Independent Lens Season 26 Episode 21

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Transcript

00:00:00you have to one respect women to got to pay them their fair share

00:00:13the equal rights amendment has been introduced in every session of congress since 1923

00:00:30women's rights are human rights once and for all

00:00:46for the eighth year in a row the equal rights amendment has gone down to defeat in the virginia

00:00:51general assembly women are human we need not allow ourselves to be brainwashed by people who

00:01:03predict payoff for us tell them they lie and move on male opponents in the senate called it the

00:01:12unisex amendment they said it would destroy traditional man woman relationships some

00:01:17girls have a great deal to offer and they certainly don't make any contribution to the business

00:01:21world sitting home with their children or cooking dinner for their husband the spirit and the quest

00:01:26for equality and to be treated with dignity and justice the fight for a woman's equality has been

00:01:32going on for centuries every modern constitution in the world has explicit gender equality protections

00:01:41in the text except for the united states

00:02:04what brought me to fight for the era is a recognition i am fighting the same fights that my parents

00:02:09my grandparents and my great-grandparents fought i'm a history nerd you can't be a virginian and not

00:02:17study how our government was founded do we hereby lay claim to the land of virginia in november 1619

00:02:25the government in jamestown says well if we're going to be permanent we need wives so they start

00:02:29recruiting women who when they get here and get married lose their rights have no right to property

00:02:35can't vote that's how this country was founded with white land-owning men at the top and everybody

00:02:41else serving them when it comes to the relationship that women have with our constitution it's interesting

00:02:48because the constitution was really only created to reflect the priorities of about five to seven

00:02:54percent of the american population men of european descent who owned property they were the only people

00:03:01who the constitution is even in any way mindful of and then we had a revolution

00:03:08and thomas jefferson wrote all men are created equal and endowed by their creator with unalienable

00:03:13rights it didn't include women it didn't include black people definitely didn't include me well good

00:03:20evening everybody i'm really excited to be moderating our panel tonight a new era for the era

00:03:27women of color lead the way i hope you love it it's not that someone said well i don't want to write

00:03:36the constitution to protect women it's that they weren't thinking about women at all we were left out

00:03:42of the constitution and not only left out we were discriminated against to form a more perfect union you

00:03:48have to do a lot we've been fighting on that those of us who were left out for a couple hundred years right

00:03:57i've had more opportunity than my mother but i want my daughters to have it better than i've had it

00:04:07i had a very child-centric model in our household and now mom is kind of working on something that

00:04:12feels to me bigger than just our family and yet it is about our family it's not for me but my kids and

00:04:18their kids and their kids kids my older daughter who i like to call my head lobbyist was noticing that

00:04:27women were not in the constitution and so she asked me mom thomas jefferson said all men are created

00:04:33equal and we know he wasn't talking about women so have they fixed this in law school we talked about

00:04:46how women are not protected in the same way that races and other protected categories that was really

00:04:54shocking to me that was my first encounter of really hearing about the equal rights amendment

00:04:59so i decided to run for office and i became pregnant found out later on valentine's day

00:05:05of course weeks later in my campaign i remember telling one of my friends and her first response

00:05:11was oh so when are you dropping out of the race and i looked at her and i was like okay well thank you

00:05:17for saying congratulations um but why is that an option why is that the first thing that you said

00:05:23for jennifer carroll boy winning her house of delegates race might not have been the biggest

00:05:28event of the week she's been doubly blessed midway through her first ever campaign she gave birth to

00:05:34xander and alex women think they have rights they simply don't have

00:05:44most people would go what what do you mean that's not there it isn't we have made huge strides in terms

00:05:51of women's advancements but none of these protections are durable we all know that they

00:05:56are subject to roll back the u.s supreme court today dealt a major blow to affirmative action congress

00:06:02can create rights and they can take them back one many thought was settled nearly 50 years ago when

00:06:08the supreme court affirmed a constitutional right to an abortion and we also have the supreme court right

00:06:14now where the majority wants to take us back to the original founders time we're not going to go back

00:06:20what changed since 1973 what changed laws can be changed as quickly as legislators change their

00:06:27minds and supreme court decisions can always be reversed my fundamental rights shouldn't be dependent

00:06:34upon who's elected to office so the only way to solidify equality is by an amendment in the united

00:06:41states constitution the era is a proposed amendment to the u.s constitution which explicitly guarantees

00:06:47equality on the basis of sex it was first drafted in 1923 by alice paul and other leaders of the

00:06:55suffrage movement she was a quaker the teachings of the quaker religion was equality it was all equality

00:07:02i went back there at the presbyterian church and seneca falls and put a plaque there where she

00:07:07introduced it and it said equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the united

00:07:14states or by any state on account of sex from 1923 to 1970 the era was proposed to congress every single

00:07:22year hearing a constitutional amendment passed is hard the original founders who wrote the draft of the

00:07:28constitution wrote in article 5 to allow the rules for how you amend the constitution it deputizes congress

00:07:36and the states as the two entities that play a part in the constitution there are many aspects of it

00:07:43that over time have become antiquated the amendment process they designed it in such a way that you

00:07:49require hyper consensus which means three-fourths of the states would need to ratify in order for it to

00:07:56pass 250 years ago when there were 13 colonies that was probably more doable it has to pass the house

00:08:03and the senate and congress then it needs to go to the states and 38 states have to ratify

00:08:10people in congress used procedure and used a lot of processes to prevent the era from going out to

00:08:16the floor for a vote and that was something that was effective for about 50 years there just wasn't

00:08:23enough political will in congress to send it out for a vote on the senate floor until the 70s when the momentum

00:08:29shifted suddenly thousands of nice women took to the streets protesting demanding economic rights

00:08:37and political powers what we need is to push new people into the limelight and to show the range and

00:08:42breadth of talent among women all over this nation we just want what men have had all these years

00:08:51equality is powerful past the equal rights amendment with all speed the majority of americans are in

00:09:01favor of that really what we're fighting for is a system of justice the women's movement was at that time

00:09:08pretty bipartisan the republicans had endorsed the era nationally before the democrats in fact betty

00:09:18ford was the co-chair of the countdown campaign and we knew if we could get it on the floor that

00:09:24they wouldn't vote against it the republican party has been committed to women's issues for over 100

00:09:30years it was a republican congress that passed suffrage it was a republican congress that introduced the

00:09:34equal rights amendment there was majority support for the era but there was a set of very strong voices

00:09:40against it five to ten senators and they were so vocal that they just tied up the era and wouldn't send

00:09:46it out for a vote as a compromise there was a seven-year time limit that was attached to the era for

00:09:51state ratification almost every congress since 1923 there has been proposed a constitutional amendment

00:09:58to guarantee equal rights for women while today it finally won approval

00:10:08there was overwhelming bipartisan support in congress the senate passed it 84 to eight that's

00:10:14incredible to think of in today's terms i was there the day it passed out of the senate we were all

00:10:19happy and i noticed that ellis paul wasn't there one of our people went back and found her literally

00:10:26sitting at the desk that had been susan b anthony's desk crying why are you crying she said because they

00:10:34added a time limit they tricked us they tricked us she kept saying this amendment has a time limit

00:10:44the agreement now goes to the states and must be ratified by 38 of them within the first year of

00:10:52congressional passage 30 states ratified the era that's amazing in today's terms virtually impossible

00:11:00eight more states must ratify it before it can become law with me our representative martha griffiths

00:11:06democrat of michigan and author phyllis schlafly i would like to thank my husband fred for letting me come

00:11:14i love to say that because it irritates the women's livers more than anything i say there was a very

00:11:20strong and robust anti-era movement led by phyllis schlafly era won't do anything for you she was

00:11:26incredibly independent and accomplished in her own right and a career person she had a master's degree

00:11:31she was an expert in national security policy she ran for congress she earned a law degree raised a family

00:11:40this might sound controversial to people but i really think that she was a feminist she was also

00:11:44the original troll you're saying women are superior to men then well naturally i think women are superior

00:11:50to men well then you don't want equality oh absolutely i think equality would be a step down i don't want

00:11:56it she was really effective using these zero-sum tactics at the time of getting people to fear the era

00:12:06equality an interesting word some people want me to pay more for my car insurance and life insurance

00:12:12the same high rates that men pay the same people say i should have the right to marry a woman and my

00:12:18brother the right to marry a man equality you've got to be kidding this peculiar kind of equality is called

00:12:25e-r-a i don't want their kind of equality i already have real equality by 1975 we start realizing wait a

00:12:33minute this isn't working it's slowing down and we were worried sick

00:12:41phyllis really in particular appealed to white suburban housewives the equal rights amendment would make

00:12:48unconstitutional any state law which makes it the obligation of the husband to support his wife and

00:12:57children these are the laws which give to the wife her legal right to be in the home the really

00:13:03interesting thing about that argument is that it completely left out all the other women who didn't

00:13:08live those lives and who didn't even have those benefits black women women of color women who from

00:13:14the beginning of the founding of this country had to work and raise children at the same time and be

00:13:18the breadwinners phyllis shaftley led the shift in the conversation around the era and opposition to be

00:13:26more about abortion which really kind of led to a halt in momentum in ratification and if you want to

00:13:34deny a marriage license to a man and a man or deny homosexual the right to teach in the schools or to adopt

00:13:42children it is on account of sex that you would deny it and that would be unconstitutional under era

00:13:49the american people and the american women do not want abortion they do not want lesbian privileges

00:13:56and they do not want universal child care in the hands of the government

00:14:02has there ever been an amendment to the constitution that has generated as much interest as the attempt to

00:14:09enact the equal rights amendment to the constitution we'll talk about all these things with phyllis

00:14:14schlafly which you welcome mrs schlafly phyllis schlafly of alden illinois will meet her on larry king

00:14:20let's talk and it isn't a matter what you or i think it's a matter of what is shown in the legislative

00:14:25history and in the uh uh leading constitutional law in 1978 they had about 35 states to ratify it and they

00:14:34didn't have the final three states and so they took it back to congress and congress extended the

00:14:42deadline to 1982. and there goes the whole country meathead when you see the data they're giving women

00:14:51the same pay as men and giving women the same jobs where the hell is it all going to end what are you

00:14:55going to say when a woman is managing the mets i'll say we have equality right right right michael

00:15:09let's think about that a minute yeah yeah and why are you thinking about it think about this equality is

00:15:15unfair that's rice what's the point of a man working hard all his life trying to get someplace if all he's

00:15:24going to do is wind up equal 15 states have not ratified the era yet until three more states do

00:15:31ratify it and we have a june of 1982 deadline we do not have the benefits of the equal rights amendment

00:15:36yet the cause of equal and human rights will reap what is sown what will you reap what will you sow

00:15:54the anger of evangelicals was activated by segregation but segregation would prove to

00:16:09be a less than palatable way to motivate evangelical voters on a broad scale not enough to win elections

00:16:15with that's where the issue of abortion came in senate races in minnesota and iowa in 1978 showed that an

00:16:23anti-abortion pro-life movement could unite the religious right and give them real political power

00:16:29republican politicians campaigned accordingly in 1980 the right wing of the republican party took over

00:16:37and they took the era out of the platform only one man has the proven experience we need

00:16:44ronald reagan for president let's make america great again good evening

00:16:48i'm here tonight to announce my intention to seek the republican nomination for president of the united

00:16:55states this is not little game that we're playing our opposition is quite powerful

00:17:04and they don't always play fair i believe in equal rights for everyone i don't believe in

00:17:10discrimination of any kind and certainly not against women but i don't believe in the amendment

00:17:16there are three more states we have 35 so it is very agonizing because the vast majority of

00:17:24americans support at way over 60 percent the states in which most americans live have ratified it but

00:17:30none of us will have it unless we get those three more states and given the schedule of legislatures

00:17:35and their meetings it seems unlikely now it's possible possible it is june 30th and at midnight

00:17:41tonight the equal rights amendment becomes a lost cause when the era time limit expired people gave

00:17:47up and they said we tried and we failed

00:17:59all these women who went door to door who went and talked to their legislators who begged them to vote for

00:18:05equal rights for equal rights for women learned one major thing they're just as smart they're just as

00:18:12good it made them interested in politics i remain an advocate of the equal rights amendment i will tell

00:18:22you for this reason because i have a daughter and a granddaughter and i know what the history was and i

00:18:29would like the legislature of this country and of all the states to stand up and say we want to make

00:18:36a clarion call that women and men are equal before the law just as every modern human rights document in

00:18:43the world does i have introduced it every single year that i've been in congress and i have not been able

00:18:51to pass it nor have i been able to even secure a hearing on it when the era was passed congress put a

00:18:59deadline in it there's nothing in the constitution that says congress has that authority but they did

00:19:05it the most recent addition to the constitution the 27th amendment was proposed by the first congress

00:19:12so it took over 200 years to be added to the constitution between when congress first passed it

00:19:17and when the states finally ratified it what it showed is there's no no time limit that really

00:19:24triggered some legal brains to say wait a minute are deadlines even legitimate wouldn't congress be

00:19:30able to go and change it because that's what congress's role is representing the will of the people

00:19:35who support the era deciding we don't want a time limit to this we want to remove it or and

00:19:41this is a kicker it doesn't matter we believe the time limit itself is unconstitutional

00:19:48and then the american dream is dead but if i get elected president i will bring it back

00:20:03bigger and better and stronger than ever before and we will make america great again you and i will

00:20:14go up there i gotta use some tic tacs just in case i start kissing her grab him by the

00:20:20i can do anything what

00:20:26the catalyst was donald trump's election i think everybody woke up with this collective

00:20:31consciousness of like we needed to do something i'm a never trump guy i never liked him

00:20:36that was a wake-up call the gains of all women were threatened and the ability of those who hadn't

00:20:47really achieved equity were pushed even farther behind i ran for the senate i announced four days

00:20:54after the election state senators and state assembly members led by black women queer women thought to

00:21:00themselves we're three states away we can add to that list and become the last three states this bill

00:21:07is about equality period black women they had the vision and i think black women have always had the

00:21:16vision understanding that you have to change the constitution you have to write in foundational

00:21:23protections in the founding document otherwise it's just really hard to build on a foundation of equality

00:21:29black women specifically and women of color in general have been part of this fight from the

00:21:35beginning but we haven't always been out front with eight pages of sports and no women soon the end of

00:21:41the line those ideas that we can just go ahead and affirm the era were seeded in places like nevada and

00:21:50in illinois in nevada which happened in 2017 it's due to the vision of state senator pat spearman who

00:21:57single-handedly ratified the era in that state don't listen to anybody that tells you we can't do it

00:22:04because together we will get this done illinois happened and you know that's the state of phyllis

00:22:10schlafly i stand upon the shoulders of women like sojourner truth and ida b wells fanny lou hamer and so

00:22:18many others developing right now history on the illinois house floor illinois is now the 37th state to

00:22:23ratify the amendment the country still needs one more state to ratify it we are just one state away

00:22:31so in a lot of ways virginia was on the wrong side of history we were capital of the confederacy we came

00:22:38kicking and screaming into the modern civil rights era you know virginia had one of the five cases in

00:22:44brown versus board of education we were the state that had the case that struck down bans on gay

00:22:50marriage by becoming the last state needed to ratify the era we can be a leader rather than

00:22:56being dragged into doing what is right virginia it really could be you plus you are the birthplace of

00:23:05chris brown rick santorum and pat robertson so frankly you owe america this

00:23:10speak on anything in section nine of our agenda that is our proclamations our recommendations

00:23:25or the era resolution now is the time for you to speak we need a constitutional amendment in order to

00:23:32make it law of the land at this point people should understand we will never give up equal means equal

00:23:40thank you for hearing me thank you

00:23:49hi my name is easton weber i live in palatine and i'm oh i can't do this no no

00:23:56you can do it i'm sorry i'm sorry i'm sorry i'm sorry for your time she wrote this so we're going to read

00:24:04it she has been very lucky to have parents and teachers who have always believed in her

00:24:10they encourage her to get good grades in school play hard in soccer and basketball and more

00:24:15importantly to always use good manners what none of this has prepared her for is that when she leaves

00:24:21her parents home things will not be fully equal for her she knows that she will make 78 cents on the

00:24:27dollar that her friends of color will get paid 63 cents and one of her latina friends will make 54 cents

00:24:33on the dollar i will give equal effort but not have equal protection under the constitution the era

00:24:40has been around way too long and it needs to be ratified please consider supporting my full and equal

00:24:47future by passing this resolution thank you this era is not about equality it is about sameness of men

00:24:58and women this is contrary to the laws of nature and to the health and safety of women future legal

00:25:05decisions will lead to monstrous unintended consequences i will not vote to harm women neither should any of

00:25:14you more women than ever before were sworn into the virginia general assembly they're vowing to reverse

00:25:2246 years of failing to support the equal rights amendment if we can get it to the floor we

00:25:27would have the votes on both sides of the aisle but getting it to the floor is the difficult part

00:25:32the committee chairman refused to allow even a hearing on the era when we were in the rules

00:25:38committee we presented the bill um i was given about two minutes to present it based on the research

00:25:43that we've done there's an archivist a federal archivist of the united states david fierro he has

00:25:49classified it as a failed amendment couple things number one is the state of nevada ratified the

00:25:54equal rights amendment last year do we live in nevada no okay i checked but i just i don't think

00:26:00the u.s archivist or the library of congress or whatever decides what the law is or isn't i think

00:26:05the u.s supreme court decides that so the irony is is that at least in the virginia legislature a

00:26:11majority of both chambers actually support the bill but we can't get it on the floor for a hearing

00:26:15all in favor of that please signify by raising your hand five all in favor of not passing the bill

00:26:23please raise your hand the motion fails we've let you say your piece and i think it's time that we

00:26:34uh move on we're just getting started sb 234 it concerns the the advisory council

00:26:54mr chairman last year i was not as involved i supported but wasn't sort of involved in the fight

00:27:03for era and when i was in the committee meeting and the white women in the room started singing we

00:27:11shall overcome i was uncomfortable mr chairman mr chairman and i mentioned that to a white woman

00:27:22later and she said well why and i kind of looked at her and i said did you at any point feel like you

00:27:27were in physical danger standing in that room singing that song testifying on behalf of the era

00:27:34because during the civil rights act people got shot that's when i really started to think that

00:27:40they need some voices of color i think that's a big part of why the era has taken so long

00:27:46there are some excuses because people don't want to actually talk about the real reason they oppose

00:27:52it but it really boils down to how broad are equal rights going to be

00:27:58so the reason women of color have the most to gain is because of the intersectionality of the

00:28:04discrimination that we face black women and latinas and asian women face discrimination both on the

00:28:12basis of being women and being racial minorities and the impact of over 300 years of slavery and jim crow

00:28:22on black women that impact didn't go away when the civil rights act and the voting rights act passed

00:28:29that requires intentional action to unwind that impact when you have both the protections of the 14th

00:28:37amendment on the basis of race and the era you're able to really start to unwind that 300-year impact

00:28:46i felt it was very important to bring that intersectionality perspective to the conversation

00:28:54for so long we were relegated to the back the march on washington led by alice paul was a really good

00:29:00example of that there were 45 black women that marched in that parade 22 of them were the founders

00:29:07of my sorority delta sigma theta it was their first public act and yet alice paul asked the black women

00:29:14who were going to participate to march in the back because she didn't want to offend southerners what

00:29:20we've learned from history is that the 21st century gender justice paradigm all the gains that we've

00:29:26created for women have centered and mostly benefited white women what the era can do is to center the

00:29:34voices of the most marginalized women of color of black women in developing policies that take into

00:29:40account historical marginalization i think had we been more cohesive from the beginning this would

00:29:45have probably been done a long time ago but that's part of the strategy anytime you have a civil rights

00:29:51movement it's divide and conquer good morning virginia union virginia union started out of the ashes

00:30:01of a slave jail and so you know how to fight for equality and the fight for equality is not finished

00:30:10i am in a position to help remove inequity and barriers to equity it's personal when i think about

00:30:19my great-grandfather whose parents were born slaves who had to take a literacy test to vote and his wife

00:30:26my great-grandmother couldn't vote to now me as a member of the state senate sitting on the committee

00:30:35that decides constitutional amendments and voting issues it shows just in my own family history that

00:30:42moral arc there's still a lot of work to do if you see the bus you can't miss the message the equal

00:30:50rights amendment is back next year virginia could become the 38th state and the last state needed to

00:31:01ratify the equal rights amendment we're going to start off at william and mary speaking to students

00:31:06okay then you give the keynote at the law symposium then we go to hampton university these are also

00:31:12students this is today this is today prince william county delegate jennifer carroll foy is the chief

00:31:19sponsor of the house bill to endorse the proposed constitutional amendment i'm delegate jennifer carroll

00:31:24foy and i represent the second district in the house of delegates here in virginia many people don't

00:31:30know women are not entitled to equality in the united states constitution as recently as 1996 virginia

00:31:39military institute paid millions of dollars to prevent women from entering its doors i remember being

00:31:49in my jrtc classroom in high school watching the virginia military institute decision on tv and hearing

00:31:56justice ginsburg say that women can do all things if given the opportunity i said that i'm going to go to

00:32:03vmi i had 1500 male cadets who did not want me there did not think i deserved to be there it was really

00:32:12disappointing because it was 1999 we're not talking about the 50s we're not talking about the 1800s while

00:32:18i now have a detached retina in my left eye because of some of the incidents that happened at vmi i can

00:32:25tell you that my shoulders are stronger when you solidify women's fundamental rights as human beings

00:32:31equal to men that is the only thing that's acceptable are you guys with me all right so let's hear it

00:32:40e-r-a e-r-a e-r-a being able to say fourth generation republican gets me indoors that i would never get in

00:32:53otherwise. Here in Virginia, our Equal Rights Amendment actions have been very liberal,

00:33:02middle-class, white lady, run-driven. We first of all want to bring in women of color,

00:33:08and then we want to bring in Republicans, because we don't want this to be a partisan issue.

00:33:12And then we're also bringing in men. There is a job to be done here.

00:33:16You know, not only by us, but by women everywhere. How long must we wait? How long are we expected to

00:33:25accept these indignities? How long, Lord? This is not just a woman's issue. If your partner is not

00:33:36being paid fairly because of gender, doesn't this have a negative impact on your family?

00:33:45I see it as something that could help men as well as help women. They are not getting the

00:33:50paternity leave that women get. And what are we saying as a society that we don't want our men

00:33:56to be just as important in a baby's life as the mother? When I look at my daughter, I want to make

00:34:00sure that she has the same opportunities for getting a job, for promotions, that she has a

00:34:07constructive and supportive workplace. Let me tell you, the whole world is watching now

00:34:14to see what's going to happen in the legislature this year for the ratification, hoping that

00:34:21Virginia will be the 38th state.

00:34:25The show starts in January when we all arrive on the campus of the Capitol for the General

00:34:33Assembly session. And that's when all those petitions Kate is going to tell you about,

00:34:37we hope that there's more than enough to impress the men and women of the General Assembly, that

00:34:43this in 2019 is going to be the year that we get it right.

00:34:52We have resolutions in both the House and the Senate to ratify the ERA.

00:34:57Only the bills and resolutions that have made it through one of the chambers, they get crossed

00:35:01over and then they proceed in the other chamber at that point.

00:35:04The General Assembly only meets for 45 days. If it doesn't get out of the House or Senate

00:35:10at crossover, then it's done for the year.

00:35:12Senator Jennifer McClelland!

00:35:14Thank you all for being out here today. I know it's very cold, but the bill's going to be up.

00:35:25You already know that. I'm voting yes.

00:35:27The ERA is going to be the issue that defines the 2019 session and, by extension, the 2019 elections.

00:35:40Do some of these members know, in fact, what this requires? This is not properly before this body.

00:35:48You might as well have the country of Bolivia ratify the Equal Rights Amendment. The only thing you

00:35:53can do is you have to start all over again. The worst thing you can say about that deadline

00:35:58is that it's debatable. It is not the General Assembly's job to predetermine the will of the

00:36:03court. It is the General Assembly's job to consider legislation and vote on it and then let the courts

00:36:10sort it out. That's called the process. The clerk will call the roll. All those present will record

00:36:17their vote aye. The clerk will close the roll. Senate Joint Resolution 284, ratifying the Equal Rights

00:36:26Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, reported from the Committee on Privileges and

00:36:31Elections with a substitute. I rise to speak in favor of equal rights, yet in opposition to the Equal

00:36:38Rights Amendment. The bill itself actually victimizes the very women it claims to protect.

00:36:46Dear sweet women, please realize this amendment is not about you. Women's sports, women's locker rooms,

00:36:53and bathrooms will all be a tradition of the past, exposing women to increased incidences of rape

00:37:00and sexual violence. That's ridiculous. One of the leaders of the ERA movement who I have so much

00:37:08respect for and I've really enjoyed spending time talking with her is Eileen Davis. And just this November

00:37:14had her daughter Abigail Spanberger win the seventh congressional seat for Congress. Case in point,

00:37:22Abigail did not need the ERA. We all agree that the equal treatment of men and women under the law is a

00:37:28fundamental American value. I ask you to consider what other fundamental American value do we reject

00:37:35because of our concern over how some may interpret it. I can't think of one. Now some of the arguments we've

00:37:45heard alluded to today and the parade of horribles that we've heard is not going to happen. The basic tenets of our

00:37:52democracy were penned by a Virginian Thomas Jefferson. We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men

00:37:58are created equal. He didn't mean me because I'm of African descent and because I'm a woman. But my ancestors

00:38:06fought, marched, filed lawsuits, died to give me the right to vote and stand here today as a member of this body.

00:38:19Black women are constantly being asked to choose between their blackness and their womanhood. And it's impossible

00:38:26because the discrimination we face, the prejudice we face, is based in both. Are the senators ready to vote?

00:38:37Have all the senators voted? Clerk will close the roll. Money is a major issue. As long as you can

00:38:45discriminate on the basis of sex and race, you are ripping off a large segment of the population

00:38:52financially. And because women are half the population, it's big money. This is a political

00:38:58argument for power. In my opinion, if you forget that, you really don't know what the issue is really about.

00:39:05Ayes 26, nays 14. Ayes 26, nays 14, Senate Drunk Resolution 284 is agreed to.

00:39:21It was very exciting just to know that I, as a black woman, could stand on that floor and speak in

00:39:29favor of the ERA and vote to make Virginia the 38th state. It was amazing.

00:39:48The battleground will really be among the members on the House side.

00:39:54You know, I started here in 1978. I've never voted on it because it never got out of committee.

00:40:00People of leadership of the majority party are not in favor of it, right?

00:40:04So let's figure out some way in killing it off without having too many fingerprints on it.

00:40:09The House of Delegates has never in 45 years taken a floor vote on ERA.

00:40:14I thought surely they had done it in like the 70s or 80s at least once.

00:40:18I might have started my pressure campaign a little earlier. I knew that it had never gotten a floor vote.

00:40:23One of the things that's really hard is to tell people how partisan this has become. It was not

00:40:30partisan at first. You know, they have a sponsor in Virginia that's Republican. We feel like we'll

00:40:36get some Republican votes in Virginia. I don't think the public is aware of the fact that to get

00:40:42elected in a primary on the Republican side takes only about 8 percent of the vote. That's how few

00:40:49people are voting in primaries. So you're being controlled by a small right-wing group,

00:40:58well-organized and extremely well-funded. Business interests are funding anti-LGBT,

00:41:06anti-transgender, anti-women's rights issues.

00:41:09Some Republicans do not even want it to be brought to the floor because they don't want people to be

00:41:14held accountable for their vote. No one wants to come out and say,

00:41:19I am against equality. Really, you are. What else are you against? Are you against children being

00:41:28able to go to school? I'm dying to hear. What other things that we consider basic human decency are you

00:41:37against? They can bottle this up and keep it from coming out of committee. They appear to be using

00:41:42plenty of procedural ways to do that. They will not let it happen because they suddenly believe in it.

00:41:47They're going to only let it happen because it's politically expedient. That's what we have to

00:41:51convince them is that it's politically expedient to get this done. So our plan now is we're going to

00:41:57just make 200 of these legislator notebooks. Right? Crazy bunch of feminists sitting around a table

00:42:05stuffing notebooks. Takes the stamina of childbirth to make it through this. We were trained for this.

00:42:16The big question is can we get past Kirk Cox? He has no intention of ever letting this get a full

00:42:23hearing because they can give it a quote unquote full and fair hearing in a subcommittee and kill it

00:42:29and we're done. Right. Is that you think that's that's absolutely their strategy. Kirk Cox is the

00:42:35speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates, not a supporter of the Equal Rights Amendment and would

00:42:44ensure that we always got a bad committee assignment with a committee controlled by someone who had total

00:42:58disdain for the Equal Rights Amendment. Today we found out that the resolutions were all assigned to the

00:43:06House Sub-1 Committee, which is chaired by Delegate Margaret Ranson, and she's highly unsupportive. I

00:43:13actually still feel comfortable that they're going to get this done because they really have to.

00:43:19They have too many seats that will be a bloodbath in November.

00:43:27If you're here today to support this amendment, I would ask that you just please stand.

00:43:47Thank you. If you're here in opposition, please stand. Thank you.

00:43:55If you could just unpack the sister amendment, the 14th amendment, right, equal protection,

00:44:02and kind of drill down a little deeper for why we need the ERA as opposed to the 14th amendment.

00:44:08The 14th amendment was really to address race. It was never meant to address women.

00:44:13Race discrimination has the highest classification of scrutiny that the law in this country allows.

00:44:19Sex discrimination or discrimination against women is treated at an intermediate

00:44:23scrutiny, which is a lower level, which is why when women make sex discrimination claims to the

00:44:28Supreme Court, we lose. We want sex discrimination cases to be analyzed in the same way that the courts

00:44:35analyze race, religion, and national origin. Senator, if something like this is passed,

00:44:43are you telling the Commonwealth of Virginia that we're not going to be looking at a bunch of lawsuits?

00:44:49I don't think we should reject fundamental rights because we're concerned about lawsuits.

00:44:56We could make that same argument about litigation, about should we not have the first amendment,

00:45:01the second amendment. If we are focused on protecting the equality of men and women,

00:45:06that should be our first and foremost focus. Before we vote, I want to say something.

00:45:12I'm a woman and I'm an elected member of the oldest legislative body in the new world,

00:45:22the Virginia House of Delegates. I serve with mostly men in the Republican caucus. We don't always agree,

00:45:32but they respect me. God made us all equal. I'm not going to support this ERA resolution that's

00:45:39before the body today. We're ready to vote. We tried to pass the Equal Rights Amendment

00:45:47resolution on a bipartisan basis. We did not get the victory today that we wanted.

00:45:59For years, this ERA amendment has come before my subcommittee and we did not vote for it. We did not

00:46:05let that get out. We're not done. And if they continue to stonewall, it's at their own peril.

00:46:11We will remember in November. Okay, thanks. I want to send a clear message to all the activists

00:46:17who have worked tirelessly on this issue. Your hard work, blood, sweat and tears was not for nothing.

00:46:24Your efforts are inspiring. You built a 20,000 person campaign that engaged the most diverse group of

00:46:32activists ever in support of the Equal Rights Amendment in Virginia.

00:46:40And we will be back. I look at my daughter and I say, look what I've accomplished. No one ever stopped me.

00:46:46We should not be relegated to second class citizenship because we are female. You're smart.

00:46:53You can make it happen and you won't need an amendment to do that.

00:46:57And I am sick and tired of people telling us that you have made it. Be okay with what you have been given.

00:47:03And then she can make America great again.

00:47:07You will not placate us. The only thing you've done is added fuel to our fire because we will come back next

00:47:13session and we will make this happen.

00:47:16Are you willing to fight? Are you willing to fight? Will we give up? Will we concede? Now is

00:47:26our time. November is coming. We have kept tabs on what is happening. We are not okay with it. Women

00:47:34are deserving of equality. And if we cannot change their minds, we will change their seats and group.

00:47:54On Friday, a number of newspapers declared ERA dead. And that is not accurate. We're simply on pause.

00:48:00The House committee does not have the authority to kill it. So it's still sitting there alive.

00:48:05We have an ERA resolution sitting in purgatory that will survive all the way till February 23rd.

00:48:11So that is a very important thing to know and understand. And the way to get it out is that

00:48:17Democrats have a maneuver where they could call for it to come straight to the floor. And they would

00:48:23only need two Republicans to join them. The political maneuvering to get it on the floor?

00:48:28Yep. What is that? We have written them a rules change.

00:48:32Okay. The rules change is pointing out the obstruction that really we do need to have

00:48:37this because democracy is not working. And if it fails because all the Republicans stay lockstep,

00:48:44then we as a campaign don't have to go support the fake supporters.

00:48:48We still got to figure out a House strategy, how to get this to the floor.

00:48:52Yeah. Um, pressure on the Speaker. I know. But even the, even the Republicans who've been good for us

00:48:57are starting to, like, toe the party line. I hate that.

00:49:01Kurt Cox is the Speaker of the House. He could single-handedly bring the Equal Rights Amendment

00:49:08to the floor for a ratification if he wanted to.

00:49:10I will never stop fighting for the promise of life. As long as I hold a gavel,

00:49:16as long as I can speak into this microphone, as long as I have the privilege of this floor,

00:49:22I promise to fight for the promise of life.

00:49:24When these restrictive laws are allowed to stand that restrict abortion access,

00:49:31that restrict bodily autonomy, and that essentially reduce gender equality in this country,

00:49:37we are borrowing against the future of young people. They are the people who are going to be

00:49:42the most impacted and the most hurt by these policies.

00:49:46Call Kurt Cox, please, every single day. Allow this to be voted on.

00:49:52Because that's where we're held up. I am your constituent. And I expect you,

00:49:56as my elected official, to give it a fair debate and vote on the House floor.

00:50:02The job of advocates is to make sure that the Speaker feels the pressure.

00:50:07That's one of the things we did in Virginia, is we brought together groups who had all been

00:50:11working on it for a long time, but maybe not working on it together.

00:50:16We have to make a distinction between laws that promote

00:50:19equality and laws that contract equality. The ERA can inaugurate systemic-wide,

00:50:26transformative change to enhance our democratic systems, to embrace more equality based on gender.

00:50:34Rather than just leaning on and accepting a system that was broken to begin with,

00:50:39and a system that frankly was set up not to help the most marginalized people in this country.

00:50:45You are my son. This day have I begotten you. I will be to you a father, and you shall be to me a son.

00:51:02So I'm a Christian, and I believe what the Bible teaches about the role of a man and the role of a woman.

00:51:08And I think that the ERA is going against God's natural order. The Bible says that men are to be the rulers,

00:51:17and women should marry. They should be obedient to their husbands and keepers of the home.

00:51:23And we still need you at the doors. We still need you on the phone to those legislators who refuse to

00:51:28listen to the Equal Rights Amendment on the floor. Let's celebrate, because we are finally going to get

00:51:33equality under the law. We have been organizing for months. Thank you to Katie Hornung, who is part of

00:51:44VA Ratify ERA, and all you grassroots warriors. In the greatest country of the world, we do not have

00:51:55explicit gender equality in our Constitution. 86% of international constitutions have this. It's time

00:52:03we get it into our Constitution, and we're not taking no anymore. So why are so many women giving up so

00:52:12much personal time, not paid, to support the ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment in Virginia?

00:52:19What I've come to learn is that most women working like maniacs on this are doing it to productively

00:52:26process something in their past or to change the world for the future. It starts when you're a little

00:52:33kid and there are grown men yelling that you need to be pulled off the soccer field so their son can

00:52:37play, except I was better. In college, you go on to the abusive sexual assault, and a couple years out of

00:52:46college, you're getting underpaid, and you don't know it until somebody slips you that magical

00:52:50spreadsheet. It wasn't equal pay for equal work. They reported to me they were being paid thousands

00:52:55more than I was. I'm done. I'm tired of it, and I don't want this for my kids. So we need them to

00:53:01send it straight to the floor. The House of Delegates needs to get this done.

00:53:06A lot of the women who worked around the clock in Virginia have a rape in their background, and I

00:53:16didn't realize how many of my inner team had that until the Kavanaugh hearings, and my entire team was

00:53:22falling apart. Mine was an abusive relationship, and I kept dating them well over a year after that rape.

00:53:29For me, until we get to a more equitable society where women are cherished for what they bring to

00:53:36the table and that we're all there together equally, there will be more people in those terribly abusive

00:53:43relationships. Very strong women can be abused. Rape kits are still not being processed, and women are

00:53:51still sitting in jail for self-defense. And so I want to know when the women of America are going to get to a

00:53:56sustained level of outrage where we are done.

00:54:05What we've done is executed a Hail Mary. With a simple majority of the vote, we can actually

00:54:12discharge the Equal Rights Amendment from the Privileged Elections Committee and bring it up to the

00:54:16floor, and then we would have our vote. If we have 100 sitting delegates, we just need 51 votes.

00:54:21We'll only need two Republicans to come to our side. There's a couple of them who have said that

00:54:25they support the Equal Rights Amendment. My response is, prove it.

00:54:29If I were them, I would be pretty concerned about if I vote no, what impact is that going to have on my

00:54:36coming back?

00:54:37Oh Lord, we've come before you this day, and our desire is to be in your presence, and we want to

00:54:44enter your presence with thanksgiving. We worship you because of that. We bow down. We kneel before you,

00:54:50our maker. And even before you formed us in our mother's womb, you knew us and set us apart. Give us

00:54:57the moral courage to protect the precious life you have granted. We pray all these things in your great

00:55:05name. Amen.

00:55:08Mr. Speaker, a few short weeks ago, the ERA resolution passed out of the Senate with bipartisan

00:55:14support by a vote of 26 to 14. The ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment, enshrining gender

00:55:22equality in our United States Constitution, deserves to be debated on the floor of the House and deserves

00:55:30an up and down vote on its passage. Yet, once again, another barrier has been created.

00:55:37I look around this assembly, and I see powerful men from every walk of life.

00:55:46I see men that still allow the legacy of fear from opening the doors of opportunities for others.

00:55:53To fail to bring the amendment up for a vote is ignoring 81% of all Virginians.

00:56:02So you can either walk in fear or you can walk in faith and join the majority of states

00:56:09states and pass the Equal Rights Amendment. Thank you.

00:56:21I shall come to work.

00:56:28We've been accused of trying to silence people, trying to oppress people, trying to make other

00:56:34people into second-class citizens. If that's not fear-mongering, I don't know what is. Mr. Speaker,

00:56:42in several states, this amendment language, when adopted in those state constitutions, has resulted

00:56:49in the very strict scrutiny that advocates want, and they want it applied in situations relating to

00:56:55an unfettered right to an abortion right up until the moment of birth and a taxpayer expense.

00:57:01This rules change is not about the ERA, though. It is about how we conduct our business in this body,

00:57:08how we have for 400 years the precedent, the protocol, the procedure of this house.

00:57:15And I would urge the body to defeat this rule change.

00:57:20Shall the resolution be agreed to?

00:57:22Clerk will close the roll.

00:57:29Ayes 50, nose 50.

00:57:31Ayes 50, nose 50. The resolution is defeated.

00:57:34Mr. Speaker.

00:57:41I'm pretty, pretty, pretty, very bad. I am disgusted by this vote. Absolutely disgusted.

00:57:49With that, I just might put the insufficiency in the way.

00:57:53What just happened is they voted not to vote, because they don't want to have to go back to their districts

00:58:02and defend voting against the Equal Rights Amendment.

00:58:12When I was a little girl, I lived in a hippie commune near Bentonville, Virginia.

00:58:18It's pretty staggering that a very small number of men in positions of power

00:58:24can block this legislation from even getting to the floor where it would pass.

00:58:31I think that's shameful, and I think it's ridiculous.

00:58:34It should be enough of a reason that women should rise up and make sure they're voted out of office.

00:58:40That first year, we did talk to a lot of politicians, and we had people reporting back anything they heard.

00:58:55You know, it polls at crazy percentages, and everybody wants it done.

00:59:00I think even the conservative paper was surprised that it wasn't going to get done.

00:59:03You have to make a noise in order for the so-called leaders to want to lead in this area.

00:59:10My answer is to stop talking to politicians and instead talk to day-to-day Virginians, day-to-day Americans.

00:59:17We went after the 20 tightest races, really making sure that everybody in that district

00:59:23knew who the equality candidate was and knew what was on the line.

00:59:26We have had a very, very white Republican House legislature for years, and that doesn't reflect Virginia really at all.

00:59:35Virginia was in the spotlight at the U.S. Supreme Court this morning.

00:59:39The issue this time were 11 House districts racially gerrymandered to downplay the impact of African-American voters.

00:59:45Last year, a federal court ruled lawmakers had packed too many African-American voters

00:59:50into 11 Virginia House of Delegates districts.

00:59:53That decision led to a new map that would benefit Democrats.

00:59:57Republicans argue the old districts were fine.

01:00:00By watching the suppression of a set of voters, you're watching a shift not only in their ability

01:00:06to be represented in the democracy, but also it totally changes the policies that are going to be passed.

01:00:12Once they were not packing the African-American vote into particular districts,

01:00:17all of a sudden, a lot of races became way more competitive.

01:00:23It was pretty much the first free and fair-ish election that we've had in Virginia in probably two decades.

01:00:31Both of my kids obviously support the issue.

01:00:34Mom is kind of working on something that feels to me bigger than just our family, and yet it is about our family.

01:00:39Uh, the VA Senate is ours, FYI.

01:00:43In the House, we need the Democratic majority to get the ERA out of the committee and to the floor.

01:00:48I don't actually care if Cox is out. I just need a change in the House leadership.

01:00:53Oh, no.

01:00:55What happened?

01:00:57They called Chase.

01:00:59Oh, my God.

01:01:00Did she win?

01:01:01Are you kidding me?

01:01:02That is so depressing.

01:01:04All right, so they're showing plus three Dems, and as long as Dems take back every other seat

01:01:09they had last session, that means we have a clear path to the floor for the Equal Rights Amendment.

01:01:14We call it the House, we call it the House, we call it the House.

01:01:33Tonight we have a new House leadership, which is really exciting.

01:01:38The Democrats have taken the majority in the Virginia House, and that means that the ERA can go to the floor,

01:01:43and it's a very exciting night for all of us.

01:01:50For the first time in 26 years, Democrats have taken control of the Virginia legislature.

01:01:56Now, this is a big deal.

01:01:57Republican Kirk Cox held onto his seat in the House,

01:02:00but with Democrats controlling both chambers, he will no longer serve as the Speaker.

01:02:12In the words of Maya Angelou, I come as one, but I stand as 10,000.

01:02:27In this case, I stand with 160 million women and girls throughout this country,

01:02:35waiting for their constitutional equality.

01:02:38Never did I think that I could do something to help change the United States Constitution.

01:02:44And yet, here we are.

01:02:45I am 66 years old, and I began working for the Equal Rights Amendment when I was 12 years old.

01:02:59We are grateful for all the people in this room and in this building that have been fighting for

01:03:03equality before we were even born. But I have also been disappointed by the elected officials

01:03:08that have lectured me in public hearings and by the others who have looked me in the face,

01:03:12patted me on the head, and then turned around and voted against me.

01:03:15Not only did they vote against my fair and equal future, they voted against the 75 million other

01:03:21girls in this country fighting for equality in the Constitution. I am not old enough to vote,

01:03:26but I am old enough to show up, and I am old enough to help change history for future generations.

01:03:31Is there any unreadiness among those here? All those in favor, signify by your votes. All those

01:03:38opposed, signify likewise. Clerk will close the roll. The measure passes 13-9.

01:03:50E-R-A! E-R-A! E-R-A! E-R-A! E-R-A!

01:03:56She was a superstar!

01:03:57She is a superstar? Yes!

01:03:58I'm so proud of her. I'm proud of both of my girls.

01:04:00I'm so proud of her. My babies, my daughters.

01:04:03Future's so bright, you've got to wear shades.

01:04:05We're not done. We're not done.

01:04:06Yeah, yeah.

01:04:07What just happened today is we had a full Privileges and Elections Committee hearing

01:04:11for the Equal Rights Amendment, where it's never passed out of the committee, ever.

01:04:15So next is going to go to the floor for a full vote.

01:04:23The House will come to order. Members, please take their seats.

01:04:40Calendar for the Virginia House of Delegates, January 15, House Joint Resolution 1, ratifying the Equal

01:04:49Rights Amendment to the Constitution of the United States reported from Privileges and Elections.

01:04:55Eighty percent of all Virginians support women's equality in the form of an Equal Rights Amendment.

01:05:01While individuals on the other side may not like the statistic or may not like what's about to happen here today.

01:05:08This is fact.

01:05:09I am wondering if this is going to be a protocol going forward.

01:05:12We're certainly all curious over here about why there's a substitute on something that's been...

01:05:16Delegate, I think you're out of order.

01:05:18Uh...

01:05:19Delegate from... Delegate from Alexandria.

01:05:21Madam Speaker.

01:05:22Delegate from Alexandria.

01:05:23Delegate from Alexandria.

01:05:23Delegate hearing.

01:05:24Excuse me. Could the Speaker explain her ruling as to why I am out of order when speaking to a motion?

01:05:30You are not asking a question. If you had a question specifically for the Delegate...

01:05:34Point of order. I was speaking to the motion, Madam Speaker.

01:05:38Are you rising to speak to the motion? If so, you have the floor to speak to the motion, Delegate Gilbert.

01:05:42Thank you. And I was finished, Madam Speaker, but thank you very much.

01:05:45Delegate Gilbert.

01:05:47Madam Speaker, today is a historic day.

01:05:50Women and men around the country have been working to achieve ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment for decades.

01:05:59I wish I could say that this dedication and hard work has not all been for nothing, but sadly, I cannot.

01:06:06Congress set a time limit of seven years for this amendment to be ratified.

01:06:12Just last week, the Justice Department issued an opinion noting that the amendment had failed.

01:06:19I look forward to the day when a new Equal Rights Amendment is passed by Congress and sent to the states.

01:06:26Virginia has long failed to recognize that all citizens are entitled to equality under the law.

01:06:33Virginia fought against women's right to vote.

01:06:36Virginia fought against desegregation. And we all remember Loving v. Virginia,

01:06:42where Virginia fought vehemently against interracial marriage.

01:06:46And it's Virginia again on the battleground of equality.

01:06:51The time is now for this body to go on record as supporting women's rights as human beings equal

01:06:58to men to finally be enshrined into the United States Constitution.

01:07:04We will no longer suffer in silence as we are discriminated against.

01:07:08We will not stand by while being paid less.

01:07:11We won't keep quiet about violence perpetrated against women with impunity.

01:07:17Very rarely, the votes we take matter to people around the nation and the world.

01:07:24This is a vote of a lifetime.

01:07:26The question is, what side of history do you want to fall on?

01:07:34And I want to be unequivocally clear that there is only one way to spell equality,

01:07:41and that is simply E-R-A.

01:07:48The question before us is, shall the resolution pass?

01:07:51All those in favor, vote aye.

01:07:59The clerk will close the roll.

01:08:02Ayes 59, nays 41, abstentions 0.

01:08:05For the women of Virginia and the women of America, the resolution has finally come.

01:08:21This is probably the most significant thing I've ever done.

01:08:36And so I'm pretty excited.

01:08:40I'm pretty excited.

01:08:44No, no, no, no, it's tears of joy.

01:08:47Because of our Virginia ratification, it has become a much bigger conversation in Virginia.

01:08:53And we do have a culture of joy around equality in Virginia.

01:08:58That's the vote and reaction from the House of Delegates.

01:09:00It means Virginia is the final state needed to ratify the E-R-A.

01:09:04Equality of rights, under the law, shall not be denier or abridged

01:09:10by the United States or any of its states on account of sex.

01:09:17E-R-A, E-R-A, E-R-A, E-R-A, E-R-A, E-R-A, E-R-A, E-R-A, E-R-A, E-R-A, E-R-A, E-R-A, E-R-A.

01:09:35When we ratified in Virginia as the 38th state, and we thought for sure it will get published,

01:09:40and just added to the Constitution, but it did not.

01:09:44Is it too late for the Equal Rights Amendment to become law?

01:09:49Three-quarters of all states have ratified, as the Constitution requires.

01:09:53But there are legal challenges still ahead.

01:09:56We're sort of two prongs in this attack, the courts and legislation.

01:10:04We're just the normal people that just want to support and make sure that the right things get done.

01:10:08So for ratifications to be ignored is offensive.

01:10:15When Virginia ratified, the next logical move was for the archivist, who at the time is David Ferriero,

01:10:27to just certify the ratification and declare it in the Constitution.

01:10:31And this archivist, in fact, did certify Nevada and Illinois' ratifications.

01:10:36But the Trump administration's Department of Justice wrote a memo saying the E-R-A is dead,

01:10:42and also that Congress cannot do anything about the status of the E-R-A.

01:10:47Because of that memo, the archivist, he didn't do Virginia's ratification.

01:10:52With the Trump OLC memo, to talk about what Congress' authority is,

01:10:57is outside of the bounds of what the executive branch does.

01:10:59I just kind of want to keep pounding a table saying Article 5, Article 5, Article 5.

01:11:06We've fixed the Constitution 27 times, so we know that it wasn't perfect.

01:11:10It needs to be fixed one more time so that women are not second-class citizens.

01:11:15Equality of rights should be bedrock in the Constitution and not dependent on who's on the

01:11:21Supreme Court or what the majority is or who the president is.

01:11:24Laws can be rolled back. They can be not funded. They can be thrown out.

01:11:29But if you're in the Constitution, you're there.

01:11:37We begin this morning with the Supreme Court ending constitutional protection

01:11:41for abortions by overturning Roe v. Wade.

01:11:44The court's five most conservative justices struck down the nearly 50-year-old ruling.

01:11:50A lot of people didn't believe that a constitutional right could be taken away.

01:11:54And when Roe fell, they saw woe.

01:11:57One of these mornings Won't be there alone

01:12:05For women's equality to actually happen in the U.S., it will take multiple generations of women demanding that it happen

01:12:15and being vigilant to ensure that it continues.

01:12:18Even the civil rights movement wasn't, okay, we done.

01:12:22It's a constant progress, backlash, progress, backlash, progress, backlash.

01:12:28Women's equality is going to be the same way.

01:12:30Remember how this country was founded. It was not built for us.

01:12:36We have to not only demand a seat at the table, but fight to keep it.

01:12:48The best advocate I know, my mother, Eileen Davis,

01:13:03went to the General Assembly in the Commonwealth of Virginia every single year,

01:13:07lugging her suitcase full of materials like a farmer rep to tell people about this equal rights event.

01:13:12And she was joined by other Virginians who believed very deeply that they needed to make a change.

01:13:17Unless women are prepared to be involved politically,

01:13:20they should be content to be ignored politically.

01:13:23Does anybody in this room want to be ignored politically?

01:13:25No!

01:13:27No.

01:13:28When President Biden was elected, we did a lot of advocacy with them

01:13:34to get them to either overturn that previous OLC memo that declared the ERA dead,

01:13:38or to essentially neutralize it. And that's basically what they did,

01:13:43was they issued a new memo saying, we're not going to comment about the status of the ERA.

01:13:48And so essentially with their new position, they're saying the ball is in Congress's court.

01:13:53Congress, courts, hear me and hear me well.

01:13:57We are here to agitate for equality. We are demanding it without an apology.

01:14:03We will disrupt the status quo. We will fight for change. Let's get it done. Thank you all.

01:14:11There is a history of women of color not having as much support and power as they should have had.

01:14:19People are ready for women of color to take the lead and to support them and hold them up.

01:14:25And thank God these women have come forward in record numbers. We've needed that for a very long time.

01:14:33Today, we reintroduce a resolution to affirm ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment.

01:14:39Three-fourths of states across the nation have in fact ratified the ERA.

01:14:45Our resolution will help address centuries of gender discrimination in America by removing the

01:14:50unnecessary barriers that have prevented us from enshrining the dignity,

01:14:54the humanity and equality of women into our United States Constitution.

01:15:01There's new ERA champions in the House right now with Carolyn Maloney and Jackie Speier stepping down,

01:15:08who have traditionally been the leaders of the cause of the ERA in Congress.

01:15:12The people who have stepped up to lead the movement are Cori Bush, Ayanna Pressley, Jennifer McClellan.

01:15:18Black women are taking our rightful place at the front of the movement. We will not be silenced,

01:15:26and we will not be erased. We will be part of the history that finishes this story.

01:15:33We all have a role to play. And when we all work together, we make change.

01:15:39The citizens come in by building political pressure through protest, through advocacy,

01:15:46to make elected officials understand there will be consequences. It may take a while,

01:15:53but so far in American history, eventually the will of the people wins out. I still believe in that.

01:15:59Okay, off to work. For the first time, voters in Virginia have chosen a black woman to serve in Congress.

01:16:10Her name is Jennifer McClellan. She won yesterday's special election in the state's

01:16:14fourth congressional district, covering much of southern Virginia. And there's something poetic

01:16:18about her win coming in Virginia's fourth district. Virginia's first black woman in Congress

01:16:24will represent the former capital of the Confederacy.

01:16:29My great-grandfather had to take a literacy test and find three white men to vouch for him to be

01:16:38able to vote. My great-grandmother never voted. My father, my grandfather had to pay poll taxes.

01:16:44My grandmothers never voted. My mother didn't vote until after 1965. But now, she voted for her

01:16:51daughter to be in Congress. When I took my oath of office, I took it on my father's Bible in which

01:16:59he kept his poll tax receipt. I rise as the newest member of Virginia's fourth congressional district.

01:17:09Now we're starting to see the tyranny of the political minority thwart the will of the political majority.

01:17:17Procedure can and is often used to stop legislation, especially if it's

01:17:26something that a majority support. Politicians, rather than serving the public good and creating

01:17:32policies to help, they are using polarization to increase and to consolidate their own power.

01:17:42The Constitution is a fossil. It's the oldest. It's the hardest to amend in the world.

01:17:46And it was built to be hard to change. The framers, they could not have begun to

01:18:05imagine the world in which we live. And so for us to expect that something that they created 250 years

01:18:11ago would be able to map to our current reality, it's a little insane on our part.

01:18:16We have a choice to make. There's a fork in the road.

01:18:20We are a people in a quandary about the present. We are a people in search of our future.

01:18:28We are a people in search of a national community.

01:18:33We are a people trying not only to solve the problems of the present, but we are attempting

01:18:42to fulfill the promise of America to create and sustain a society in which all of us are equal.

01:18:50People want to say the ERA is dead, but I actually think that it's in a good place.

01:19:03What's happening in Congress is really helpful, which is Congress is actively trying to take steps

01:19:07to remove some of these legal questions to the ERA.

01:19:10We just have to get this conversation out of any back room on either side of the aisle.

01:19:15That's not a place for an equality conversation to exist. This conversation should be held

01:19:20loudly in the streets of America.

01:19:27If government fails to reflect the will of the people long enough, it's going to fall.

01:19:37The ERA is a principle. It's an agreement that everyone deserves equality under the law,

01:19:43regardless of sex. And it's an agreement that we all have to buy into

01:19:48if we are to agree that we live in a healthy, functioning democracy.

01:20:01The Equal Rights Amendment is only the beginning of what this country needs to bring gender equality

01:20:05to the table.

01:20:09The ERA is the next step in making true for me and my children and women of color everywhere,

01:20:18the words in the Declaration of Independence, of life, liberty, and all men and women, like all people,

01:20:23are created equal. We've had a 401-year struggle of making that true for everybody. And the ERA is just

01:20:31one step. It's not the end of the fight, but it is an important step in that fight.

01:20:36What do we want?

01:20:37ERA!

01:20:38When do we want it?

01:20:39Now!

01:20:40I think if we want to be in service to the spirit of what created America, which was to say,

01:20:52we're going to break away from this path to go in a direction for which there is no path,

01:20:57that is the spirit that we should embrace, rather than the letter of the law far outside

01:21:02of the context of what we're dealing with today.

01:21:04I think my family has gotten tired of my big, long outlook, but I still have it.

01:21:11E-R-A! E-R-A!

01:21:15Either you amend the Constitution to fix a problem, or you find another way to solve it.

01:21:23I don't know if it's possible to amend the Constitution, honestly. I don't. But what's the

01:21:27alternative? I mean, what is the alternative to trying? There really isn't one.

01:21:39You are a country to fix a problem, so you can start to fix a problem and then run the

01:21:53next step in it.

01:21:58In this darkness, it brings up my way.

01:22:01I affirm the Equal Rights Amendments have cleared all the necessary hurdles to be added to the U.S. Constitution now.

01:22:31In this darkness, please light my way. Please light my way. Light my way.

01:23:01Light my way.

01:23:31Light my way.

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