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Clip 2 from interview with Renee Diamond, November 20, 2014

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Audio file
Download jhp000148-002.mp3 (audio/mpeg; 1.63 MB)

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Description

In this clip, Diamond talks about working on the campaign to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment in Nevada.

Digital ID

jhp000148-002
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    Publisher

    University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Libraries

    And then later in the seventies, of course, the Equal Rights Amendment was passed by Congress, but had to be ratified in the states. And so I ran the campaign with Mylan...her name was Roloff then, but it's Hawkins now and she's another Jewish woman. She was in Northern Nevada. I think she's here now. I think she's in Southern Nevada now. I want to say she's in Boulder City, but I'm not sure. I've lost touch with her I'm sorry to say. And she ran the northern part of the state and we were in the southern part. We weren't very sophisticated. We didn't know very much. We didn't know how to canvass. We didn't know anything. But by the seat of our pants we ran the campaign. We expected to lose the Equal Rights Amendment ratification by about two to one because of the very strong Catholic Church and Mormons, Latter Day Saints in the valley who were very opposed to it. There were forums about we'll have to share bathrooms. There was testimony at UNLV in the Flora Dungan Building on that big thing. I mean it was just horrifying. People like me, we'd get up and say, "Well, my husband does the slot count and he's only five seven and slender." What would be the difference if a woman were doing that? It should be on innate talent and ability, not on sex. Anyway, we lost three to one and not two to one.