Continuing the Fight for Women’s Rights – Kevin Kooistra
Hazel Hunkins Hallinan, a Billings High School graduate, class of 1908, became a pivotal member of the National Woman’s Party (NWP) and an active campaigner for women’s suffrage in America. Her staunch belief that all women merit the right to vote resulted in several arrests, attacks in the press, and assaults by angry mobs. Her own mother expressed embarrassment of her daughter’s rebellious activities. In 1977, nearing the age of ninety, she was still a champion for human rights. She met with President Jimmy Carter in support of the Equal Rights Amendment. Her inspirational struggle encapsulates the 20th-century fight for greater rights for women and children. Kooistra leads a conversation about various strategies for creating social change, exemplified by the women’s rights movement of the 1910s. He asks, what are important issues and effective strategies today and who are the new champions?