PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE
I and my classmates were also fortunate that some of us
were taught history and/or political science by idealistic young
college graduates from Emory; we studied the civil rights
cases that dealt with school integration, voting rights, public
accommodations and more. We learned to respect the rule
of law and the role of the federal government in protecting
others’ rights as demonstrators found it necessary to disobey
unjust laws in a non-violent manner. I had the opportunity to
argue for the passage of The Civil Rights Act in a debate.
other teenagers from all over Atlanta; years later I voted there.
As a student in Charlotte and Athens, I tutored AfricanAmerican children in low income neighborhoods. In graduate
school, as the quest turned more toward economic rights as
opposed to strictly civil rights, I marched on the University of
North Carolina Chapel Hill campus for the cafeteria workers
who were asking for higher wages; national guardsmen were
called out and it was very tense. When I moved to northern
Virginia with Murray, my Naval officer husband, I finished my
UNC master’s thesis in history. During that time, I helped
establish and operate a Black Studies Library. It wasn’t until
years later that I realized that women’s rights, even though
they had been included in the Civil Rights Act to deter its
passage, needed to be advanced.
Even though the courts’ decisions caused the greatest
changes for much of the fifties and early sixties, it became
obvious that Congress and politics held the key for advancing
civil rights. Unfortunately, it took a national tragedy to help
move the passage forward. Had President John F. Kennedy’s
assassination in 1963 not led to Lyndon B. Johnson, a
politically savvy Texan who had forever been changed by his
experience of teaching minority children in a one room school
house, becoming President, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 might
not have passed.
I tried to be aware of the challenges faced by not only AfricanAmericans, but by the economically disadvantaged, underpaid
workers, and the struggles faced by women. I think many of
my small efforts were a result of the oppression I witnessed
years ago, as a white girl in the segregated South. During that
time I was fortunate to have those who were working in my
church, school and community to help us recognize that major
changes needed to be made. I used the knowledge I gained
when I later taught about the civil rights era in prestigious girls’
schools on the Main Line in Philadelphia and when I taught
women’s history in college before going to law school.
One of my best friend’s parents were progressive by the
standards of the day. They crossed racial lines when they
taught at the Interdenominational Theological Center (ITC)
near the Atlanta University Center. They were involved in the
civil rights movement and told us about a Sunday night churc