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Mary Lee Sargent - ERA Fight in Illinois
Mary Lee Sargent has spent a lifetime as a teacher and activist for civil rights, LGBT rights and women’s equality. In the early 1980s, while teaching at Parkland Community College in Champaign, Illinois, she also was co-founder of A Grassroots Group of Second Class Citizens, an organization of women willing to take more dramatic action in the fight to convince the Illinois legislature to pass the Equal Rights Amendment. Their efforts were in vain at the time, but Mary Lee continued to fight for ERA's eventual passage, as well as advocate for other civil rights issues for which she felt passionate.
Interview Links
Abstract
Interview Session 01 (Audio)
Early life and beginning a life in activism and move to Illinois
Interview Session 02 (Audio)
Mary Lee’s involvement in the ERA fight in Illinois
Photos
Caption
This poster was used in 1982 to rally support for more dramatic action to gain passage of the ERA Amendment in the Illinois legislature as time was running out. The Illinois legislature failed to adopt it that year, and ERA went down to defeat.
Where:
Springfield, Illinois
When:
1982
Ownership:
This image is considered to be in the public domain.
Caption
Dorothy Vivian Herold Sargent holds her nearly one year old daughter Mary Lee in 1941. The family lived in Mission, Texas at the time.
Where:
Mission, Texas
When:
1941
Ownership:
Narrator's photo
Caption
Mary Lee’s father Benjamin Calvin Sargent with his daughter in 1943. She was 2 1/2 at the time.
Where:
Harlingen, Texas
When:
1943
Ownership:
Narrator's photo
Caption
Mary Lee Sargent in 1945, age 5, in Corpus Christi, Texas.
Where:
Corpus Christi, Texas
When:
1945
Ownership:
Narrator's photo
Caption
Mary Lee Sargent was eleven when she mugged it up for this photo in Dallas, Texas in 1951.
Where:
Dallas, Texas
When:
1951
Ownership:
Narrator’s photo
Caption
Fourteen year old Mary Lee Sargent and Suzi Sargent in 1954. They lived in Dallas, Texas at the time.
Where:
Dallas, Texas
When:
1954
Ownership:
Narrator’s photo
Caption
Mary Lee Sargent attended a dance at Southern Methodist University with Mac Miller in 1959.
Where:
SMU in Dallas TX
When:
1959
Ownership:
Narrator’s photo
Caption
Suzi Sargent accompanies her sister Mary Lee at Mary Lee’s wedding to Gerald Clore in Walnut Creek, California in June 1962. Gerald is following close behind.
Where:
Walnut Creek, California
When:
June 1962
Ownership:
Narrator's photo
Caption
Mary Lee participated in a march in Washington, D.C. for gay and lesbian rights in 1979, the first such march for the cause. From left to right are Cathy Zhart, Mary Lee Sargent, Kari Alice Lynn, Jon Smith and Linda Aldana Nall.
Where:
Washington, D.C.
When:
1979
Ownership:
Narrator's photo
Caption
This photo taken by Annie Leibowitz is of the women who chained themselves to the railing outside the Illinois state Senate chamber in June 1982. The photo appeared in Life Magazine. Mary Lee is in the back row, third from the right.
Where:
Illinois State Senate Chamber
When:
June 1982
Ownership:
Narrator's photo
Caption
Those who chained themselves outside the IL Senate chamber on June 3, 1982 included, LtR Pauline Kages, ?, Jane Olsen, Sue Yarber, Kari Alice Lynn, Mary Lee Sargent, Joyce Meyes, Alice Webber, Page Mellish, Berenice Carroll and Loretta Manning.
Where:
Illinois State Senate Chamber
When:
1982
Ownership:
Narrator's photo
Caption
When ERA went down to defeat, ERA activists showed their disapproval by writing the names of their opponents in pigs’ blood outside the governor’s office on June 25, 1982. LtR are Ann Casey Elder, Sue Yarber, and Mary Lee Sargent.
Where:
Senate Chamber
When:
June 1982
Ownership:
Narrator's photo
Caption
Dorothy, Ben, Suzi, and Mary Lee Sargent in July 1983 for a family Reunion in Granbury, Texas.
Where:
Granbury, Texas
When:
July 1983
Ownership:
Narrator's photo
Caption
Mary Lee Sargent was running for the University of Illinois Board of Trustees when this picture was taken in Champaign in October, 1984.
Where:
Champaign, Illinois
When:
October 1984
Ownership:
Narrator's photo
Caption
Mary Lee Sargent confronts an Illinois House gallery guard (a ‘Red Coat’, veterans who helped on the floor) during a Halloween protest for women’s rights in 1985.
Where:
Illinois House
When:
1985
Ownership:
Narrator's photo
Caption
Mary Lee Sargent attended the Michigan Women’s Music Festival in August 1986 in Hart, Michigan.
Where:
Hart, Michigan
When:
August 1986
Ownership:
Narrator's photo
Caption
Mary Lee Sargent attended the Michigan Women’s Music Festival in August 1986 in Hart, Michigan.
Where:
Hart, Michigan
When:
August 1986
Ownership:
Narrator's photo
Caption
Mary Lee Sargent makes a point while at her office at Parkland College in Champaign, IL on December 9, 1990.
Where:
Champaign, Illinois
When:
December 1990
Ownership:
Narrator's photo
Caption
Mary Lee Sargent and Illinois Secretary of State Police, who provide security in the capitol building, during a protest for a house bill adding sexual orientation to the Illinois Human Rights Act in 1999.
Where:
Illinois Capitol Building
When:
1999
Ownership:
Narrator's photo
Caption
Mary Lee Sargent with her father, Ben Sargent, in Champaign, Illinois in 2001.
Where:
Champaign, Illinois
When:
2001
Ownership:
Narrator's photo
Caption
Ann Isenbery (Mary Lee’s spouse) and Mary Lee with their dog Molly in Portsmouth, New Hampshire circa 2004.
Where:
Portsmouth, New Hampshire
When:
2004
Ownership:
Narrator's photo
Caption
Mary Lee Sargent and Anne Miller Peterson, a close friend, at Anne’s wedding at Lake Chocorua in 2014.
Where:
Lake Chocorua
When:
2014
Ownership:
Narrator's photo