By Caitlyn Jones I was walking to my car in downtown Houston on a humid afternoon in 2020 when I first saw it. There, glinting off the red brick of the Hobby Center, was the only physical marker of the history that happened there on a steamy weekend in November 1977. “The Sam Houston Coliseum, […]
By Caitlyn Jones Houston Women’s Advocate Nikki Van Hightower, far right, addresses a crowd in front of the Sam Houston Coliseum alongside torch runners and NWC presiding officer Bella Abzug to kick off the four-day convention. Photo courtesy of Janice Rubin. When organizers of the National Women’s Conference (NWC) announced in October 1976 that Houston, […]
By Maya Bouchebl The International Women’s Year Commission chose Houston to host the National Women’s Conference. The main venues and hotels were located downtown, shown here in 1977. Photo courtesy of Boston Public Library flickr. In the months leading up to the National Women’s Conference of November 1977, the staff of the International Women’s Year […]
By Miranda Ruzinsky The official conference report published in 1978 for President Jimmy Carter and the public featured, left to right, Sylvia Ortiz, Peggy Kokernot, and Michelle Cearcy on the cover page. Photo by Adela Alonso, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. “WALK A CELEBRITY MILE!”: This call to action circulated around Houston in 1977 on a […]
Introduction by Nancy Beck Young and Leandra Zarnow Biographies edited by Mary Seume Houston delegate Sylvia Garcia, center, joins other Pro-plan and ERA supporters from the Texas delegation such as future Governor Ann Richards (left) and Houston Women’s Advocate Nikki Van Hightower (top right) at the National Women’s Conference. Photo courtesy of Sylvia Garcia. Sharing Stories […]
By Jacob King Congresswoman Barbara Jordan delivers a rousing message at the National Women’s Conference in 1977, flanked to her right by Bella Abzug and Rosalyn Carter. Photo by Dorothy Marder, courtesy of the Swarthmore College Peace Collection. On November 19, 1977, in Houston, Texas, U.S. Rep. Barbara Jordan (D-TX) approached the National Women’s Conference […]
By Mackenzie Vance Participants at the NWC used their crafting skills to create buttons and pins, as well as other graphics, to visually communicate their ideas and beliefs. Photo courtesy of the Dorothy Marder Papers, Peace Collection, Swarthmore College. As more than 20,000 attendees flocked to the 1977 National Women’s Conference (NWC), they did so […]
Introduction by Caitlyn Jones-Excerpts from oral histories conducted by Lena Craven and Caitlyn Jones Representative Bella Abzug, at the podium, is flanked by the torch relay runners (in blue), First Lady Rosalynn Carter, former first ladies Betty Ford and Lady Bird Johnson, Lynda Bird Johnson Robb, and Maya Angelou. Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. When […]
By Livia Lee Garza National Women’s Conference relay runners wore blue “Women on the Move” shirts as they carried the “torch of freedom” from Seneca Falls to Houston. Image courtesy of the Houston Area NOW and Other Feminist Activities Collection. All photos are from Special Collections, University of Houston Libraries. “There was never anything like […]
No one at the time of founding would guess that the runner up town of Houston would supersede the notable town of Harrisburg. However, such was the fate of Harrisburg; a promising town with enormous potential became just another acquisition of the younger, more accomplished neighboring city of Houston.
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