The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) was first introduced in the U.S. Congress in 1923. It was introduced in every session of Congress after that for nearly half a century. In 1971 the House of Representatives approved the proposed amendment. The Senate approved the amendment a year later. The issue was sent to the state legislatures and twenty states ratified the ERA almost immediately (Alaska, Colorado, Delaware, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas, West Virginia, and Wisconsin). In 1973 Connecticut, South Dakota, Oregon, Minnesota, New Mexico, Vermont, Washington, and Wyoming ratified; Nebraska voted to rescind its ratification. Over the next few years, Maine, Montana and Ohio voted to ratify and Tennessee voted to rescind. In an effort to gain the additional three votes necessary for ratification, groups with many pro-ERA supporters boycotted states that had failed to ratify the Amendment. As the deadline for ratification loomed (22 March 1979), Representative Elizabeth Holtzman (D-NY) introduced a bill to extend the deadline for ratification. In October of 1978, Congress set a new deadline for the ERA--30 June 1982. In 1980 Ronald Reagan became the first president since the Equal Rights Amendment was sent to the states to oppose the ERA. On 30 June 1982 the ERA died, falling three states short of the necessary three-fourths ratification.
Beth Leopold worked on the National Organization for Women (NOW) campaign to ratify the ERA. After its defeat, she sought to ensure that the story of the fight for ratification would be preserved and began the Equal Rights Amendment Campaign Archives Project (ERACAP). The goal of the ERACAP was to "collect and process oral history and photographic materials relating to the ERA campaign between the years 1970 and 1982." The focus of the collecting was on the experiences of participants in the local, state, and national levels of the campaign.
The aim of the original project was to interview 150-200 people involved in the pro or anti-ERA work using archival quality open reel audiotape and to make typed transcripts of the interviews. There were also plans to create an index of the subjects covered in the interviews, along with photographs and a directory for additional materials related to the ERA campaign. Because funding for the project ran out in 1984, the oral history interviews were never created; however, Beth Leopold acted as intermediary between the Sophia Smith Collection and two documentary filmmakers to house their tapes and accompanying printed matter within the ERACAP collection. " Who Will Protect the Family? " was completed and aired on PBS in 1982. " Fighting for the Obvious " (Virago Video, 1982) was also completed, but it is uncertain whether it was shown by a major media outlet. In addition, Leopold's own ERA-related material came with the ERACAP materials.
From the guide to the Equal Rights Amendment Campaign Archives Project (ERACAP) Records MS 310., 1970-1985, (Sophia Smith Collection)
