On Aug. 13, 1818, a girl named Lucy Stone was born. She was born on a farm in Massachusetts. Lucy loved to learn but was unhappy with the fact that she was not going to be educated. The only educated thing that she got to do was reading. She read books by the Grimke sisters. These two women wanted to fight for women’s rights. This is why Lucy Stone was inspired by them.

Since Lucy’s father would not pay for her education, Lucy became a teacher. She did this to get enough money for her education. She finally got enough money to go to Oberlin College in Ohio at the age of 25. Lucy Stone was the first woman in Massachusetts to get a college degree. When she graduated in 1847 she was asked to write a graduation speech. She refused, knowing that someone else would be reading her speech. Back then, even if women wrote a speech, men would be the only ones who could read it. This was because women could not give public speeches.

When Lucy Stone came back to Massachusetts she gave her first public speech. It was on women’s rights. About a year after she graduated she became one of the organizers of the Anti­ Slavery Society. While doing this job, she traveled around the country to give speeches about women’s rights. After three years, she earned $7,000 for her women’s rights speeches. Sometimes during her speeches people threw prayer books at her. These people were white men who did not care for black or women’s rights.

In 1850, Lucy Stone organized the first national women’s convention. Meetings were held in Worcester, Massachusetts. At the convention Lucy talked about women suffrage. A copy of her speech was sent to England. These women, from the convention, wanted England to know that women in their country should have rights.

In 1855 Lucy Stone married a man named Henry Blackwell. She loved him because he did not believe in slavery and did believe that women should be educated. Lucy Stone and Henry Blackwell agreed that Lucy could keep her maiden name instead of taking his name. Lucy Stone was the first married woman in the United States to keep her maiden name.

Lucy Stone was an incredible woman. If it weren’t for her, Henry, and some help from Susan B. Anthony, blacks and women wouldn’t have been able to do any important things. Some of these things are being able to vote, get an education, jobs, and for women to be able to keep their maiden names. All of this changed because of these people. Lucy Stone made these wonderful things happen. She pointed out that women and blacks can have the same accomplishments as white men. When black men got the right to vote Lucy Stone was most likely happy. She did not care that they were men but that the United States and possibly the world was finally changing. Right now people are probably asking why did we not let these people do the same as white men? Was it because they were different? I don’t think so. Lucy Stone might agree with me if she was here right now. Those men were afraid that if we got the chance to do the same things as them, we would be able to do better than them.

Miss D’Amato’s essay was selected as the winner of the Dorchester Day Parade Committee’s essay contest.