Essay on Nellie Bly the Journalist

During the 1900’s, society limited the rights of African Americans. Gwendolyn Brooks was a writer who experienced discrimination from the white population, and even African Americans who were fairer in complexion. She originally wrote about the oppression of African Americans, and their day-to-day struggles. Later on, she expanded her writings to include the struggles of African Americans everywhere. By the end of her life, she inspired thousands of young writers to write about things they’re passionate about. The impact Gwendolyn Brooks has on my life is incomparable to any other important figure I've studied. It's the steps that she took that made her a global leader and will impact my development as a global leader.

Gwen Harwood sent a hostile message to the Bulletin Newspaper in 1961. This was a protest against, what Harwood believed to be, an inherent sexism within the journalistic sphere.

Nellie Bly was considered the greatest female journalist of her time. Nellie Bly is important in American history because she traveled around the world, faked insanity to get into an asylum, and traveled to Mexico for many months.

American journalist Clare Boothe Luce writes a speech to the Women’s National Press Club about how the press sacrifices sensationalist stories. Luce’s introduction talks about how the American press is wrong and how she tries to address the problem. She starts off by tells the other journalist how she is happy, but the audience makes her unhappy and challenged. This shows her hard work in writing and how the press lacks in writing true stories.

Frances Ellen Walker Harper published a wealth of short stories, poetry, essays, and novels in the middle to late 1800s. She was born into a politically active, free black family, attended her uncle’s school, and became the first female teacher at the Union Seminary. Harper’s unusually comfortable class-status and extensive education allowed her to become a skilled writer on topics that interested her, such as politics, civil rights, feminism, and religion. Harper used her skill and passion to become economically and emotionally independent. In fact, much of her work echoes her identity as a middle class woman of color who supported herself through writing. However, this nature of independence was unusual for a woman in the 1800s, especially a black woman. Though Harper’s portrayal of strong, independent womanhood is a much needed depiction of women, Harper is unqualified to establish expectations for black women in the 1800s.

Eudora Welty’s sheltered, adolescent life, coupled with her parent’s emphasis on education and reading, helped to shape her as the writer she was by making her stylistic approaches daring and intelligent while keeping a southern tone and state of mind.

Barbara Charline Jordan contributed many things to help equality for African-Americans and to put an impact on society. She was a lawyer, educator, and was the first African-American women from the south to join Congress. Ever since she was in high school, Barbara had been a very talented public speaker. As a result of being such an inspirational speaker, she gave the opening speech for President Nixon impeachment hearing in 1974. Barbara’s time in Congress ended after three terms and became a professor and policy advocate.

The lasting Influence of Nellie Bly Pinorrer of journalism, did not give up, a hero to many traits that all describe Nellie Bly. She got to this point by being brave and standing out. Nellie Bly was an awe-inspiring journalist, women's rights activist and was known for exposing the corruption in legal and social systems. Blys lasting influence made a major impact on society's view of women journalist and the legal systems. Nellie Bly was most influential when it came to journalism in American history.

Gwendolyn brooks was born in Topeka, Kansas. Her family moved to Chicago during the great migration when Brooks was six weeks old. Her first poem was published when she was 13 and at the age of 17, she already had a series of poems published in the poetry column “Lights and shadows” in the Chicago defender newspaper. . After working for The NAACP, she began to write poems that focus on urban poor blacks. Those poems were later published as a collection in 1945. The collection was titled A Street in Bronzeville. A street in bronzeville received critical acclaim but it was her next work, Annie Allen, that was got her the Pulitzer Prize. She lived in Chicago until her death on December 3, 2000 at age of 83.

Some of my classmates may remember very little from their high school career, but there is one thing I did, and learned, that still sticks with and greatly influences me. In my introductory journalism class, we were given a fairly basic assignment-research a famous journalist or publisher and present their accomplishments to the class. My teacher asked me to research Gloria Steinem, a journalist, founder of Ms. Magazine, a social and political activist, and above all, a prominent feminist. My research of Steinem quickly turned from poring over feminist articles published in the 1970’s in favor of something a bit more modern. My research led me to the very heart of the modern feminist movement. When I excitedly shared my newfound enlightenment,

Nellie Bly is the nickname of the American investigative newspaper reporter, Elizabeth Jane Cochran. Elizabeth was renowned for her reportage of social justice issues and her willingness to undertake “daredevil” undercover investigations; which famously included getting herself committed to an insane asylum so she could report on the conditions there. Elizabeth is also renowned for her travel around the world in seventy-two days.

Nellie Bly, a journalist and social reformer of the late nineteenth century, sought to uncover existing corruption in social institutions through writing expose features. A feminist, social activist, and writer, Bly both contributed to and was influenced by the social and literary forces of the time period. During the late eighteen hundreds, Nellie Bly challenged social expectations of women, questioned the morality of certain social institutions, and defined a distinctive writing style by incorporating the trends of the time into her own approach. At sixteen, Nellie Bly, then named Elizabeth Jane Cochran, began her course as a feminist in 1885 by writing a letter in opposition to an article that touted the home as the proper domain for women.

At the end of August of the same year she was invited to interview with Eugenia Sheppard, women’s page editor for the Herald Tribune. She receives the job as a feature writer for Sheppard’s columns. Her feature stories were more about abortion rings and antiwar protesters rather than the fluff women were meant to write in the 1960’s (Sheehy, 3-9). Jim Bellows, editor of the Harold Tribune, wanted to see her and let her know that he liked all the gritty stuff “in the middle of all the fluff,” and that she should “keep it up.” Due to Bellows’ interest in her work she was able to explore more news stories than fluff (Sheehy, 3-9). She did an investigative piece on New York Cities maternity clinics because New York “had one of the worst records on infant mortality” (Sheehy, 8). Her piece unearthed the horrible practices of free maternity clinics for the poor. Due to her work those clinics were cleaned up and poor women were given better care. Not long after Maura was born Sheehy found out that Sheppard had entered her New York maternity story into the New York Newswomen’s Club. The story had won the best feature series of the year award and Sheehy was able to attend the awards ceremony at the Plaza Hotel (Sheehy,

“The rest of the world may sign their name in black or blue ink, but you are going to sign Kate in gold,” I muttered to myself in the mirror before my first day of high school. Since then, I’ve known that I was much more than what I had imagined. For me, I always dreamed of being a teacher or a doctor, but I allowed my curiosity to wander and I found my passion for politics. At the age of eight, I was learning and embracing what fascinated me, and was not permitting anyone to stop me. With this credo, I held my head high and became the young woman I am today. I have embraced the fact that I am a strong nonconformist, an inquisitive journalist, and Editor in Chief- or my idea of a free spirit.

As Stella continued with studies, she developed an interest in writing. She wrote articles on topical issues, posting them to the daily print press. Interestingly, many of them were published as letters to the editor. This, she did until completing her studies.