Jo Freeman, Author at Public Seminar

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Millions March Throughout Country on Inauguration Anniversary

Hundreds of thousands in New York City

January 26, 2018 • by Jo Freeman

It was called a Women’s March, and it took place on the first anniversary of the massive women’s march on Washington after Trump’s inauguration. But women and women’s rights were only one of several themes. The most prevalent theme was opposition to everything Trump has done and said, before and ...

Millions March Throughout Country on Inauguration Anniversary

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Looking Back 40 Years at the National Women’s Conference

Reviewing two recent books on the 1977 National Women’s Conference

January 6, 2018 • by Jo Freeman

Coinciding with the 40th anniversary of the National Women's Conference in Houston in 1977, are two recently published books about that conference. They are: Shelah Leader and Patricia Hyatt American Women on the Move: The Inside Story of the National Women’s Conference Published by Lexington Books, Paperback 2017, xxi, 169 pp, photos Marjorie Spruill Divided We ...

Looking Back 40 Years at the National Women’s Conference

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Women Rule?

We’re Getting Closer

December 31, 2017 • by Jo Freeman

We may be in for another Year of the Woman. The last year to get that designation was 1992, which saw a great leap upward in the number of women elected to Congress, from 29 to 47 in the House and from 2 to 7 in the Senate. This followed ...

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Rally in DC for Palestine

Jerusalem is the demand. No embassy on stolen land.

December 29, 2017 • by Jo Freeman

Roughly two thousand people gathered on the southwest corner of the Ellipse to demand that the US not move its embassy to Jerusalem. In the shadow of the National Christmas Tree and the National Menorah, they said Jerusalem was the capital of Palestine, not Israel. While most participants stood around the platform, ...

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Caroling at the White House with the Seven Forbidden Words

Protestors sing for Trump’s impeachment

December 25, 2017 • by Jo Freeman

Some three dozen people gathered across the street from the White House a few days before Christmas to sing carols to President Donald Trump. A dozen were dressed in the red cloaks of the handmaidens from The Handmaid’s Tale. Their signs evoked recent events, such as the seven forbidden words. Others wore the ...

Caroling at the White House with the Seven Forbidden Words

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DREAMers and Unions Rally at the Capital

Activists take to DC streets

December 14, 2017 • by Jo Freeman

On December 6, about two thousand union members and immigrants rallied at the nation's capitol to demand that young immigrants be allowed to stay in the US without fear of deportation. They want a DREAM Act which will provide a pathway to citizenship for young undocumented immigrants. In September, Donald Trump announced ...

DREAMers and Unions Rally at the Capital

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40th Anniversary of the International Women’s Year Conference

University of Houston celebrates feminism then and now

November 14, 2017 • by Jo Freeman

From November 18 to 21, 1977, over 20,000 people gathered in Houston, Texas to celebrate International Women's Year and identify goals for women for the next decade. This was the first and only national women's conference to be sponsored by the federal government. On November 6 and 7, 2017, a few hundred people ...

40th Anniversary of the International Women’s Year Conference

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Pentagon Anti-war March

50 years later Vietnam War protestors reunite

November 3, 2017 • by Jo Freeman

On October 21, 1967 some 50,000 people marched on the Pentagon to "Confront the Warmakers" about the War in Vietnam. Fifty years later about one hundred of them met in DC to commemorate the event. They began the evening of October 20 with a small rally in front of the Pentagon. After a couple speeches, ...

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No Muslim Ban Marches in D.C.

October 18th 2017

October 27, 2017 • by Jo Freeman

Two thousand people rallied and marched from Lafayette Park to the Trump Hotel on October 18. Organized by immigrant and civil rights groups, it was the culmination of a couple weeks of activities to demand that there never be any ban in Muslims entering the U.S. The day before a federal judge in ...

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March for Racial Justice and March for Black Women

Sept. 30, 2017 DC

October 4, 2017 • by Jo Freeman

Black Women First! Black Women First! Shouted several thousand people as they marched up Pennsylvania Ave. from the Capitol on September 30. They were leading two marches, which started at two different points on Capital Hill before joining to march to the Department of Justice on 10th St. There they planned to turn south to go to ...

March for Racial Justice and March for Black Women

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What Berkeley Needs is a Non-Violent Containment Squad

Reflections from a civil rights veteran

September 8, 2017 • by Jo Freeman

Those reports took me back to the 1960s when I was doing voter registration for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and marching against segregation in Birmingham and Mississippi. Then, we were the equivalent of the "fascists" that Antifa and the black bloc are beating up in Berkeley. They called us Communists, ...