speeches are not usually very memorable. First ladies give a ton of these and dont capture a whole lot of attention except for the city where they happen. This one got worldwide attention. Not just a controversy but because of the message. To put this into more context, she was the last of the world war ii generation first ladies. Then we got to baby boomers and Hillary Clinton. She was really dealing with some general issues. So tammy and anne, i dont know who wants to start first, but why do you think this captured the attention of people after they were not real excited about having people somebody who they believe got to where she was simply because of who she married. Go ahead if you would like to start. Like to start. Sure, no problem. So i thi no problem, short. I think there are a couple of things about the speech that make it worthwhile. Well, there are a bunch of things that make it worthwhile, but i think one of the reasons why it was so captivating, particularly for that audience, was possibly because it was so unexpected. They have sort of come into, as an audience, come into the speech with a bit of a chip on their shoulder. With those expectations of what she could possibly say to us. The speech is really built around the question of diversity and embracing diversity in different kinds of ways. I think catching the conversation that she did catching the conversation the way she did, barbara bush made it so much more relatable to the women in the audience, as well as the broader audience. So because it was unexpected, because they did not think she was going to deliver much, and because she brought so much of her personality into the speech as well, and demonstrated her ability to be thoughtful, to be engaging, to be really respectful of who they were and also challenging them to be more than what they thought. In ways that they might not have expected. I think that is all white kind of captivated the particular audience. And then the ways in which she used different kinds of metaphors, stories, anecdotes, throughout, and also had lots of wonderful little laugh but lines. Some of them were planned in some of them werent. They were just spontaneous. I think those moments made her so enduring. Also, it reinforced the overall message that she was trying to get across. So i think that is why the message still indoors. Believing in something larger than yourself. Life must have joy. Cherishing human can nations. Its hard to not like that message in the way she delivered it. I was also very interested in the fact that one of the things that she does immediately in this speech is recognize the controversy. We heard a little clip at the beginning about, i know you wanted alice walker, known for the color purple. She makes the joke obviously about the color of her hair, but theres also a line in the beginning as well that we did not see where she kind of gives a shout out to the class president. Her new best friend. That is how she refers to her. So you can only imagine, and nancy you probably know the answer to this, they must have had some of the discussions aguttes amongst prior to them actually arriving on the scene. You know, popping up on the podium to deliver that speech. Clearly, had spoken with the class president earlier about this. So what shes trying to do i think and what she does beautifully in this speeches she gives a very gentle reproach to this class. And it is about women choices in life. And she does it in a way that only barbara bush could do it in terms of her humor and that self deprecating humor, and also a little bit of pop culture in there. I wont tell george [inaudible] that kind of thing, shes very comfortable, and shes very informal i think in a lot of ways. I also think that its very important to point out that she had mrs. Gorbachev with her. I think the two first ladies being on that stage together was also a very powerful visual for us. In terms of historical memory as well. I would also say to you that she speaks to even though they are generationally different, she speaks a lot to things that Hillary Clinton picked up on. Later as first lady. And that is womens choices are womens choices. They should not be dictated by whatever the political win of the days. And we are lucky we have [inaudible] so i find it remarkable for all of those reasons. And for just some background, she ended the class president had actually had a phone call. Okay. She writes about this in her memoir. They had a phone call prior to her actually arriving and began that conversation them, which is why she really talks in the speech also about having a conversation. As i said, when they were planning this speech it was going to be basically the speech she gave at st. Louis university. At a community college, and then when the controversy hit, when the students found out she had been invited, and 125 signed a petition wanting it withdrawn, she also invited mr. Gore mrs. Gorbachev before the controversy started. Its not like she did that as a way to deflect the controversy. She had actually done that ahead of time. So then when all of this hit, they pulled in some of george bushs speech writers, that we have to do something, even though we have the basic message, and she said that she did not want to complain, explain or apologize. In any way for any of this. One other thing she did at the beginning, that you did not see, you should just go watch the whole speech, but she talked about the fact that she had been invited along with her husband when they came back from china. You know, her husband was not an ambassador yet, but they went to china right after nixon opened it. And the two of them jointly spoke and she talked about how open the students were, and how they embraced diversity. To tammys point, she really set this up to say when you accept diverse people, you accept diverse ideas, and she even went on to say, you know, im from a different era and i followed the path of my era. You are following yours so you dont necessarily understand mine. I dont understand yours. And then there was the final incredible line. Tammy, do you want to give it . I was just loving the buildup. Go ahead. I dont want to step on your toes. So she then says, but the conversation does not end here. Anne, i think youre absolutely right, this was a bigger conversation than about her being married to somebody famous. It really was about womens choices and the struggles that women have. And she talked about how the race originally was whoever got married first would be to want to win it. I think youd be Julia Roberts movie [inaudible] then it became who was going to be the ceo. Then she said, so now, its which of you will achieve your personal dream. And she said in one day, in this audience, one day you may be listening to another president ial [inaudible] and i wish him well. That, of course, just got the standing ovation. But it was, you know, [inaudible] fantastic. Go ahead, tammy. I was just going to say, just a couple of quick notes, which administers she says may your future be worthy of your dream. As opposed to reinforce that idea of not societys dream, but your own personal dream. I thought that was a really nice closing. One of the other things i food enjoyed about this speech, and honestly every time i watch it or hear it or read it i find other things that just kind of bubble up out of it. This was an interesting thing to have happened, the speech, in 1990, as a sort of preview for what happened in 1992 when we had barbara bush and hillary rotem clinton as the two potential first ladies in that campaign. So some of the conversation that came up with barbara bus