It’s long been said that there were no women invited to speak at the March on Washington. One woman was invited, however: Myrlie Evers, widow of Medger Evers. When Ms. Evers could not attend, Daisy Bates, a leader in the Arkansas NAACP and of the Little Rock school desegregation, was asked to speak instead. Ms. Bates spoke briefly during a “Tribute to Women,” as part of which A. Philip Randolph read a poem while women leaders sat on the podium.
Dorothy Height and other prominent women in the civil rights movement wanted a woman among the nine main speakers at the event, and this is what the male leadership refused. We listen to interviews with Ms. Height, part of Ms. Bates’ speech, and an interview with Barbara Ransby, author of Ella Baker and the Black Freedom Movement: A Radical Democratic Vision.
Then we speak with Max Dashu, founder of the Suppressed Histories Archive, about her forthcoming book and online class, The Secret Hisgtory of Witches: Women, Goddesses, Patriarchy, and Christianity.