Authentication Materials:

  1. Speech Title exactly as it to be printed: “For the Equal Rights Amendment.”
  2. Exact Date and Place of Speech Delivery: 10 August 1970. United States House of Representatives, Washington, D.C.
  3. Complete Name of Speaker, with year of birth and year of death: Shirley Anita St. Hill Chisholm (1924-2005).
  4. Complete name of editor or compiler of electronic text, with indication of role: Diane M. Blair, compiler and editor.
  5. Date of electronic edition: 2007.
  6. Languages: English (100%).
  7. Library of Congress Classification: E.840
  8. Indication of editing functions performed: Diane M. Blair retrieved the copy-text, compared it to other available versions of Chisholm’s text, and thoroughly proofread it in 2007. In 2006, VOD Associate Editor Robert N. Gaines created TEI header and xml conformant file, validated 25 March in XMetal 3.1.3 against teixlite.dtd (version 2004-07-16).

Bibliographic List of Sources:

Chisholm, Shirley A. “For the Equal Rights Amendment.” In Congressional Record, 91st Cong., 2d Sess., 1970, 116, pt. 21: 28028-28029. [=A]

Chisholm, Shirley A. “For the Equal Rights Amendment.” In American Rhetoric from Roosevelt to Reagan, 2nd ed. Ed., Halford Ross Ryan. Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press, 1987: 220-224. [=B]

Chisholm, Shirley A. “For the Equal Rights Amendment.” In “A Critical Analysis of Selected Speeches on Women’s Rights by Representative Shirley Chisholm.” Margaret Jean Hankle, Master’s Thesis, California State University, Long Beach, 1976: Appendix F, 125-127. [=C]

Statement of Editorial Procedures:

The copy-text is the printed version of the speech that appears in the Congressional Record. This selection is based on the plausible efficacy of the delivered speech before the U.S. House of Representatives. The Congressional Record is the official record of the proceedings and debates of the United States Congress. It is published daily when Congress is in session. All speeches and debates delivered in Congress are included in the Congressional Record. The Congressional Record consists of four sections: the Daily Digest, the House section, the Senate section, and the Extension of Remarks. The Daily Digest summarizes the day’s floor and committee activities and serves as a table of contents for each issue. The House and Senate sections contain proceedings for the separate chambers of Congress. Finally, the Extension of Remarks includes tributes, statements, and other information that supplements statements made on the congressional floor. It is important to note that common practice allows members of Congress the right to edit material before publication in the Congressional Record. As stated in the “Laws and Rules for Publication of the Congressional Record,” these edits are limited and consist only of corrections to the original copy (deletions of correct material, substitutions of correct material, or additions of new materials are prohibited) to ensure the accuracy of the historical record. Members of Congress have the right to insert additional materials, under extension of remarks, either in the body of the Congressional Record or in the appendix. The text of this speech comes from the House section proceedings. The Ryan version of the speech cites the Congressional Record as its source. The Hankle version is a facsimile of the Congressional Record version. No other known version of this text exists beyond the copy in the Congressional Record. Archivists at the Rutger’s University Library (Center for American Women and Politics, Eagleton Institute of Politics, New Brunswick, New Jersey), where Chisholm’s papers are housed, likewise confirm that they know of no other extant version of this text.

Paragraph numbers have been added in square brackets.

The text of this edition has been thoroughly checked and proofread.

This copy text is not subject to end-of-line hyphenation.

All double quotation marks are rendered with “, all single quotation marks with apostrophe ‘.

Special characters and characters with diachronic marks: none

Departures from the copy-text and general editorial procedures are noted by references numbers specifying the paragraph in which the departure occurs.

26 The Kanowitz quote was collated with the original source of the quotation and “inevitable” in the first sentence of the quote was changed to “inevitably” to follow the wording of the original source exactly. Quotation marks were added to indicate the direct quote. See Kanowitz, Leo. Women and the Law: The Unfinished Revolution. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1969, 4.