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Throughout history, there have been many social changes in our society that have been, in part, associated with an activist’s or politician’s writings or speeches. To call attention to the issues they are presenting and to relate them to society as a whole, they use language in different ways. For example, Abraham Lincoln made the argument that slaves were not property that they were men and they should be treated as human beings with the same rights as the general population. Nelson Mandela fought with his words to eliminate apartheid. Martin Luther King, Jr. used language to describe issues that the Negroes were facing and to assign them human characteristics so that the general population could identify with their plight, which helped influence John F. Kennedy to use his gift with words and his charisma to affect change in governmental policies. These men, and many others, who have come before and after them, used the power of speech and language to sway, convince, teach, and modify beliefs so that healthy social change could occur.