Variation
May. 1S73
Continued from page 5
leadership than to national trends. The
state's senior Democratic senator, Sam
Ervin, led the ERA opposition in the
upper house.
It was a bitter defeat for him.
Following the final vote, he raised both
fists to the ceiling and intoned: "Father,
forgive them, they know not what they
do ... American womanhood (will be)
crucified on a cross of dubious equality
and specious uniformity."
Ervin argued that certain laws
protecting women, such as statutes
dealing with alimonyand domestic laws,
were hard won and necessary for the well
being of women.
Like many of his fellow North
Carolinians would contend in the state
legislature, he said equality in
employment and education were already
protected by the Fifth and Fourteenth
Amendments, the Equal Employment
Opportunities Act and Title VII of the
Civil Rights Act.
But the Equal Rights Amendment,
first introduced to Congress in 1923 and
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added significance for those who have
fought so hard for its passage.
Senator Birch Bayh of Indiana
summed, up the feelings of many
supporters. "We cannot overlook the
immense, symbolic importance of the
Equal Rights Amendment," he said. "The
women of our country must have tangible
evidence of our committment to
miinntAA Art ill 1 tnittmant nnlar f Vt Inm
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An amendment to the Constitution has
great moral and persuasive value."
Opposition
North Carolina's are not the only
..- l . . . . . v
siaie s legislators wno aiguea inai cka
would disrupt the fabric of society by
reversing roles and hence breaking down
the family structure.
In Oklahoma, where the amendment
was defeated, a legislator said ERA was
not in keeping with the teachings of the
Bible. "Men and women are not supposed
to be alike," he said. A Wyoming
opponent again invoked holy scripture,
saying if Christ had wanted men and
women equal, he would have appointed
six male and six female disciples.
1 Newsweek recalled other remarks from
state lawmakers. "I see the darkness of
increasing alcoholism and suicide,' one
thundered. Others predicted 'pimps and
prostitutes everywhere, with armies of
'homosexuals, bisexuals and other
deviators coming out of the closets.
There was a curious fear that ERA would
ban sex distinctions in public toilets and a
dark reminiscence of 'the Russian Army
with men and women squatting over
open latrines."
Spurring these legislators on were the
adherants of Phyllis Schlafly of Alton,
111., the self-appointed leader of the
national anti-ERA forces. Schlafly, a
prominent right wing voice in the
midwest and author of the 1964 book
about Barry Goldwater ("A Choice Not
an Echo"), brought her campaign to
North Carolina on Feb. 8, the date of the
public hearing.
The clean scrubbed, conservatively
dressed spokeswoman led the
opposition's remarks. Quoting Harvard
state calling for assistance in stopping
ERA.
"Women will lose their protective
legislation if ERA is passed, laws that
keep them Jrom having to work so many
hours a day and knowing they will have
to go home and work at home," she said.
'There are laws that limit the amount of
weight they can lift; there is a great
amount of difference between lifting
your child who weighs thirty or forty
pounds when you see fit and, say, lifting
twenty-five pounds every three minutes
for seven and a half hours a day."
Constituents
Freshman Sen. Bette Wilke,
R-Henderson, North Carolina's only
female senator, was the only woman
legislator who voted against ERA in
February.
". . . American womanhood (will be) crucified on a
cross of dubious equality and specious uniformity."
Sam Ervin
and Yale law professors in her
midwestern accent, Schlafly denounced
ERA on the grounds that it would do
away with precious legal protections for
women.
"Most women don't want to be
treated like men," she said. "We are in a
wonderful position and ERA would
transform every issue into a domestic
issue to be settled by federal courts."
Schlafly insisted the ERA would take
away a woman's legal right to be a wife
and mother, saying, "The ERA would
give men free sex they don't have to pay
for. A man could leave his faithful wife of
20 years and not feel guilty."
Most of her pro-ERA mail is from men
who don't want to pay alimony, she said.
North Carolina's own opposition to
the bill was spearheaded by Dot Slade, a
middle-aged woman from Reidsville who
met Schlafly for the first time at a
National Federation of Republican
Women meeting and then again in
September at a Pro America conference.
"The first anti-ERA meeting in North
Carolina as far as I know was in
December when I called eight or nine
people together at the Sizzling Steak
House , in Reidsville to just eat lunch and
sort of mull it over," Slade said. -
She and her friends petitioned and
wrote letters to other women across the
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. Retreating to her office cubicle after a
tiring day of defending her unpopular
position to women who gathered for the
; public hearing. Wilke outlined with her
finger on a N.C. map the ten mountain
counties she represents.
These are mountain people in these
counties," she began with a quiet, weary
sigh. "They've been referred to, I'm sure,
by some as ignorant and backward. I get
letters saying I. represent the most
ignorant counties they've ever known.
But they aren't. It's just they're mountain
people . . . you can't really call 'em
hillbillies ... They're just mountain
people. It's just the people are afraid of
something of the unknown, especially in
my district ... . and their voice is mine.
I'm all they have . . . and their voice is
overwhelmingly against it."
"Have you been under a lot of
pressure?"
"A very great deal of pressure," she
said softly. "You see, a legislator is not
cold. We have a heart. And many, many
times we have lay there at night and
thought, you know, what is the best
thing? What in the world is the best thing
for the state? . . . And you are .'. . you're
under pressure from your own self
because you do want to make the right
decision."
She looked up from her lap, her dark
eyes trained on those across form her.
"So what do you suggest we do?" she
pleaded, sincerely. "You're young, you're
alert ... (Someone says she's in a bad
position) you're wise. They asked one
senator and he said, 'Well, half my friends
are for it and half are against it ... so I'm
gonna stay with my friends. (Laugh) You
know you can't do that you've got to
vote. I'm all my people have." .
Defeat
Why was ERA defeated in North
Carolina?
Orange County Senator A.B. "Lonnie"
Coleman, one of the bill's original
sponsors, sat cross legged on the wooden
railing around the senate chamber.
"I think the reason most people vote
against it is simply because they think
men and women will have to use the same
bathrooms and that sort of thing," he
said. "I think they think the legislatures
and the courts and the Congress will be
without any authority to deal with
people based on differences in abilities
and physical characteristics, and I think
their fears are honest in this respect. I
don't think they are just lying in bed
trying to see what arguments they can
generate against this."
What will happen now that the bill has
failed in North Carolina?
"It will just be an issue for next year's
campaign again," Coleman answered.
"This bill can be ratified anytime within
seven years after it was passed by the U.S.
Congress."
Future
Since 1789, more than 5,500
resolutions to amend the Constitution
have been advanced to Congress. Most of
them died, including proposals to change
the name of the United States of America
to the United States of the Earth (USE
for. short), choose the president by lot,
and replace the president and vice
president with a three-person ruling
council.
Should it pass, ERA will be only the
17th addition to the Constitution since
the inclusion of the Bill of Rights in
1971.
President Nixon, Governor
Holshouser, Lt. Governor Hunt all
support it. So did the late Alabama
governor Lurleen Wallace.
Thirty states have ratified it; at least
11 have rejected it. Several, including
Tennessee, Idaho and Nebraska passed it
and are considering rescinding it. It needs
at least eight more states.
ERA can be kept alive six more years.
But no Constitutional amendment has
ever been ratified later than one year
after it was approved by Congress.
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