Addie Mae Collins, Cynthia Wesley, Carole Robertson and Denise McNair were the names of four young women killed in 1963 when a bomb exploded in the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church […]
Tag: Civil Rights
Ballot Measures: Big Wins for Same-Sex Marriage and Reproductive Rights
Last night was a celebration for feminists on so many levels, nationally and locally. Women’s voices were heard!! Among the most ballot measure victories were the passage of marriage equality-related […]
Know Your November Ballot: Civil Rights
In the weeks leading up to Election Day, Ms. will be outlining state ballot initiatives and referenda of major significance to women. This election, four civil rights-related issues of note […]
The Bible, Biology and Bigotry
In 1964, when I was 13 years old, my family’s summer vacation consisted of a drive from our home in New York to the apartment my grandparents had just bought in […]
Writing Henrietta Lacks Into Herstory
Henrietta Lacks. The name meant nothing to me until I learned two years ago, at 29, that this Black woman had shaped and saved millions of lives–mine and yours included–without ever choosing to or knowing it.
Rosa Parks Did So Much More Than Sit on a Bus
The common assertion is that Parks’ moment in history began in December 1955 when she refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white man in Montgomery, Ala. But we must confront this assertion, because each time we confine her memory to that moment we erase part of her admirable character, strategic intellect and indomitable spirit.
What Occupy Wall Street Owes to Feminist Consciousness-Raising
On the November 17th national day of action for the Occupy Wall Street movement, I was interviewed by a man from a Swedish newspaper who wanted to know why I […]
Dear Newsweek Editorialist: I Perceive That You Are Wrong
I would be shrugging about Kathleen Parker’s editorial (“He Says, She Says, We Shrug”) regarding the Newsweek poll on sexual harassment, but I am too busy cringing. When you lump […]
Bullying Vs. Sexual Harassment—Do You Know the Difference?
Despite headlines that label all harassment in schools as bullying, there is a difference between sexual harassment and bullying. And it’s an important one. When schools, the media and the […]
NEWS BRIEF: Personhood USA Likens Itself to Civil Rights Movement
Personhood USA, the group behind the anti-abortion ballot initiative strategy so absurd that it has never come close to passing, wants you to know it’s not giving up. The group, […]