Seeing Allred Page #4

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what happened to them

and to be able to talk about it.

The law actually

is quite a conservative tool,

and so the only way to really

help vulnerable people in particular

is to push the law to its limits

and to be creative

in the way that you do your advocacy.

[Allred] My work is my life. It isn't...

just what I do, it's who I am.

It's my identity.

Fighting injustice,

that's not a nine-to-five job.

It's not a sacrifice.

It's the commitment that I made

many, many years ago.

[man] It began with police and rioters

clashing on a hot Wednesday night,

but within a matter of hours,

it was completely out of hand.

[Allred] It was about a year

after the Watts Riots,

or Watts Rebellion,

depending on your point of view.

And so, they needed teachers in Watts.

I said,"Are there any jobs available?"

And they said, "How soon can you come?"

[Bloom] She became active

in the teachers union.

She took me out on protest marches.

People would scream, "How could you take

your daughter out in the picket line?

What kind of person are you?"

Both I and Gloria were born

into a pre-feminist era.

We probably

both were rebelling secretly,

hoping no one would notice.

[laughs]

At New York Magazine,

my male colleagues would say,

"You write like a man,"

and I would say, "Thank you."

[laughs]

You know, all the things you do

when you think

you're just striving to be

the lucky exception.

We benefited from other women

telling the truth

about what was happening to them,

and realizing that,

"Hey, wait a minute, you know,

we are not crazy, the system is crazy."

[Allred] This was a whole new world

opening up to me.

A lot of people were afraid

to be called a "feminist".

They thought that was somehow

a bad word.

I wasn't afraid, 'cause I don't--

you know, I think that's a good thing,

to be a feminist.

[Caplan] Through those years,

she taught school in California,

she met Bill Allred,

who was a very successful businessman

who believed in her.

He loved her very much.

He wanted her to go to law school

because she had become a union organizer,

and I think he recognized

that she just-- she had this power.

We had Constitutional Law together,

the three of us,

and abortion came in in that context.

The Supreme Court today ruled

that abortion

is completely a private matter

to be decided by mother and doctor

in the first three months

of pregnancy.

[Maroko] Professor Ogren was quite

conservative and a devout Catholic ,

and Gloria, all 80 or 90 pounds of her,

with her short, little haircut,

she was relentless

at challenging Professor Ogren,

raising her hand when, you know,

and demanding to be called upon.

It was like, "Who is this little person?"

I mean, that's how I met her.

You know, Gloria's personality

was very outgoing.

She had that kind of sense of going out,

and getting business,

and interacting with people.

Michael and I are a little more reserved.

For us, I mean, I think I could-- I could

have survived these last 40 years

with 100 business cards,

I'd probably still have ten.

She was very confident

that we would be successful,

even though, in all candor,

I don't think we had a clue as to what

kind of law we were going to practice

or what would be

the basis of our business

and what business would come in.

We really didn't know.

-What do we want?

-ERA!

-When do we want it?

-Now!

-What do we want?

-ERA!

-When do we want it?

-Now!

[Allred] After I started practicing law,

I started going to meetings

in support the Equal Rights Amendment.

And then I decided

it was time to volunteer

some time

to the National Organization for Women.

The history books tell us

women were given the right to vote,

and that's not so,

because women fought hard for that right.

[Allred] Jerry Brown

had just been elected governor.

They said to me,

"He has promised to appoint

more women judges,

and he's not keeping his promise.

So we want to do a news conference,

and we want you to do that, Gloria."

And I said, "Well, why me?

I wouldn't know what to say,

I wouldn't know where to go.

Why would anybody come?"

The governor promised some time ago

to meet

with the National Organization for Women.

They said,

"Don't worry about any of that."

[Reporter] The governor

apparently got an earful.

After an hour and a half,

the governor and some of the women

came out for a breather.

We feel we've had an opportunity today

by meeting with him

to make him aware

of some more specific problems

that perhaps he was not

as aware of before.

On the other hand, many of us feel

that not enough has been done

in the area of appointments of women.

We only have 30 percent

of all of our appointments,

and women are 50.8 percent

of the California population,

so we have a long way to go.

[Allred] And it resulted

in a lot of attention,

and the governor appointed

some more women judges.

And then, after that, the press started

coming to me about other issues.

Throughout the years,

women'scontributions

have not been commemorated

on Memorial Day.

[Allred] Sometimes press would come

and they would want an interview

on certain subjects having

to do with women's rights.

There were very few people

that I could identify

as women's rights lawyers at the time.

Actually, I don't think I knew any.

"Okay, well, I don't know

who to refer them to,

so I guess I'll just try to learn

about the subject.

Then I'll do it."

I thought to myself,

"What should I be like?"

And I decided

that I should be strong,

that I should show no fear.

I started appearing on talk shows.

Let me just say this.

Let's think about who the real victims

of denial of federal funds

for abortions are.

At that time, that was the only way

that we could even discuss women's rights.

Gloria has a point, she...

I just think that it's so important

to these children

the Equal Rights Amendment be passed

so these women can be paid

what they deserve finally.

[Allred] Often, my opponent on those shows

was Mary Schmitz.

-Oh, excuse me. You, yes?

-I'm Mary Schmitz.

And I'd just like to say

on that issue again

that this has become really a fraud

for women because...

Oh! Mary Schmitz.

And we actually knew the Schmitzes,

and they--

they were actually

very nice people, but...

very hard right, anti-women's rights,

anti-choice.

Why can't we teach these children

and bring some religion

back into their lives,

that sex without marriage

is not the accepted way of life.

The military has always had regulations

opposing homosexuality.

They have these for a reason.

You want to send your best abroad.

This lady over here is sort of sitting

in shock at what you're saying.

I think she wants to turn the clock back

at least 500 years.

And I think this is the 20th century,

we're going to bring everyone

in line with the 20th century.

[cheers and applause]

[Bloom] For my mom to take the stance

that she took,

she took a huge amount of heat for it.

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