We lost two trailblazers this past week. Ethel Kennedy, 96, died Oct. 10 in Boston and Lilly Ledbetter, 86, died Oct. 12 in Alabama. The two women left their mark in numerous ways but are probably most known for their strength and fighting spirit on behalf of the marginalized. It is their grit that will be remembered in future history books.
Following her husband Bobby’s 1968 assassination on the presidential campaign trail, Ethel publicly stated that she would never marry again, wanting to focus on “furthering his work and legacy,” not to mention raising their 11 children. She founded the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights, now known as Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, and later, with a renewed commitment to public service, focused much of her time and energy on various social causes.
I’ll never forget February of 1993 when Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, the eldest of Bobby and Ethel’s children, spent the day in Livingston, visiting with a wide variety of people. Yes, Livingston, Texas. And yes – in what was my closest brush with a Kennedy then or since – I was there, covering it for the paper.
At the time, she was involved in numerous education-related endeavors, including serving as director of the Student Service Alliance for the Maryland State Department of Education. She was in town at the invitation of Livingston ISD, primarily to conduct a staff development seminar. Taking advantage of her experience in the education field, Townsend was also invited to address several other groups, including students and local civic clubs.
She spent part of the morning visiting with students in government, economics and history classes at Livingston High School, where she asked students to identify their most important local issues. Racism, drug abuse, teen pregnancy and lack of teen recreation opportunities topped their list. Her advice? Form lobby groups and “go after it.” She offered an example of kindergarteners becoming involved with senior citizens and the homeless, doing what they can to help, and then writing their congressman as a group showing what they had done and asking, “What have you done for them?”
Stressing the importance of student service in the community in building competent and productive adults, Townsend reminded listeners, “No one is born with the knowledge that we all have the responsibility to give something back to the community, so they must learn. Young people can make a difference in the community if adults are willing to say to them ‘Join us, we want your input.’”
I became acquainted – figuratively, not personally – with Lilly Ledbetter years later when I joined the Polk County Branch of American Association of University Women. An ardent equal pay advocate and tireless in her fight, Lilly’s plight embodied the crux of what AAUW members advocate for – equal pay, equity in education, paid leave and protections against sexual harassment to name a few.
Lilly is the namesake for a historic piece of legislation aimed at protecting workers from pay discrimination, the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009. Thirty years earlier, in 1979, Lilly was hired by Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. and worked as a supervisor. Nearing retirement after 19 years, she received an anonymous note revealing that she was making thousands less per year than the men in her same position.
She filed a sex discrimination lawsuit against Goodyear and initially won her case, but the judgment was reversed on appeal by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. The lawsuit eventually reached the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled against her because she did not file suit 180 days from the date of the discriminatory policy that led to her reduced paycheck, though the paycheck itself was issued during the 180-day period.
The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act was President Barack Obama’s first official piece of legislation as president. The act amends Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and states that the 180-day statute of limitations for filing an equal-pay lawsuit regarding pay discrimination resets with each new paycheck affected by that discriminatory action. The bill, he said, was intended to send a clear message; a message “that making our economy work means making sure it works for everybody.
“Lilly Ledbetter did not set out to be a trailblazer or a household name,” Obama said in his address after signing the legislation. “She was just a good hard worker who did her job – and did it well – for nearly two decades before discovering that, for years, she was paid less than her male colleagues for the very same work.”
Subsequently, Lilly became a women’s equality activist, public speaker and author and in 2011, she was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame.
Just as Sir Isaac Newton said, “If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants,” any progress that has been made has resulted from those before us fighting the battles and paving the way. It’s time to pick up the torch – for our children, our grandchildren and the descendants we’ll never know.
