Activist for Women's Rights Was Known for Her Strong Opinions, and Large Hats
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VOICE ONE:
I'm Rich Kleinfeldt.
VOICE TWO:
And I'm Shirley Griffith with the VOA Special English program PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Today, we tell about Bella Abzug. She was a member of the United States Congress in the nineteen seventies. She also was a well-known activist for civil rights and women's rights.
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VOICE ONE:
Bella Abzug
Bella Abzug was well known for many reasons. She was a lawyer and activist. She represented New York City in Congress. She spoke in a loud voice. And she always wore large hats.
Mizz Abzug supported women's rights and civil rights. She had strong opinions on many issues. She opposed the American involvement in the war in Vietnam. She made public her opinions on most important issues. In fact, she was called one of the most outspoken members of Congress.
Bella Abzug also acted on her beliefs. She wrote legislation to prevent unfair treatment of women. She presented the first bill for equal rights for homosexuals. She often denounced the majority of the members of Congress who were white males. She said they did not know about the lives and problems of most people in America.
VOICE TWO:
Bella Abzug did know about the lives of common Americans. She was born Bella Savitsky in the Bronx area of New York City in nineteen twenty. Her parents had come to the United States from Russia. Her father operated a food store called The Live and Let Live Meat Market.
Bella said she knew from the age of eleven that she wanted to be a lawyer. At the age of twelve, she gave her first public speech. It was in an underground train station in New York.
VOICE ONE:
Bella attended Hunter College and Columbia Law School in New York City. She married Martin Abzug in nineteen forty-four. He was a stockbroker and writer. He had no interest in politics. But he was his wife's best friend and supporter. They had two daughters.
Bella Abzug became a lawyer in the nineteen forties. She represented labor union workers. She also represented people involved in civil rights cases. She often worked for no payment in these cases. In the nineteen fifties, she represented people accused of subversive activities by Senator Joseph McCarthy.
VOICE TWO:
Bella Abzug began wearing large hats when she was a young lawyer. There were very few women lawyers in America then. She told this story about why she began wearing hats: "Working women wore hats. It was the only way they would take you seriously. After a while I starting liking them. When I got to Congress, they made a big thing of it. They did not want me to wear a hat. So I did. "
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VOICE ONE:
In the nineteen sixties, Bella Abzug became an anti-war activist. She organized a group of anti-war women, called Women Strike for Peace. She opposed American involvement in the war in Vietnam. And she opposed testing of nuclear weapons. She led demonstrations in Washington against the war and in support of a ban against nuclear weapons. She became a leader of the movement against President Johnson because of his involvement in the war.
In the early nineteen seventies, Mizz Abzug also became a leader of the growing women's rights movement that was spreading across the country. She helped form the National Women's Political Caucus. In speaking to the group in nineteen seventy-one, she demanded equal rights for women in all areas of American life.
