A Festive Rally for the ERA

Then a day of lobbying to change Congressmen's minds

Alice Paul, the founder of the National Woman's Party, and 5,000 fellow suffragists grimly marched down Washington's Pennsylvania Avenue one day in 1913, demanding the right to vote. They were stopped in front of the National Archives Building by a mob of angry bystanders who slapped them, spit on them and burned them with lighted cigars.

Last week 65,000 supporters of the Equal Rights Amendment, most of them women, retraced the steps of that historic march. This time the mood was festive: marching to spirited calliope music, the amendment's supporters joyfully waved banners and shouted slogans.

It was the largest rally ever held for women's rights, and its purpose was to urge Congressmen to extend the March 22, 1979, deadline for ratification of ERA. Without an extension, most supporters fear, the amendment will die, three states short of the 38 needed for ratification. They argue that since the Constitution sets no time limit on the ratification of amendments, the seven-year deadline set by Congress in 1972 for ERA is arbitrary and unfair.

ERA'S supporters gathered with a strong sense of urgency. One Philadelphia woman had organized a caravan of 51 buses carrying 2,200 people; another brought four generations of her family, including her 70-year-old mother, three daughters and an 18-month-old granddaughter.

The following day about 2,000 of the marchers stayed to lobby House Judiciary Committee members, who must first approve the extension bill before it can be sent to the House floor for action. Many of them found it a frustrating experience. When 100 ERA supporters confronted New York Republican Hamilton Fish Jr., for instance, he said he had to do more research on whether extending the deadline would be constitutional. He added: "I have to put the Constitution of the United States ahead of any group's goals." Replied Carol Sharnoff of Long Island, N.Y.: "I'm outraged by what's going on here. If the experts can't give you an answer [on the constitutional question], look to the people of this country, and we'll give you an answer."

A group of men and women also called on Republican Senator Richard Schweiker of Pennsylvania. He was not in the office, so the visitors replied that they would wait until he returned. When a male aide tried to soothe them, Barbara Evans-Crawford, president of the Pittsburgh Council for Women's Rights, shot back: "Don't you dare tell me you know how I feel. You were born with rights I have been working for for ten years." Schweiker did not show up, and the group finally left.

But there also was some good news for the lobbyists: a message of support from President Carter, who called ERA "a bedrock" of opportunity for women and minorities. It was also reported that during an hour-long phone call, Betty Ford had persuaded a member of the House Judiciary Committee, Republican Harold Sawyer of Michigan, not to block the bill. Led by Helen Milliken, wife of Michigan's Governor, a group of ERA supporters later met with Sawyer to congratulate him on his decision.

All week the committee's lineup on the extension bill seesawed back and forth. The vote is scheduled for this week, and whatever the outcome, the measure will probably win or lose by only one or two votes.

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