Fighting For Our Rights -
American Women Mid-20th Century

Winner of a 2015 Storytelling World Honor Award in the category Storytelling Recordings for Listening Pleasure For Any Age

Kate Dudding is drawn to giving a voice to people from the past, people who have made a difference in their community, or in the world. Kate feels that these are important stories to share because, as the wonderful and wise storyteller Carol Birch says,

In the summer of 2014, Kate finished her fourth CD "Fighting For Our Rights - American Women Mid-20th Century."

This CD contains the following stories; included are links to some of the sources Kate used to create these stories.

• Barbara Johns – A Student Leader 16 year old African American Barbara Johns led a high school strike in 1951 demanding a better Black high school school in Farmville, VA.

  • Robert Russa Moton Museum, a National Historic Landmark which honors the courage and sacrifice of Farmville, Virginia students and families, and their leading role in moving America from segregation toward integration.

  • Memories of Barbara's sister, Joan Johns Cobb.

  • All About Barbara Rose Johns, a web site created by Teri Kanefield, author of The Girl From the Tar Paper School.

• Remembering Marilyn Monroe Marilyn Monroe changed Ella Fitzgerald’s life in 1955 by making a phone call.

  • One of Marilyn's biographies

  • Marilyn's last interview, Life Magazine, August 17, 1962

  • One of Ella's biographies

  "Your story about Marilyn Monroe and Ella Fitzgerald has forever changed my thoughts about Marilyn!" -- Maggie
  

• Ruby Bridges Six year old Ruby Bridges was the only African American student to integrate a school in New Orleans in 1960, with help from her daily escort of four U.S. Marshalls and her teacher, Mrs. Barbara Henry.

  • "The Education of Ruby Nell" by Ruby Bridges Hall, Guideposts, March 2000.

  • Through My Eyes

  • Ruby Bridges Goes to School

  • President Obama Meets Civil Rights Icon Ruby Bridges.
  
  
  

• Jerrie Cobb and the Mercury 13 In 1960, these women pilots, with 1,000-9,000 flight hours, passed the same physical tests as the Mercury 7 astronauts and tried as hard as they could to become astronauts themselves.

  • Mercury 13 - the Women of the Mercury Era

  • Lovelace’s Woman in Space Program

  • 'The Mercury 13': Training U.S. Women for Space
    

  • Female pilots reached for the stars
    
    
  
  

• Theresa Burroughs Registering to Vote Some people can barely remember when and how they registered to vote. Theresa Burroughs will never forget her struggle to register to vote in Tuscaloosa, Alabama in the 1960s.

  • Theresa telling her story.

  • More information about Theresa.

  • A civil rights museum founded by Theresa Burroughs.
    

• Choices Betty Friedan made all the conventional choices until she was 34 in 1955, when she was finally fed up. She started doing research which lead to her book The Feminine Mystique.

  • An interview with Betty.

  • Betty's page on the National Women's Hall of Fame's web site.

  • Betty's page on the National Women's History Museum's web site.

  • Her obituary.
    

• Stalking Her Prey Congresswomen Martha Griffiths worked very hard to get the Equal Rights Amendment passed by the U.S. House of Representatives in 1970, and by both houses of Congress in 1972.

  • Martha Griffiths and the Equal Rights Amendment.

  • A biography.

  • Martha's obituary.
  
  

  How to Purchase this CD

  Printable Order Form

  
  

  Acknowledgments
  Grateful thanks for their continued support to: Jerry Dudding, Elizabeth Ellis and our Clifton Park, NY workshop colleagues, Gert Johnson, Jeannine Laverty, Betty McCanty, Story Circle of the Capital District (NY), and the staff at the Clifton Park-Halfmoon Library.

  Original Stories and Performance by Kate Dudding
  Producer and Engineer: Barry Marshall
  Cover Design: Kate Dudding and Barry Marshall