Schenken Suzanne O’Dea. From Suffrage to the Senate: An Encyclopedia of American Women in Politics (2 Volumes)

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beings to register and vote. I never knew we could vote before. Nobody

ever told us.”

With seventeen others, Hamer attempted to register on 31 August

1962, but she failed to pass the oral examination on a technical legal ques-

tion regarding de facto laws. As the group returned to Ruleville on a pri-

vate bus, police stopped the group because the private bus that was trans-

porting them was too yellow and allegedly could be confused with a

school bus. The police arrested and jailed them, and a local judge fined

them and then released them. When Hamer finally got home, the owner

of the plantation on which she lived told her to stop her registration at-

tempts. She explained that she was not attempting to register for his ben-

efit but for her own. The owner evicted her and her family that night.

Hamer told the members of the Ruleville Baptist Church her story, saying:

“They kicked me off the plantation, they set me free. It’s the best thing that

could happen. Now I can work for my people.” After repeated attempts to

tration test but still could not vote. She had not paid the poll tax the pre-

vious two years, which she had been prohibited from paying because she

was not a registered voter. Recognizing the power of Hamer’s presence on

an audience, her intelligence, and her leadership, SNCC leaders recruited

her to be a movement speaker.

On 9 June 1963, Hamer and other civil rights workers were on a bus

returning home from a workshop in Charleston, South Carolina, when

Hamer, Fannie Lou Townsend 315

Fannie Lou Hamer,

voting rights activist,

testified before the

credentials committee

at the Democratic

National Convention,

1964 (Library of

Congress)

they attempted to integrate the bus station in Winona, Mississippi. Ar-

rested and jailed, they were beaten by law enforcement officers, who then

commanded other inmates to continue the attacks. Hamer was beaten on

her head, upper back, lower back, buttocks, legs, and feet. For the rest of

her life, Hamer suffered from a blood clot that affected her sight in one eye

and damage to her kidneys. The Justice Department filed civil and crimi-

nal charges against the officers, but all were found not guilty. The civil

rights workers were each convicted of disorderly conduct and resisting ar-

rest and fined.

In 1964, Hamer and other civil rights leaders sought ways to break

through the race barriers in Mississippi’s Democratic Party. Hamer en-

tered the party’s primary as a candidate for Congress, knowing that she

would not win. Another strategy was the creation of the Mississippi Free-

dom Democratic Party (MFDP), an alternative to the white party organi-

zation. The MFDP held precinct, county, and state conventions to elect

delegates to the Democratic National Convention to be held that summer,

intending to challenge the all-white Mississippi delegation’s credentials.

Throughout the summer, Hamer and her colleagues were kept under sur-

veillance by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

When Hamer testified before the Democratic National Convention’s

credentials committee, she told the story of her attempts to register, her

work to help other African Americans register to vote, the threats of vio-

lence, and the horror of the beating she had endured. She had hoped that

her testimony would influence not only the credentials committee but

also expose the nation to the injustices under which African Americans

lived in the South. She wept in frustration and anger when she learned

that President Lyndon Johnson had called an impromptu press conference

to preempt her testimony and that the television networks had broadcast

his conference instead of her testimony. That evening, however, television

networks repeatedly replayed her testimony, and her words electrified the

nation as she pleaded for justice.

Excluded from the negotiations that followed the MFDP’s testimony,

she refused to accept the agreement that male civil rights leaders had

reached with Democratic Party officials to seat two MFDP delegates and

permit the rest of the delegates to watch the convention. She asked the cre-

dentials committee: “Do you think I came here to compromise and to sit

in the back seat at this convention? ...There’s got to be a change, not only

for the people in the U.S. but all over the world.” The convention seated

the white delegation in 1964.

In 1968 Hamer was one of the twenty-two African American dele-

gates seated at the Democratic National Convention. At the 1972 conven-

tion, Hamer and Gloria Steinem nominated Frances “Sissy” Farenthold

316 Hamer, Fannie Lou Townsend

for vice president, but the effort failed. In 1975 and 1976, Hamer helped

unite the party in Mississippi, resulting in an integrated delegation to the

1976 Democratic National Convention.

Hamer also continued her work on the local level. In 1969, she

founded Freedom Farm, a nonprofit effort to help needy families raise

food and livestock. The organization also offered social services, minority

business opportunities, and scholarships and educational grants. When

the county in which she lived refused to develop an effective school de-

segregation plan, Hamer filed a class action lawsuit in 1970 and won.

Hamer unsuccessfully ran for the Mississippi state senate in 1971.

Despite the injustices she experienced, Hamer refused to hate white

people, saying: “I feel sorry for anybody that could let hate wrap them up.

Ain’t no such thing as I can hate anybody and hope to see God’s face.”

See also Civil Rights Movement, Women in the; Democratic Party, Women in

the; Farenthold, Frances (Sissy) Talton; Steinem, Gloria Marie

References Mills, This Little Light of Mine: The Life of Fannie Lou Hamer (1993);

New York Times, 16 March 1977.

Hansen, Julia Caroline Butler (1907–1988)

Democrat Julia Hansen of Washington served in the U.S. House of Repre-

sentatives from 8 November 1960 to 31 December 1974. Hansen served on

the Cathlamet, Washington, City Council from 1938 to 1946 and in the

state House of Representatives from 1939 to 1960, where she was speaker

pro tempore from 1955 to 1960. She developed expertise in transportation

issues and chaired the Western Interstate Committee on Highway Policies

from 1951 to 1960.

When the incumbent member of Congress died in office, Hansen ran

for and won the seat as well as election for a full term. The first woman to

serve on the Appropriations Committee, she was also the first woman to

chair an Appropriations subcommittee. As chair of the subcommittee that

controlled funding for the Interior Department, she became one of the

most influential members of Congress. Her subcommittee dealt with allo-

cations to the National Park Service, the Bureau of Mines, and the Bureau

of Indian Affairs. Of the issues addressed in her subcommittee, the plight

of Native Americans drew most of her attention, prompting her to travel

to observe their living conditions. She declined to run for an eighth term.

Born in Portland, Oregon, Julia Hansen attended Oregon State Col-

lege from 1924 to 1926. Working as a dietitian and swimming instructor,

she supported herself as she pursued her degree at the University of Wash-

ington, earning it in 1930. Hansen served a six-year term on the Washing-

ton State Toll Bridge Authority beginning in 1975 and chaired the Wash-

ington State Transportation Commission from 1979 to 1980.

Hansen, Julia Caroline Butler 317

See also Congress, Women in; State Legislatures, Women in

References Office of the Historian, U.S. House of Representatives, Women in

Congress, 1917–1990 (1991); Schoenebaum, ed., Political Profiles: The

Nixon/Ford Years (1979).

Harden, Cecil Murray (1894–1984)

Republican Cecil Harden of Indiana served in the U.S. House of Repre-

sentatives from 3 January 1949 to 3 January 1959. Harden became in-

volved in Republican Party politics in 1932, serving as a precinct vice

committeewoman. She chaired the Fountain County Republican Party

from 1938 to 1950 and was Republican national committeewoman for In-

diana from 1944 to 1959 and from 1964 to 1972. Congresswoman Harden

obtained congressional approval for flood control and recreational proj-

ects in her district. After losing her attempt for a sixth term, Harden was

the special assistant for women’s affairs to the postmaster general from

1959 to 1961. She served on the National Advisory Committee for the

White House Conference on Aging in 1970.

Born in Covington, Indiana, Harden attended the University of Indi-

ana and taught in public schools from 1912 to 1914.

See also Congress, Women in

References Office of the Historian, U.S. House of Representatives, Women in

Congress, 1917–1990 (1991); H. W. Wilson, Current Biography: Who’s News and

Why, 1949 (1949).

Harman, Jane Frank (b. 1945)

Democrat Jane Harman of California served in the U.S. House of Repre-

sentatives from 3 January 1993 to 3 January 1999. She began her political

career as chief legislative assistant to a senator and then served as chief

counsel and staff director to the Senate Judiciary Committee on constitu-

tional rights from 1975 to 1977. She was hired as deputy secretary to the

White House cabinet from 1977 to 1978 and special counsel to the De-

partment of Defense until 1979, when she went into corporate law. Har-

man was counsel for the Democratic Platform Committee in 1984 and

chaired the Democratic National Committee’s National Lawyers’ Counsel

from 1986 to 1990.

Congresswoman Harman introduced and successfully managed an

amendment to fully fund the C-17 cargo plane and secured funding for

the F/A-18 Milstar satellite, measures important to her district’s aerospace

industry. She led the fight to keep the Los Angeles Air Force Base open and

supported innovative defense conversion, reinvestment, and transition

projects.

318 Harden, Cecil Murray

The daughter of immigrants and a member of a House task force on

immigration, Harman successfully fought reductions in the number of le-

gal immigrants admitted to the United States each year, saying that “legal

immigration is the lifeblood of the country, enriching it both economi-

cally and culturally.”

She cosponsored the Freedom of Choice Act and the Freedom of Ac-

cess to Clinic Entrances Act of 1994 and played a leading role in the in-

vestigations of sexual misconduct in the military. She has supported

deficit reduction, term limits, tough crime laws, and investments in tech-

nology and children. In 1998, Harman was a candidate for governor of

California but lost in the primary election.

Born in New York, New York, and raised in Los Angeles, Jane Har-

man received her bachelor’s degree from Smith College in 1966 and her

law degree from Harvard University in 1969.

See also Abortion; Congress, Women in; Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances

Act of 1994; Military, Women in the

References Congressional Quarterly, Politics in America 1994 (1993), Politics in

America 1998 (1997); www.house.gov/harman/.

Harriman, Pamela Beryl Digby Churchill Hayward (1920–1997)

A devoted Democrat who helped rebuild her party in the 1980s, Pamela

Harriman served as U.S. ambassador to France from 1993 to 1997. A

wealthy socialite first known for her ability to entertain, Harriman devel-

oped a base of power and influence through her willingness to contribute

money to the Democratic Party and related groups and through her skill

for raising funds for those interests.

Born in Kent, England, Harriman was the daughter of a baron. She

received her education at a finishing school in Paris. In 1939, Harriman

married Randolph Churchill, one of Winston Churchill’s sons. Through

her father-in-law, Pamela gained access to the inner circles of British pol-

itics and became acquainted with U.S. political and military leaders who

were frequent visitors during World War II. Entertaining international

leaders became a part of her life when she was a young woman. Divorced

in 1945, she married Leland Hayward in 1959. A Broadway producer, Hay-

ward introduced Pamela Harriman to U.S. entertainment figures, and

again she was an active hostess.

She married former New York governor W. Averell Harriman in

1971, became a naturalized U.S. citizen, and through her husband became

active in the Democratic Party. After President Jimmy Carter and several

Democratic members of Congress lost their races in 1980, Pamela Harri-

man sought ways to rejuvenate the party. Harriman held a series of issues

dinners to discuss and develop strategies and started a political action

Harriman, Pamela Beryl Digby Churchill Hayward 319

committee (PAC) named “Democrats for the 80s,” raising $1.3 million in

its first two years. When she disbanded the PAC in 1990, she had raised

$12 million with it. The party rewarded her with an invitation to address

its 1984 national convention. Gloria Steinem introduced her at the con-

vention as “the woman who proved that all feminists don’t have to wear

combat boots,” a reference to Harriman’s elegance and grace. In 1986,

Averell Harriman died, but Pamela Harriman continued her interest in

party politics and renewed her interest in foreign policy.

When Bill Clinton, who had attended one of her issues dinners, ran

for president in 1992, she gave him her support, primarily by raising

money for his campaign. Clinton showed his appreciation by appointing

her ambassador to France. Harriman dealt in international trade issues,

North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) expansion, and the General

Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) negotiations. When disagree-

ments over farm and audiovisual trade matters created uncommonly high

levels of irritation between the United States and France, Harriman’s fa-

miliarity with French life and culture helped resolve the differences. She

described her role: “I was a sort of messenger going back and forth, ex-

plaining to Washington why the French think and argue the way they do

and also in the other direction, telling the French why our farmers are just

as important to us as theirs are to them.”

See also Democratic Party, Women in the; Steinem, Gloria Marie

References New York Times, 2 March 1977, 1 October 1982, 6 February 1997;

Smith, Reflected Glory: The Life of Pamela Churchill Harriman (1997).

Harris, LaDonna (b. 1931)

An advocate for Native Americans, LaDonna Harris founded Americans

for Indian Opportunity in 1970. She advocates the development of poli-

cies that recognize the government-to-government relationship between

federal agencies and Native American tribes. Through a leadership pro-

gram that she developed, Harris uses traditional tribal values to prepare a

new generation of tribal leaders.

Harris became politically active when her husband Fred Harris en-

tered the Senate in 1965. She organized the first intertribal organization in

Oklahoma, Oklahomans for Indian Opportunity, bringing together sixty

tribes for economic development. The first U.S. senator’s wife to testify

before a congressional committee, she helped return Blue Lake to the peo-

ple of Taos Pueblo and helped the Menominee Tribe regain federal recog-

nition. President Lyndon Johnson appointed LaDonna Harris to the Na-

tional Council on Indian Opportunity in 1968, but she resigned, saying

that federal agencies were not responding quickly enough to proposals to

assist Native Americans.

320 Harris, LaDonna

Disillusioned with President Jimmy Carter’s social policies, she ac-

cepted the Citizens Party’s nomination for vice president in 1980. Harris

shared the party’s positions on environmental protection and social and

economic justice. Realizing that her candidacy and that of her running

mate, Barry Commoner, had little chance for success, LaDonna Harris

said: “You do things symbolically so people become used to seeing women

in these positions.”

Harris was born in Temple, Oklahoma, and raised by her Comanche

grandparents. She was a founder of the National Women’s Political Cau-

cus and served on its national board for several years. She also served on

the National Commission on the Observance of International Women’s

Year.

See also Deer, Ada Elizabeth; National Women’s Political Caucus

References Bataille, ed., Native American Women (1993); New York Times, 11

July 1970, 27 October 1980.

Harris, Patricia Roberts (1924–1985)

Patricia Roberts Harris served as secretary of the Department of Housing

and Urban Development and as secretary of the Department of Health

and Human Services. She began her public service career as ambassador

to Luxembourg from 1965 to 1967, the first female African American am-

bassador to represent the United States.

In 1977, President Jimmy Carter appointed her secretary of the U.S.

Department of Housing and Urban Development. During her confirma-

tion hearings, Democratic senator William Proxmire of Wisconsin ques-

tioned whether she would be able to defend the interests of the poor. Har-

ris responded:

I am one of them. You do not seem to understand who I am. I

am a black woman, the daughter of a dining car worker. I am a

black woman who could not buy a house eight years ago in

parts of the District of Columbia. I didn’t start out as a mem-

ber of a prestigious law firm, but as a woman who needed a

scholarship to go to school. If you think that I have forgotten

that, you are wrong.

She served as head of the department until 1979. When the U.S. Depart-

ment of Health, Education, and Welfare was reorganized as the Depart-

ment of Health and Human Services, Harris became its first secretary,

serving from 1979 to 1981.

Born in Mattoon, Illinois, Patricia Harris earned her bachelor’s de-

gree from Howard University in 1945, did postgraduate work at the Uni-

versity of Chicago from 1945 to 1947 and at American University from

Harris, Patricia Roberts 321

1949 to 1950, and received her law degree from George Washington Uni-

versity in 1960. Program director at the Chicago Young Women’s Chris-

tian Association from 1946 to 1949, Harris was also assistant director for

the American Council of Human Rights from 1953 to 1959 and a research

associate at George Washington University from 1959 to 1960. After work-

ing as a trial attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice from 1960 to

1961, she taught law at Howard University from 1961 to 1965 and from

1967 to 1969, the year she became dean of the university’s law school.

See also Cabinets, Women in Presidential

References H. W. Wilson, Current Biography 1965 (1965); New York Times, 14

October 1971, 24 March 1985; Smith, ed., Epic Lives (1993).

Harris v. Forklift Systems (1993)

The U.S. Supreme Court decided in Harris v. Forklift Systems that an em-

ployee does not need to show serious psychological damage or other in-

jury to prove sexual harassment as prohibited by Title VII of the Civil

Rights Act of 1964. The decision made it easier to prove the hostility, abu-

siveness, or offensiveness of a workplace.

Teresa Harris claimed that her employer asked women employees to

retrieve items from his front pants pocket, dropped items on the floor and

asked women to pick them up, and called a female employee “a dumb ass

woman.” In addition, her employer insulted Harris because of her gender

and subjected her to sexual comments. Harris did not claim that she suf-

fered psychological damage or was unable to perform her job, but she did

insist that the employer’s behavior created a hostile environment. The

Court agreed, saying that “Title VII comes into play before the harassing

conduct leads to a nervous breakdown.”

See also Civil Rights Act of 1964, Title VII; Sexual Harassment

References Fallon, “Sexual Harassment” (1995); Hoff, Law, Gender, and Injustice

(1991).

Harris v. McRae (1980)

In Harris v. McRae, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Medicaid does not

require states to pay for medically necessary abortions. The case resulted

from passage of the Hyde Amendment of 1976, which prohibited the use

of Medicaid funds to pay for abortions except to save the life of the mother

or for victims of rape or incest. The constitutionality of the prohibition

was challenged on the grounds that it violated the due process clause of the

Fifth Amendment and the religion clauses of the First Amendment.

The Court found that the Hyde Amendment does not place govern-

mental obstacles before a woman seeking an abortion and that a woman’s

322 Harris v. Forklift Systems

freedom of choice does not include a constitutional entitlement to finan-

cial resources to exercise her right. The statutory issue was whether the

Medicaid Act requires a state to fund the cost of medically necessary abor-

tions for which federal reimbursement is unavailable under the Hyde

Amendment. The constitutional issue was whether the Hyde Amendment,

by denying public funding for certain medically necessary abortions, in-

terferes with the equal protection guarantees of the due process clause of

the Fifth Amendment or the religion clauses of the First Amendment. The

Court decided that the Hyde Amendment does not violate the establish-

ment clause of the First Amendment, even though the funding restric-

tions reflect the religious tenets of the Roman Catholic Church.