Papers of Mary Lee Sargent, 1982-2004

Mary Lee Sargent, daughter of Benjamin Calvin and Dorothy Herold Sargent, was born in September 1940, in McAllen, Texas, and raised in Dallas. She received a BA in history from Southern Methodist University (1962) and an MA (1964) from the University of Texas at Austin, where she also completed course work towards a PhD. From 1968 to 2001, she was a professor of history and women's studies at Parkland College in Champaign, Illinois. Following her retirement from teaching, she remained with the college as the Director of the Office of Women's Programs until 2003.

An active campaigner for women's and LGBTQ rights, Sargent was a cofounder of Women Rising in Resistance, Grassroots Group of Second Class Citizens, the 85% Coalition, Women Against Racism, and the Susan B. Anthony Memorial Committee. She also served on the boards of the Greater Community AIDS Project, Women for Habitat for Humanity, Grand Prairie Friends, and A Woman's Place of Champaign.

Grassroots Group of Second Class Citizens was founded in December 1981 to plan a series of direct actions in support of the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment in Illinois. Illinois was one of three states needed for ERA ratification before the June 30, 1982, deadline. During their "Day of Rebellion for ERA" on June 3rd, 150 supporters rallied at the capitol rotunda and 17 chained themselves to a railing; they occupied the capitol for four days; disrupted sessions of the legislature, held sit-ins at the offices of the Governor and Speaker of the House; and held a chain-in at the Governor's office door, for which members of GGSCC were found in contempt of court for violating an injunction barring the group from wearing chains in the Capitol. On June 25th when the ERA was voted down in the Illinois Senate, GGSCC members wrote the names of the Governor and anti-ERA legislators in blood on the marble floors in front of the legislative chambers. Blood was used to symbolize the death of ERA and the blood of women who suffer without legal equality. They were arrested and served four days in jail. The group continued to demonstrate for the rights of women and lesbians, and for peace and other causes until 1993.

After the defeat of the ERA, members of the Grassroots Group of Second Class Citizens joined other feminists to form Women Rising in Resistance, a network of affinity groups and individual activists who created direct action demonstrations for lesbian/feminist/womanist/pacifist/radical causes and issues. Actions taken under the organization's name include Halloween witch trials in which men and corporations were found guilty of crimes against women, children, and the poor; sit-ins at political campaign headquarters; protests for lesbian rights; and protests against pornography in which women in 50 cities destroyed, vomited on, and ripped up Penthouse and Hustler magazines in pornography outlets. In 1985 and 1986, Women Rising in Resistance organized Women Take Liberty in '86 in which approximately 300 women occupied the circular stairway inside the Statue of Liberty for an hour singing Naomi Littlebear's "You Can't Kill the Spirit." In defiance of the National Park Service's regulations, several affinity groups also draped banners on the pedestal of the Statue. Other activities included hourly encirclements of the Statue, passing a petition demanding that the United States government give the monument to women to compensate for failing to pass the ERA, and a rally at Liberty State Park.