Existing comment:
The National Women's Conference, 1977
Fifty-seven years after winning the vote, over two thousand delegates gathered in Houston, Texas, in November 1977. The federally funded conference was the most purposely diverse and demographically representative group ever assembled in the United States. Each state sent delegates to debate proposals promoting equal rights and ending discrimination toward women that they would send to the president and Congress for action.
While the white participants held diverse, sometimes opposing views, for many, it was the first time they met and talked at length with women of color with life experiences different from their own. They expected disagreements between liberal and conservative delegates, but many did not anticipate the issues of poverty, education, employment, and safety that were priorities for feminists of color. |