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Authors: Roberta Brandes Gratz
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States. Johnson took his first slice out of the state of Texas. A more obvious story lead could not be handed to the most inexperienced reporter. I came back and instead of typing notes, as Stan had asked, wrote the story, starting with LBJ taking the first slice out of Texas. Stan was caught by surprise, edited the story, and sent it in immediately. It made the front page—no byline—under a photo of Johnson slicing the cake. The word spread around the City Room that it was my story, and many of the reporters cheered. They were now my friends and rooting for me.
Soon after the Atlantic City convention in August 1964, a Young Democrats event was scheduled to take place at Gracie Mansion, the official residence of New York mayors. LBJ was now the presidential nominee, and much was being made in the news about Texas barbecue replacing the elegant French food served in the Kennedy White House. Walter Jet-ton was Texas’s most famous barbecue chef, and he was coming to New York. I was still only an editorial assistant at the Post , but I offered Dan Wolf the story for the Village Voice . He said yes.
The story depicted Lynda Bird Johnson’s New York political debut at this young citizens’ event at Gracie Mansion, hosted by Robert Wagner Jr., son of the mayor. The Texas-style barbecue and Texas-sized portions of food marked the abrupt transition experienced by these young sophisticates, many of whom had first been politically energized by the youthful “vigah” and style of the Kennedys, not to mention the dominance of French food and understated elegance.
I don’t know if that story in the Voice advanced my standing with the Post editors, but two months later, I started my three-month “tryout” as a reporter. On my first day, Judy Michaelson, a veteran reporter, advised me, “Take your first assignment, run right out of the office as if you know exactly what you are doing, and then call me from the nearest phone booth.” As it turned out, I didn’t need to. I was sent to cover a press conference held by proabortion advocate Bill Baird calling for legalization. Only a year or two earlier, I had had an abortion, forced to go to the infamous Women’s Hospital in Puerto Rico rather than succumb to the illegal, unsafe backroom procedure available in the United States. I knew more than any reporter—even a new one—needed to know about the subject.
A few years later, abortion would become one of the issues on which I focused as a reporter. I covered efforts to change the law, wrote a six-part series on the issue, and then wrote the cover story for Ms. when the Roe v. Wade decision was handed down from the U.S. Supreme Court in January 1973. That was the height of the women’s movement, and I was as much a part of it as my professional restrictions permitted. When editors allowed me, I wrote stories related to women’s issues, not something many editors allowed at other newspapers.
Rape was another topic that I covered in depth in the early 1970s before the laws applying to it were liberalized. There was little talked about and less written about a subject fraught with myth and pain. Susan Brownmiller’s Against Our Will , published in 1975, changed all that and catapulted the issue into the nation’s consciousness. But when I was writing this series a few years earlier, corroboration requirements were so onerous, a “woman’s word” so suspect, juries so doubtful, and policemen and district attorneys so unsympathetic that most women didn’t even report the crime, and if they did very rarely achieved justice. I wrote a six-part series on rape in 1972, spotlighting the inequity of the law. What I learned over the months of research and interviews for that series angered me greatly. Attitudes ranged from “women should relax and enjoy it” to “they ask for it.” Blaming the victim was common. My slowly emerging feminism ratcheted up to full speed.
PROMOTED TO REPORTER
In January 1965 I was promoted to
Soon after the Atlantic City convention in August 1964, a Young Democrats event was scheduled to take place at Gracie Mansion, the official residence of New York mayors. LBJ was now the presidential nominee, and much was being made in the news about Texas barbecue replacing the elegant French food served in the Kennedy White House. Walter Jet-ton was Texas’s most famous barbecue chef, and he was coming to New York. I was still only an editorial assistant at the Post , but I offered Dan Wolf the story for the Village Voice . He said yes.
The story depicted Lynda Bird Johnson’s New York political debut at this young citizens’ event at Gracie Mansion, hosted by Robert Wagner Jr., son of the mayor. The Texas-style barbecue and Texas-sized portions of food marked the abrupt transition experienced by these young sophisticates, many of whom had first been politically energized by the youthful “vigah” and style of the Kennedys, not to mention the dominance of French food and understated elegance.
I don’t know if that story in the Voice advanced my standing with the Post editors, but two months later, I started my three-month “tryout” as a reporter. On my first day, Judy Michaelson, a veteran reporter, advised me, “Take your first assignment, run right out of the office as if you know exactly what you are doing, and then call me from the nearest phone booth.” As it turned out, I didn’t need to. I was sent to cover a press conference held by proabortion advocate Bill Baird calling for legalization. Only a year or two earlier, I had had an abortion, forced to go to the infamous Women’s Hospital in Puerto Rico rather than succumb to the illegal, unsafe backroom procedure available in the United States. I knew more than any reporter—even a new one—needed to know about the subject.
A few years later, abortion would become one of the issues on which I focused as a reporter. I covered efforts to change the law, wrote a six-part series on the issue, and then wrote the cover story for Ms. when the Roe v. Wade decision was handed down from the U.S. Supreme Court in January 1973. That was the height of the women’s movement, and I was as much a part of it as my professional restrictions permitted. When editors allowed me, I wrote stories related to women’s issues, not something many editors allowed at other newspapers.
Rape was another topic that I covered in depth in the early 1970s before the laws applying to it were liberalized. There was little talked about and less written about a subject fraught with myth and pain. Susan Brownmiller’s Against Our Will , published in 1975, changed all that and catapulted the issue into the nation’s consciousness. But when I was writing this series a few years earlier, corroboration requirements were so onerous, a “woman’s word” so suspect, juries so doubtful, and policemen and district attorneys so unsympathetic that most women didn’t even report the crime, and if they did very rarely achieved justice. I wrote a six-part series on rape in 1972, spotlighting the inequity of the law. What I learned over the months of research and interviews for that series angered me greatly. Attitudes ranged from “women should relax and enjoy it” to “they ask for it.” Blaming the victim was common. My slowly emerging feminism ratcheted up to full speed.
PROMOTED TO REPORTER
In January 1965 I was promoted to
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