When not at San Diego State College, or working, I volunteered for Muskie. No one was more surprised than me, when I was made a delegate to the 1972 Democratic Convention!Until 1972, 18 year olds were deemed mature enough for war drafts, but not to vote. As a volunteer I registered hundreds of new voters, when none of us were deemed smart enough to register ourselves. Few voted, though eligible, because those certified to register us were not easily found.
Stephen Reinhardt led the fight to assure that our delegation to the 1972 Democratic Convention reflected the state’s sex, race and economic diversity. His lifetime commitment to an America made greater by social and economic justice continues as a Federal Judge on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
I was the Southern California Co-ordinator of the National Boycott of J.P. Stevens products. In 1977, J.P. Stevens was America’s second largest textile manufacturer, employing 44,000 workers in 85 plants throughout the South, mostly women. They were also our number one corporate law-breaker – guilty of violating the National Labor Relations Act more times than any other company in US history. They paid 31% less than the average national manufacturing wage.
The plight of their southern mill workers, mostly women, was exposed in the academy award winning film Norma Rae starring Sally Fields.