She's History!

November 19th, 2012 ; “With gratitude for bringing us Bella’s words”, wrote Gloria Steinem, on a clean blank page of my copy of Bella S. Abzug’s autobiography; BELLA!. I had Bella’s book with me, knowing the glorious Gloria would be at The Manhattan Borough President’s office in New York City and see my Bella Abzug performance (excerpted from SHE’S HISTORY! The Most Dangerous Women In America…Then And Now, my play and school program about women who make and made history).  I keep reading it and pinching myself.  “Yes”, I say, “this did happen.  You were there.  She was there.  It happened.”

Here’s what happened.

August 10th, 2012, there I was in Los Angeles, having just moved for the second time in nine months, unexpectedly child-free for the first time in twenty years, an unplanned empty nester, surrounded by boxes, in my new apartment, depressed, disgusted and enraged with The Family Legal System and with all of life’s injustices. I find myself at 7AM in Peet’s Coffee shop, reading an email from Diana Mara Henry, Bella Abzug’s photographer. “If you are in New York City on November 19th, we would be delighted to have you ‘say a few words’ as Bella Abzug! “

I read it again and again.  “I must be dreaming”, I thought, and for the first time in a long time, I felt something other than sad.  So I pinched myself, ordered a large low-fat wet cappuccino, went back to my box-filled apartment, called Diana Mara Henry and said “why yes, I DO plan on being in Manhattan on November 19th (I had NO INTENTION of being in Manhattan on November 19th) and would love to say a few words as Bella”.

For the uninitiated, Bella Abzug was a pioneering feminist, activist, pacifist, lawyer, mother, loud mouth hat wearing revered New York Congresswoman.   And she was best friends with Gloria Steinem.

“Give ‘em hell Bella”.  That’s what I heard growing up in New York and distinctly remember seeing and hearing her on televsion with her big hats – and big mouth. You could not miss her.   It wasn’t until I became a mom raising two girls and started my women’s history journey, that I learned about Bella and I learned that I didn’t know ANYTHING about her.  This herstorical ignorance which permeates our world is what inspires me – now at the tender age of 56, with two teenage daughters, to turn the world on to all the fabulous females we don’t know about with SHE’S HISTORY!

Don’t know who took this photo – got it from the Internet.
If anyone knows, please contact me so I can give credit.

I had the honor of meeting Bella’s buddy, Ms. Steinem, twice before, and we had chatted about SHE’S HISTORY! but she had never seen me perform.  What brought us together was WOMEN ON THE MOVE – the 35th anniversary celebration of an amazing event that no one knows about.  The 1977 Houston Woman’s Conference, planned, and organized by Bella, who was appointed by President Carter to head the National Commission on the Observance of International Women’s Year “to promote equality between men and women”.

Ahhhh.  “Promote equality between men and women.”

So many things made November 19th-21st, 1977 so special, so amazing, so life-changing for so many women AND men. Bella got the whole thing started and got the government – for the first and only time – to pay for this National Woman’s Conference. One hundred and fifty thousand people participated in the planning of the conference with every state being represented.  Twenty thousand people attended the conference, including Gloria Steinem, Susan B. Anthony II (the grand niece of her namesake), Maya Angelou, Coretta Scott King, Betty Friedan, Barbara Jordan, Billie Jean King, and New York Congresswoman Elizabeth Holtzman, the youngest woman to have been elected to the House of Representatives. And Diana Mara Henry captured it all, as official photographer of the National Commission on the Observance of International Women’s Year, sponsor of the conference and the 50 state meetings that preceded it to elect delegates and formulate a plan of action.

The very first woman’s conference was held in 1848, in Seneca Falls New York.  The notice in the paper said: “A Convention to discuss the social, civil and religious condition and rights of woman”.   In other words, to “promote equality between men and women”.  A Declaration of Sentiments was hammered out (modeled after the Declaration of Independence) including the resolution that “all men AND WOMEN” are created equal.  Caused quite the stir! It wasn’t until 1920 that the 19th Amendment was passed giving American women the right to vote, but back in 1848,  Elizabeth Cady Stanton had the nerve to demand that a woman’s right to vote be included in the Declaration of Sentiments.  It was, and all hell broke loose.  The New York Herald called it “the most shocking and unnatural incident ever recorded in the history of womanity.”

On September 29th, 1977,  forty-nine days before the conference, a torch was lighted in Seneca Falls and carried by a relay of runners to Houston – 2600 miles away.  Maya Angelou wrote a new Declaration Of Sentiments that was signed along the way. Do you have goose bumps yet? Peggy Kokernot, Michele Cearcy and Sylvia Ortiz were the three runners who carried the torch for the last mile.

Copyright © 1977 Diana Mara Henry / www.dianamarahenry.com

From left to right: Sylvia Ortiz, Peggy Kokernot and Michele Cearcy

Copyright © 1977 Diana Mara Henry / www.dianamarahenry.com

And there they were – running that last mile, left to right: Billie Jean King, Susan B. Anthony II, Bella Abzug, Sylvia Ortiz, Peggy Kokernot, Michelle Cearcy, and Betty Friedan!

 

Copyright © 1977 Diana Mara Henry / www.dianamarahenry.com

They presented it to (above) LADY BIRD JOHNSON, ROSALYNN CARTER and BETTY FORD.

That’s Congresswoman Elizabeth Holtzman in the background applauding, with Bella Abzug, and Donna de Varona, Suzy Chaffee and Michelle Cearcy at right, and in foreground, Peg Kokernot and Sylvia Ortiz.

Both Ms. Holtzman and Ms. Steinem, as well as most of the people in the audience for whom I performed, including the torch runners, were at the anniversary celebration in New York City.  Most had attended the Houston conference in 1977, and many were friends and colleagues of Bella’s, knew, loved, was inspired by, and miss Bella (she died in 1998).

I am not used to performing for people who actually know or knew the “dangerous” women I portray on stage, so it was thrilling and nerve-wracking, but ultimately, ended up being one of the coolest things I have done.

Photo by Robin L Gallagher
Chatting with Gloria Steinem, after my Bella performance.  She was telling me the best Bella biographies to read.

Photo by Robin L Gallagher

This is Elizabeth Holtzman, former New York Congresswoman, who I grew up admiring!While in congress, she played a key role in the impeachment of President Nixon and was a dedicated Nazi-Hunter.

This celebration was a reunion for the people of ’77, and the theme that kept emerging as the speakers took their turns was “unfinished business”.  They all spoke of how inspiring and energizing the Houston Conference was but how there is still SO MUCH TO DO!

Please visit Diana Mara Henry’s website and see the photos and read the speeches and words of Billie Jean King, many of the delegates and others including Lucy Komisar of the Komisar Scoop, who talked about the last conversation she had Sept.4, 2005, with Betty Friedan, at her house in Sag Harbor.

http://www.womenonthemoveonline.com

Photo by Robin L Gallagher
Here I am with Diana Mara Henry – who made it all happen.  Her book “Women On The Move” is amazing!

Back in August when I got the email inviting me to NYC, I planned a fabulous four days and ended up doing four shows.  I was definitely a Woman On The Move!

And I got lucky.  An old friend and colleague from my New York Improv days is a Director at The Henry Street Settlement, a not-for-profit social service agency that provides social services, arts programs and health care, catering to low-income families in the Lower East Side of New York City – where my mom and her family – immigrants from Eastern Europe –  grew up.  Founded by another fabulous female I want to turn the world on to Lillian Wald, – a rich and privileged nurse, activist and humanitarian who inspires me.  She spent her life making the world better. When I mentioned to my dad “I am doing a show for the Henry Street Settlement.  Have you ever heard of it daddy?”.  He told me, “Yeah, they sent me to camp when I was eight years old”.   More goosebumps.

I brought two books about Lillian Wald with me.  A biography “Always a Sister; The Feminism of Lillian Wald”, that I planned to donate to the school and one of her autobiographies,  “The House On Henry Street” hoping to get the twenty-four middle school students I was performing for to sign.  I love performing SHE’S HISTORY! for the kids.  They are always so surprised to hear the stories and nothing engages like theatre.  I was there BEFORE the Newtown shooting and I bring this up because I told them about Malala Yousafzai, the fourteen year old Pakistani girl who was shot by the Taliban on her school bus for trying to go to school.  A theme of my show is “quiet woman, stand in the back and let the men do the talking”. They were mesmerized by Malala’a story.  “In the head”, I answered, when the little boy in the front row asked where exactly was she shot?  Details, they wanted details.  I show her picture in my slideshow and suddenly she was very real.  You could see the effect it had on them.

Of course, now, after Newtown, I wonder if I did the right thing telling them about Malala.   It did not occur to me (or anyone) that this kind of violence could happen to an American Elementary school student.  Malala is miraculously recovering in a London hospital.  (Left the hospital on Friday January 4th 2013)

I only had thirty-five minutes to perform but they loved it and afterwards, I asked if I could have a picture with them.  They rushed to encircle me and one of the boys grabbed a flag I use to drape a table and held it up. The energy was delicious.  Then I held up my copy of Lillian Wald’s House on Henry Street and asked “can you all sign your name in my book because I know you will each grow up and do something amazing and I want to say I knew you”.  Well.  You should have seen them run to do it and patiently wait their turn.  One girl came up to me holding the biography of Lillian Wald that I donated.  “You are just giving this to us?, she asked?  She could not believe it.  It was so rewarding and heartbreaking and heartwarming to be able to perform for these kids, many of whom I was told, lived in shelters, and also just survived Hurricane Sandy.

Photo by Robin L Gallagher

After that, I was taken on a tour of Lillian Wald’s home – the actual House On Henry Street, a five story block long building where it all started and now serves as the administrative headquarters.  Goosebumps all over the place.

The Henry Street show started my four days in New York.  The next night, I did a fundraiser for The Museum Of Motherhood (museumofmotherhood.org).  The founder is my friend, fabulous female, Joy Rose, who is the founder. Whenever I am in New York with the show, I do a fundraiser for the Museum.

October 2011 Fundraiser                                                  March 2012 Fundraiser

Photo by Robin L Gallagher

Joy Rose Introducing The Show

My friend Kim works for the Coalition Against Trafficking In Women.  She came with her boss Norma, the director.  After the show we had a fascinating talkback, which began with the a discussion of the word prostitute, inspired by Victoria Woodhull, the first woman to run for President in 1872, who has a big part in my show and who is known as The Prostitute Who Ran For President.  “We prefer using the term “prostituted” a verb, as in ‘she was prostituted’. Something was done to her.  You don’t call someone that which is done to them”, explained Norma, and we went on to discuss a variety of subjects, all inspired by the trail-blazing women in the show.

Back in August, after I agreed to be Bella, I realized it took place three days before Thanksgiving, my favorite holiday.  I knew this would be a really tough one, so I decided to fly from New York to Florida (where all the old New York Jews are required to live) and spend Thanksgiving with my eighty-seven year old super cool father. My mom died in 2009. My dad, a WWII veteran, used to drive a cab in New York, is quite the character, a history buff, my hero, and sharp as a tack.  His body is another story – but his mind?  Fahgetaboudit.  Every Wednesday morning, I do a live segment of Fabulous Female Facts on radioornot.com, Nicole Sandler’s political internet radio program. The day after arriving in Florida, when I went on the air chatting about my New York adventures, I was sitting with my dad in his kitchen.   He was reading during the segment and when I was recounting the story of the runners with the torch I said, “and they delivered it to three first ladies; Betty Ford, Rosalynn Carter and ……..” and then I totally blanked!  So I said “oh, I am totally blanking”, and my dad looks up and says “Lady Bird Johnson”.  I told him the story ONCE.  What a guy!

I spent the rest of the week, relaxing, enjoying my dad, reliving my New York adventures and being so thankful for the opportunity to perform SHE’S HISTORY!

 

“With gratitude for bringing us Bella’s words”.   Sometimes, all it takes is a little appreciation.

From Anne Hutchinson To Pussy Riot

The 2012 USA Women’s Olympic Teams broke records, kicked butt and made headlines.  Shannon Eastin became the National Football League’s First Female Line Judge and refereed her first game in San Diego, and Tammy S. Smith became the Army’s first openly gay brigadier general.  The All-Male Augusta National Gold Club finally let the gals in, inviting Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and business executive Darla Moore. Diana Nyad made her fourth attempt swimming from Cuba to Florida and was forced to abandon her thirty-five year old dream, one day shy of her 63rd birthday. And Comedy Pioneer Phyllis Diller died.

And that was just in August.

Also in August, the ghost of Anne Hutchinson, 17^th Century Puritan, mother of the First Amendment, religious freedom pioneer, hovered around PUSSY RIOT, a Russian punk rock band comprised of three women (two of them moms of young kids) who were convicted of premeditated hooliganism. They were sentenced to two years in prison for performing a punk prayer in a Russian church criticizing President Vladimir Putin.  They are considered a danger to society and accused of religious hatred.  Yup, they challenged authority, and the government in a sacred space – a church.  Just like Anne Hutchinson, bible teacher, midwife and mother of fifteen who in the 1600s had the audacity to challenge the government and the religious leaders of her day by having “religious meetings” in her own home and sharing her opinions with other women – and even some men (making the meetings promiscuous – a sin), including Governor Vane – a fan.  Oy.  Such chutzpah.  She had the outlandish idea that one could have salvation (a Puritan biggie) just by having faith.  One could pray and feel god all by oneself.  She called this The Covenant of Grace, which opposed the Covenant of Works, which the Church preached, requiring one to do service – work – to earn salvation. Oh and one had to obey the church and government to get salvation. Like the PUSSY RIOT gals, Anne Hutchinson also got two years  – that’s how long her trial lasted.  But she used the time to birth a baby (her fourteenth!) and stand up – literally – to the men who accused her.  What really pissed them off was the fact that she was smarter than them.  She knew that bible inside and out and had an answer for every one of their questions.  So they convicted her of heresy and sedition and banished her to Rhode Island, a state founded on the premise of “separation of church and state” which Thomas Jefferson first wrote about in his 1802 letter to the Danbury Baptists in reference to The First Fabulous Amendment.  Thank you Ms. Hutchinson.

When I first heard the Pussy Riot report on Friday August 17^th on KABC News Los Angeles, the punk rock band’s name could not be said on Network Television.  It’s Ok to say pussycat and pussy foot and pussy willow but Pussy Riot – not OK.  But that changed as the story grew and the band’s name could be uttered as well as printed.  Ahhh progress.  Yes we live in such a progressive world that in 2012, a Congressman (Missouri Republican Todd Akin) can say on national television, “If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.”  The saddest part is that he believed that.

What a world.

August 26^th is Women’s Equality Day.  The day we honor and celebrate the passage of the 19^th Amendment – The Susan B. Anthony Amendment.  In 1971, New York Congresswoman, activist, lawyer, mensch and mom Bella Abzug, first introduced legislation to designate August 26^th Women’s Equality Day, commemorating the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment, Women’s Suffrage giving women in this country the right to vote.  Well, as the National Women’s History Project (http://www.nwhp.org ) wrote in their August 2012 Newsletter, no one “gave” the gals the right to vote.  It was a long hard battle.

Those galvanizing gals Susan B. Anthony and her partner Elizabeth Cady Stanton first introduced the Amendment way back in 1878.  They were long gone when the House passed it on May 21, 1919, the Senate on June 4, 1919. It took thirty-six states to ratify an amendment and make it a law.  Harry Burns was a first time twenty-four year old Tennessee Member of The House of Representatives.  His mom sent him a now famous telegram:  “Hurrah! And vote for suffrage…”

He did, making history and Tennessee the 36^th state to ratify The Amendment. Thanks mom!

The first woman to ask to vote – that we know of and can document  – was Margaret Brent way way back in 1648. One of thirteen children, Margaret Brent was born in England and came from a family that was rich, Catholic, of noble descent and distant cousins with England’s George Calvert – AKA Lord Baltimore, the “proprietor” of Maryland. Yes he OWNED Maryland. His brother, Leonard Calvert, was the Governor of Maryland, which was touted as a land of opportunity.  The colony needed settlers and Lord Baltimore enticed them by offering them land.  Now what set Margaret apart was, first of all she was thirty-seven and not married. Second, she – and her sister became property owners – Lord Baltimore gave them land grants – seventy acres. If one owned property and paid taxes, one could vote, if one were a man. Now if Margaret were to marry, the land would belong to her husband.  Margaret never married.  She “acquired” even more land and well, it turns out Margaret is a terrific businesswoman, and, she was pretty darned good with real estate.  SO good that the Governor – on his deathbed – gave her power of attorney and made her executor of his will and estate. So now she owns – and pays taxes as the owner and executor of two properties and logically she wants a vote. Two votes.  So she goes down to the courthouse and asks – actually demands the right to vote.  They turned her down, of course.  But she made history.

Jan. 21, 1647[/8]. “Came Mrs Margaret Brent and requested to have vote in the howse for herselfe and voyce also for that att the last Court 3d Jan: it was ordered that the said Mrs Brent was to be lookd uppon and received as his Lps Attorney. The Govr denyed that the sd Mrs Brent should have any vote in the howse And the sd Mrs Brent protested agst all proceedings in this pnt Assembly unlesse shee may have vote as aforesd.”

The first woman on record who actually voted was Lydia Taft, a Massachusetts mom married to Josiah.  They were a very prominent, wealthy family.  Only freeholders – white male property – were allowed to vote but when Josiah suddenly died, the townspeople decided to let Lydia cast a vote in a big important meeting in 1756 appropriating funds for the French and Indian War.  So she made history.  And in 2004, she got a highway named after her.

Then of course in 1848, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, super cool Quaker Lucretia Mott and few other fabulous females had a little tea party, which led to the very first Women’s Conference in Seneca Falls, New York. A sign was posted in the local paper; “Women’s Right’s Convention – A convention to discuss the social, civil and religious condition and rights of woman will be held….in the Wesleyan Church in Seneca Falls. The gals drafted a Declaration of Sentiments, modeled on The Declaration of Independence, the founding fathers list of eighteen grievances against King George.  The gals just substituted MEN for KING GEORGE. “All men AND WOMEN are created equal”. Elizabeth Cady Stanton took the controversial and individual decision to go on record asking to be enfranchised, for suffrage – to vote. “Lizzie” as her mentor, and buddy Lucretia Mott affectionately called her, stood alone on that one.  “Why Lizzie”, said Ms. Mott, “thy will make us look ridiculous!” But Lizzie would not back down and managed to get Frederick Douglass – the most famous abolitionist – to back her up. Resolved: That it is the duty of the women of this country to secure to themselves their sacred right to the elective franchise. She got it in there but they did not get the vote until 72 years later.

From Left To Right:

Lucretia Mott, Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton

Every year since 1878, the gals pushed for the Amendment.  Then in 1913, a little lady named Alice Paul came along.  She was a brilliant, ballsy, Ivy League educated – she had more degrees than a thermometer – militant, hunger-striking, suffragist who really pissed of President Wilson when she stole his parade. And she stole his parade – or at least his thunder.  Yup.   The day before his inauguration March 1913, The President-Elect arrived at Union Station in Washington DC expecting a welcoming crowd, or two…. “Where are the people?” he asked.  Well, thanks to Alice Paul’s brilliant orchestration, the crowds were, he was told,  “On the Avenue watching the suffragists parade”.  The suffragists wanted the vote.

It was the largest parade ever in Washington.

Imagine what she could do with Facebook.

Alice Paul was a Jersey girl who knew that Knowledge IS Power. She presented herself as a lovely, quite feminine soft-spoken lady – but there was nothing ladylike in her demands.  She got her first degree – a BA – from Swarthmore College which opened in Pennsylvania in 1854 – one of the first co-ed colleges in the country, founded by a bunch of super cool Quakers including her grandfather AND – LUCRETIA MOTT!  Alice proceeded to get a Masters, A PHD, an LLB (bachelor of Law) and LLM (Master Of Law degree) and finally a Doctor of Civil Law degree in 1928.  She studied in England as well and while there, wanting to “experience the daily life of an industrial worker”, she worked for a rubber factory so she really knew what she was talking about when she advocated for workers rights.  She made tires for automobiles and worked from 6AM to 6PM.  “If a girl was a good worker, she could make a little under five dollars a week”, she wrote her mother in 1908. While in England, Alice Paul also was mentored by The Pankhursts.  Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughters were militant English Suffragettes.   Remember Mrs. Banks in Mary Poppins… picketing with the suffragettes?  Remember the song where they were singing?

“Political equality and equal rights with men. Take heart for Missus Pankhurst has been clapped with irons again”.

The Pankhursts were very militant and smashed windows and used hunger strikes to get attention, which worked well in England but not so much in America where Alice Paul tried hunger striking.  She and a bunch of gals were arrested for LEGALLY and PEACEFULLY protesting – picketing in front of The White House…

for the right to vote. We were at war then (WWI) and the gals’ protest was seen as un-patriotic – and of course Wilson was still pissed off about the Parade.  Now Alice Paul and her gal pals had been trying for years and years to get President Wilson to address the issue of suffrage.  She was polite at first but grew weary and frustrated and like Glen Close in Fatal Attraction, she would not be ignored.  It galled her and her gal pals that the President was so willing, as she put it – and she put it on banners everywhere – to go to war to fight for liberty – but not for the women!  “How long Mr. President must women wait for liberty?” The gals were arrested, charged with “obstructing sidewalk traffic” and literally, physically THROWN in jail – the Occoquan Workhouse in Virginia. It was November 15^th 1917, The Night of Terror. There is a wonderful movie called Iron jawed Angels starring Hilary Swank as Alice Paul, which tells this story. They were served food with worms, dirty water – and worse.  Many of the women were viciously brutalized, including Alice Paul’s pal Lucy Burns who was beaten, chained and left hanging all night. What a disgraceful chapter in our history.

Alice Paul went on a hunger strike.  For three weeks, three times a day, they stuck tubes down her throat – and force-fed her raw eggs. Then the government hired a shrink to say she was insane – ‘cause that’s what we did with our women back then when they got out of hand.  We just threw ‘em in the psych ward.  But this shrink – he said, “No this woman is NOT insane.”

“Courage in women is often mistaken for insanity”.

Lots of courageous women went to jail.  And what a cool shrink!  But the Night Of Terror backfired on Wilson when word got out about how brutally the women were treated.  How they had applied for political prisoner status and were denied.  Throwing old ladies against the wall and beating them with their broken banners is NOT good publicity.   There was a hearing and a lot of press, which helped the movement. The torch was passed and The Nineteenth Amendment (Susan B. Anthony Amendment) was FINALLY passed

Alice Paul

In 1923 Alice Paul wrote The Equal Rights Amendment – which was originally called The Lucretia Mott Amendment.  It was passed in 1972 and ratified by thirty-five states.  Ratification then required thirty-eight states.

Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.

We have come a long way since The 1848 Seneca Falls Convention.  There have been many many women’s conventions since, including the 1977 First National Women’s conference in Houston.  Thanks to Bella Abzug, for the first – and only time – the Federal Government funded the Conference. A torch was carried from Seneca Falls to Houston Texas and presented to Lady Bird Johnson, Betty Ford and Rosalyn Carter who said: “it was…the most important and exciting conference I have ever attended”.

My oldest daughter is nineteen and this year she will vote in November.  I get choked up just thinking about it.  She knows how important it is.  I hope and pray that she and her younger sister appreciate the power of their vote.  It has never been more important to honor Women’s Equality Day 2012.

Click below for a fabulous take on Women’s Equality Day:  Soomo Publishing’s video “Bad Romance: Women’s Suffrage”

http://soomopublishing.com/suffrage/