Who was Bella Abzug?
Abzug was born in the Bronx in 1920 to Russian Jewish immigrants. She graduated from Hunter College and Columbia Law School and worked as a labor lawyer, including defending clients accused of communist sympathies in the McCarthy era. She co-founded Women Strike for Peace in 1961. Elected to Congress from Manhattan in 1970, she served until 1977. She later lost races for the Senate and for mayor, chaired the 1977 National Women's Conference and founded the Women's Environment and Development Organization. She died in March 1998.
Political views
- On her first day in Congress in 1971 she introduced a bill to remove all U.S. troops from Vietnam.Source: biography.com
- She co-founded Women Strike for Peace in 1961, which opposed nuclear testing and later the Vietnam War, and she played a key role in a bill that defunded the war.Source: pbs.org
- She was among the first politicians to call for the impeachment of President Richard Nixon.Source: history.house.gov
- She co-authored a comprehensive childcare bill with Shirley Chisholm in 1971, which Nixon vetoed.Source: pbs.org
- In 1974 she introduced the Equal Credit Opportunity Act so that women could obtain credit in their own names.Source: pbs.org
- She introduced a bill to bar discrimination based on sexual or affectional preference by amending the Civil Rights Act of 1964.Source: history.house.gov
- In 1975 she chaired a subcommittee that uncovered intelligence surveillance of her.Source: pbs.org
- In 1979 she was removed as co-chair of President Carter's National Advisory Committee for Women after criticizing the administration's economic policies.Source: history.house.gov
Legacy
Admirers remember Abzug as a pioneering feminist in Congress who fought for peace, open government, equal credit and early gay rights bills at a time when such measures were rare in Congress. Her political career also had defeats: she narrowly lost the 1976 Senate primary, the New York City mayoral race in 1977 and later congressional races. President Carter removed her from his women's advisory committee in 1979 after she criticized his economic policy.