Introduction by Nancy Beck Young and Leandra Zarnow
Biographies edited by Mary Seume
Sharing Stories from 1977: Putting the National Women’s Conference on the Map tells the story of what happened in Houston, Texas in November 1977 when the National Women’s Conference (NWC) deliberated what women wanted from the federal government. Congress created the NWC in response to the United Nations’ International Women’s Year initiative and the first World Conference on Women in Mexico City in 1975. The United States was behind internationally as most other nations had pre-conferences to assess women’s domestic status. The country sought to be a world leader in the areas of human rights and needed a big response. The NWC was that reply. As mandated by the NWC law, almost 2,000 delegates and alternates from wide-ranging backgrounds were elected from the 50 states and 6 territories in lead-up meetings prior to the Houston Conference. This resulted in a representative body that was more diverse than Congress was then or is today. Delegates approved a 26-plank platform including concerns seen as “women’s issues”—reproductive health and childcare—and those outside this domain—from sexual preference and minority rights to arts, business, and international affairs.
Sharing Stories from 1977 seeks to capture this range while highlighting the NWC as a historic gathering. It creates an intergenerational digital space where students publish peer reviewed scholarship such as biographical essays, thematic essays, oral histories, and comparative demographic data. The first phase of the project, focusing on biographical and demographic stories about delegates and alternates, will be complete in 2027. The project has bigger ambitions, though. We aim to tell the story of all the other 150,000 NWC participants: journalists who covered the conference, torch relay runners, international dignitaries, paid staff, and state and territorial meeting participants who did not attend the Houston meeting.
What follows are excerpts from biographies written and edited by students about the ten Houston delegates to the NWC. To read more about these women, go to www.sharingstories1977.uh.edu.
Linda “Pokey” Anderson
Original Biography by Elliot Williams
Linda “Pokey” Anderson was born in 1949 in Duluth, Minnesota. Her father’s job required her family to frequently move until they eventually settled in Washington, DC. Anderson attended Eckerd College in Florida, where she became politically active in feminist groups on campus. She graduated in 1972 with a bachelor’s degree in sociology and anthropology.
After graduation, Anderson moved to Houston and became active in local politics. In 1975, she and several other gay individuals, formed the Houston Gay and Lesbian Political Caucus. Anderson was also co-chair of the board of directors for the National Gay Task Force. During her time with the organization, she was part of the first LGBTQ delegation to visit the White House. While there, they discussed gay rights with Midge Costanza, one of President Jimmy Carter’s top advisors.
In 1977, Anderson was elected with 871 votes to the Texas delegation for the National Women’s Conference held in Houston, Texas. She was a representative of the lesbian caucus at the conference and fought for a sexual preference plank, which called for an end to discrimination against gay Americans, to be included in the National Plan of Action.
Anderson was ahead of the feminist movement when it came to intersectionality. In a letter she wrote in 1977, Anderson discussed how marginalized communities have been neglected by the feminist movement. She argued both for recognition of “our rich diversity” and for the overlooked groups to stick together when faced with opposition.
Linda “Pokey” Anderson was able to achieve a great deal, both within and outside the political sphere. Her work with women’s rights groups and queer organizations, locally and nationally, was essential to the success, recognition, and appreciation of queer people in the United States.
Melva Becnel
Original Biography by Lindsay Amaral
Melva Becnel was born in Houston, Texas, on January 26, 1939. Becnel attended Houston public schools and graduated from Phyllis Wheatley High School. She earned her bachelor’s degree from Fisk University in Tennessee and took over her family’s real estate firm with her brother. Eventually, she decided to pursue a law degree from Texas Southern and became an attorney.
In 1977, Becnel was chosen to serve on the Texas Coordinating Committee for International Women’s Year, a group tasked with planning a state meeting before the National Women’s Conference later that year. Becnel helped plan workshops for the state meeting and was also an alternate on the nominating committee, which put forth a slate of potential delegates for attendees to vote on. She was elected as one of the Texas delegates, with 719 votes.
In Houston, Becnel voiced support for many of the recommendations the national committee proposed and joined the minority women’s caucus. She recalled in a 2005 documentary about the conference that Black women were initially hesitant about attending, since women’s rights movement often did not prioritize the needs of the Black community. “I had to overcome that as well,” she said, “But I knew it was important to participate, to see what was going on, and to try to close that gap and move that gulf.”
Becnel held memberships with an array of voluntary organizations, including the National Women of Achievement, Phi Alpha Delta, the Houston area Urban League, and the Young Women’s Christian Association. Becnel also held positions in local and state government. For fourteen years, she worked as a legislative aide to State Representative Ronald R. Wilson (D-Houston) and served as a board member for the Texas Housing Authority.
Pernila “Penny” Brown
Original Biography by Lindsay Amaral
Pernila “Penny” Brown was born on February 5, 1946. She attended high school in Mississippi and pursued her bachelor’s degree at the University of Pennsylvania. After completed her undergraduate education in 1967, Brown went on to law school and earned her degree from Harvard University in 1971. She spent the next few years working with tenant rights groups in the Boston area.
By 1977, Brown was living in Houston, Texas, where she was an attorney and a member of the State Bar of Texas. Houston Mayor Fred Hofheinz appointed Brown as the city’s Civil Service Director in 1976, which made her the first woman to head the Civil Service Commission and the first Black woman to direct any city department. Brown also served on the executive board of the Houston chapter of the United Negro College Fund and as the vice president of the Houston Legal Foundation.
Brown got involved with the International Women’s Year program when she joined the Texas Coordinating Committee and helped plan the Texas state women’s meeting in June 1977. At the meeting, her name was put forth by the state nominating committee to represent Texas at the National Women’s Conference later that year in Houston. Brown won the nomination with 676 votes and attended the NWC as a state delegate. During the convention, she voiced support for the Equal Rights Amendment and reproductive freedom for women.
Mary Castillo
Original Biography by Lindsay Amaral
Mary Lidia Castillo was born on July 20, 1935, in Victoria, Texas, to Seferino and Anita Moreno Castillo. She grew up in Galveston, Texas, in a political family; her father served as president of his local dockworkers union and her brother Leonel would go on to become the first Mexican American elected to citywide office in Houston.
After graduating from high school, Castillo joined the US Army and served during the Korean War. She then worked for Metro Transit Authority and earned a master’s degree in education from Texas Southern University. Castillo worked as a counselor at Texas Southern. She married John Castillo on October 24, 1969, and she had one son, Edward.
Castillo was also involved in a number of political and civic organizations including the American Legion Auxiliary, the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, the Hispanic International University Board, and the Neighborhood Day Care Center Association. She served as chair of the Political Association of Spanish Speaking Organizations and as member of the Education Committee on the Southwest Association of Chicanos in Higher Education.
In 1977, Castillo joined the Texas Coordinating Committee for International Women’s Year, a group tasked with planning a state meeting ahead of the National Women’s Conference. She assisted with outreach efforts for the state meeting in June and was elected as a state delegate with 866 votes from meeting attendees. At the national event in Houston, Castillo joined the Chicana caucus and supported a number of causes including passage of the Equal Rights Amendment, reproductive freedom, and lesbian rights.
In 1996, she campaigned alongside her husband when he ran for Houston City Council. She passed away on September 10, 2012, in Houston.
Hortense Dixon.
Original Biography by Andrea Peters
Hortense Selena Williams Dixon was born in Houston, Texas, on January 29, 1926. She graduated from Prairie View A&M University with her undergraduate degree in 1946 and received her master’s degree from the University of Colorado two years later. By 1970, Dixon earned her doctorate from Texas Tech University, becoming the school’s first Black PhD graduate.
Dixon began her professorship at Texas Southern University in 1951 as an educator of home economics. In 1975, she took a break from higher education and began working for the city of Houston as Mayor Fred Hofheinz’s executive assistant. She held several board positions for organizations such as Houston Operation Big Vote, Houston Council on Human Relations, the United Fund, and the Conference of Minority Public Administrators. This experience as an educator and an organizer led to her eventual position at the National Women’s Conference.
When the National Commission on the Observance of International Women’s Year selected Houston as the home for the convention, Dixon landed a position as vice-chair of the Houston Committee to help plan the event at the local level. There, she voiced concern about the handling of federal funding for the conference, and developed a financial plan to increase transparency for both local and national organizers. She then launched another initiative to publicize the goals of the conference and recruit volunteers. Dixon’s efforts played a significant role in the planning of the conference, and she continued her advocacy on the voting floor as one of fifty-eight Texas delegates.
Later in life, Dixon served on several advisory boards and cofounded National Women of Achievement, Inc. Hortense Dixon died on April 19, 1988, at age 62.
Other delegates include:
Sylvia Garcia
Nikki Van Hightower
Sharon Macha
Marie Oser
Josephine Stewart
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To learn more about Texan NWC delegates, visit Sharing Stories from 1977.
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