American Women — Activists

  • National march on Washington for lesbian and gay rights (ACTUALITIES)

    On October 14, 1979, ten years after the Stonewall riots, more than 100,000 people from the United States and ten other countries marched on Washington, D.C. for lesbian and gay rights. Pacifica producers in Washington recorded speeches and actualities from the rally, and parts were broadcast live. This second set in the series consists of…

  • Dorothea Dix (Episode 4 of 6)

    The fourth in a series of six episodes on important women in American history presented by historian Gerda Lerner. “Dorothea Dix (1802-1887) played an instrumental role in the founding or expansion of more than 30 hospitals for the treatment of the mentally ill. She was a leading figure in those national and international movements that…

  • Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony: partners in the solutions of women’s problems (Episode 5 of 6)

    The fifth in a series of six episodes on important women in American history presented by historian Gerda Lerner. Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, founders of the National Woman Suffrage Association. With this lecture, Lerner attempts to expose the suffragists as human beings rather than symbols, and to put into context the work…

  • Frances Willard’s temperance crusade: a political school for women (Episode 6 of 6)

    The last in a series of six episodes on important women in American history presented by historian Gerda Lerner. This episode is on Frances Elizabeth Caroline Willard’s (September 28, 1839 – February 17, 1898) temperance movement — a political school for women. Lerner puts the temperance movement into perspective and explains why women were so…

  • The causes of Francis Wright (Episode 1 of 6)

    The first in a series of six episodes on important women in American history presented by historian Gerda Lerner. Francis Wright D’Arusmont (September 6, 1795 – December 13, 1852), widely known as Fanny Wright, was an intellectual pioneer, abolitionist, lecturer, the first women traveler to write an account in the U.S., and the first women…

  • Angelina and Sarah Grimke (Episode 3 of 6)

    Sarah and Angelina Grimke: slaveholders turned abolitionists, the first American women to give public lectures and to advocate women’s rights. The third in a series of six episodes on important women in American history presented by historian Gerda Lerner. Sarah Moore Grimké (1792–1873) and Angelina Emily Grimké (1805–1879), known as the Grimké sisters, were 19th-century…

  • Art Against Apartheid: A commemoration for the Soweto Massacre

    An evening to commemorate the Soweto Uprising which took place on June 16, 1984. Tracie Jones reads poetry and a representative of an African National Congress women’s group discusses demonstrations in Harlem, as well as international and UN pressure on the South African government to end apartheid. Other female poets, including June Jordan, share their…

  • The Velvet Sledgehammer: July 30, 1980 (Part 1 only)

    This is the production reel for the July 30, 1980 episode of The Velvet Sledgehammer. This recording contains a reading by Kate Millet of her statement denouncing death by stoning of Iranian women in Iran. Next is Eileen Zalisk interviewing Marge DeFazio about Women 80 and a planned march down 5th Ave upcoming on August…

  • The Velvet Sledgehammer – August 26, 1980: Women’s Equality Day 1980

    Edited selections from Women’s Equality Day rally in Bryant part 26 Aug 1980. Also called “Women 80.” 1980 marks the 60th anniversary of the passage of the Suffrage Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Speeches focus on the the state of women in 1980. Part one opens with chanting, then a speech by Rosemary Gaffney. The…

  • The Velvet Sledgehammer: February 16, 1983

    Production reel for the February 16, 1983 episode of The Velvet Sledgehammer. Hosted and produced by Eileen Zalisk. First, a tribute to Susan B. Anthony, who would have been 162 years old this week. Zaliks gives a brief history of Susan B. Anthony’s life and work, and then Blanch Wiessen-Cook interviews with Ellen DuBois, editor…