coming from martha griffiths, that's high praise. we have a campaign postcard of martha griffiths who was one of the influential woman members from the 19 fifties into the 1970s. she represented in michigan district unlike some of the earlier women here. she's got a lot of experience before she ever comes to congress. she's a lawyer, she serves as a judge in michigan and she's elected to the house and 1954 she comes in a 1955. she too very quickly moves into positions of influence. she's the first woman after a number of women in congress have campaigned with the speaker to get a seat on the very exclusive ways and means committee of the tax committee. from the opposition she really weighs in on a lot of issues affecting women, monetarily. but she's probably best known as the mother of the equal rights amendment. every year she re-introduced the equal rights amendment which has a history in the house and congress going back to 1923. the bill was just stuck in the judiciary committee and it never came out. she was a lawyer by training

iagain, another key legislative action by martha griffiths.s is a campaign poster shirley chisholm, the first african-american woman in congress. i love this because it says unbossed."d but it is for something else entirely. >> it is actually for a presidential campaign she waged in 1972. and she went to the democratic convention and rounded up about 10% of the votes. she is the first african-american woman to run for president, and she did it on a shoestring budget and had a very admirable showing. but she had a reputation, national reputation, well before 1972. she is elected to congress in 1968 from a district that encompasses much of brooklyn. she becomes very prominent in that campaign. her opponent in the general election on the republican, liberal republican ticket, was james farmer, one of the great civil rights leaders. there is this back and forth between these two. farmer runs on and the idea that brooklyn needs a man in congress. and shirley chisolm, she fires back. her campaign theme is like the one expressed on this poster. "unbo

so, here we have a campaign postcard of martha griffiths who was one of the influential women membersthe 1950's into the 1970's. she represented a michigan district. and like some of the earlier women here, like julia butler hansen, she has got a lot of experience. she is a lawyer, she serves as a judge in michigan. and she is elected to the house in 1954 and she comes in in 1955. and she, too, very quickly moves into positions of influence . she is the first woman after a number of women in congress had campaigned with the speaker to get a seat on the very exclusive ways and means committee, the tax committee. and from that position, she really weighs in on a lot of the issues affecting women monetarily, but she is probably best known as the mother of the equal rights amendment. every year, she reintroduced the equal rights amendment, which has a history in congress going back to 1923. and the bill was just stuck in the judiciary committee and it never came out. she was a lawyer by training. she was very critical of the supreme court. she did not think the supreme court was ever goin

and coming from martha griffiths that's high praise. she represented a michigan district and like some of the earlier women here like julia butler hansen she's got a lot of experience before she ever comes to congress. she's a lawyer. she serves as a judge in michigan, and she's elected to the house in 1954. she comes in 1955 and moves into a position of influence. she's the first woman after a number of women in congress had campaigned with the speaker to get a seat on the very exclusive ways and means committee, the tax committee. and from that position she really weighs in on a lot of issues affecting women monetarily, but she's probably best known as the mother of the equal rights amendment. every year she reintroduced the equal rights amendment, which has a history in the house in congress going back to 1923. and the bill was just stuck in the judiciary committee and never came out. she was a lawyer by training. she didn't think the supreme court was ever going to decide a case that would make women truly equal with men, so she got

it is never approved as a constitutional amendment, but martha griffiths was really among a core group of women, that prime mover behind that. in the 1954 civil rights act, she was -- the other thing was the 1954 civil rights act. she was interested in pushing an amendment through that would give women equal rights in terms of employment, but she was very cagey about how she did it. she knew the chairman of the house rules committee, howard smith, who was a committed segregationist, he wanted to act.the 64 civil rights and she caught wind that he was going to introduce an amendment that would introduce sex, the work sex, into an amendment -- amendmentsex" into an that would have provided equal economic opportunity, title vii of the civil rights act. so she held back because she knew that smith could bring a lot of southern votes with him. simply as aed this gimmick to sink the civil rights act. the floor andonto talks about how he wants to insert the word "sex" into the amendment. there is laughter and giggles around the chamber and people guffawing. martha griffiths follows smith up o

martha griffiths, patsy mink, but often, women were, as has been suggested, social workers or they were widows. now, we had a generation of women with the same kind of professional backgrounds that a male candidate might have. and finally, i want to mention that in -- as we were working on the book, we found out there was a series of breakfasts being held in san francisco organized by the women's campaign fund. and they were speeches by women candidates with some of the high flying women in san francisco as the audience. and it was so revealing to go and see all these clearly affluent women who had come together, and there were dozens and dozens of women who attended these breakfasts. the candidate i remember the best was anna eschew, who is still in congress from the peninsula. and so we thought, you know, here you have a generation earlier, you would not have had this kind of a network with women who could write a check for more than $5. so as of 1992, then you had anita hill in '91. you had the fruits of generational change, and you had a large rise, i'll let sue be the impericist an

the equal rights amendment that martha griffith pushed through was supported on both sides. it had huge bipartisan support. now many of those men, primarily men, it was a majority of men who voted for it at that time, they never expected it to come to the floor and to actually have to vote. however, they did vote for it and it had huge bipartisan support. so you can deal with the old equal rights amendment and there will be a court challenge no matter if other states vote for it now and then you also have to ask what happens to the states who rescinded it during that time period because while i got to 35, three states rescinded so maybe they only had 32 states. if you start with a new equal rights amendment, there's no support. no bipartisan support. carolyn maloney from new york has just been valiant. she introduces it. she attempts to get hearings. there were hearings this week, i think, in the judiciary committee. i think it is right. i think there is a constitutional argument to have it happen but we do not have the power to pass it. we don't have power in the congress,

so, again, and key legislative action by m martha griffiths. >> learn more about women in congress sunday at 6:00 p.m. eastern and 3 p.m. pacific here on "american history tv" on ." on "the presidency" a conversation about portraying abraham lincoln on the stage. a ford's theatre director talks with a playwright who wrote "necessary sacrifices" a play about two meetings between lincoln and abolitionist frederick douglas. they are joined by an actress and actor who played lincoln and douglas respectively. >> today we are happy to welcome playwright.