Part II – 1987

1953 | 1954 | 1955 | 1956 |1957 | 1958 | 1959
1960 | 1961 | 1962 | 1963 | 1964 | 1965 | 1966
1967 | 1968 | 1969 | 19701971 | 1972 | 1973
1974 | 1975 | 1976 | 1977 | 1978 | 1979 | 1980
1981 | 1982 | 1983 | 1984 | 1985 | 1986 | 1987
1988 | 1989 | 1990 | 1991 | 1992 | Epilogue, 1993

Events

NOW’s The Court Watch Project compiled Reagan’s judicial appointment record for 1987: the U.S. Senate confirmed 43 Reagan appointees to the federal bench-33 judges to district courts and 10 judges to the courts of appeals. Of these, 41 were white males, one was a white female, and one an Asian male. By the end of 1987, Reagan appointed and the Senate confirmed 325 federal judges: 278 were white males, only 29 were females, a mere five were black, and none were Hispanic. (1987)

The PTL or “Pearly-Gate” Scandal erupted: the Rev. Jim Bakker resigned his ministry after revelations of a sexual liaison began to discredit the electronic ministries. PTL members had contributed $100 million a year. (03/20/87)

Sounding the death knell for male-only clubs, the U.S. Supreme Court held, 7-0, a California anti-discrimination in public accommodation’s law applied to Rotary Clubs. This ruling, following the 1984 Court ruling that the Jaycees were subject to state anti-discrimination laws, was too much for male-only clubs. U.S. Rotary, Lion, and Kiwanis Clubs all decided to admit women. (03/87)

For the first time in history a feminist political party, The Women’s Alliance of Iceland, won 10% of the popular vote and the balance of power. Party officials set as their price for joining either a right-center, or a left-center coalition to form a government as higher pay for women and improved social services. (04/26/87)

Feminist Nancy Pelosi defeated 13 Democratic opponents in the special Congressional election in San Francisco, CA, by capturing 36% of the vote. Pelosi was considered a sure victor in the run-off to fill the seat left vacant by the death earlier in the year of Congresswoman Sala Burton. (04/10/87)

Organized by NOW and the National Association for Girls and Women in Sport, the Torch Run for Equality from Washington, DC, to the NOW Conference in Philadelphia dramatized the fact that on the 110th anniversary of the U.S. Constitution, women still did not enjoy full legal rights under the Constitution. (07/16/87)

Molly Yard was elected President of NOW together with her whole team of Sheri O’Dell, Action Vice President, Patricia Ireland, Executive Vice President, and Kim Gandy, Secretary, by substantial margins. The NOW conference gave the exploratory Presidential campaign of Rep. Patricia Schroeder, (D-CO) a strong send-off, gathering $350,000 in pledges during a half hour of exciting fundraising. (07/19/87)

The Fund for the Feminist Majority (FFM), an organization committed to empowering women, was founded by Eleanor Smeal, past president of NOW; Peg Yorkin, theatrical producer; Toni Carabillo, past national NOW Vice President; Judith Meuli, past national board member of NOW; and Kathy Spillar, past president of the Los Angeles Chapter of NOW. (07/08/87)

Eleanor Smeal launched FFM’s Feminization of Power campaign and National Tour to inspire unprecedented numbers of feminist candidates to run for public office. The tour, produced by Peg Yorkin, traveled to Los Angeles, San Francisco, Dallas, Houston, Cincinnati, Columbus, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Boston, Miami and throughout Florida- a total of 29 cities. (10/14/87)

The Robert Bork nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court, was defeated 58-42 in the U.S. Senate after an intense campaign by women’s rights and civil rights groups. NOW President Molly Yard testified against the appointment and organized opposition to it from coast to coast. (10/23/87)

Wall Street had its worst day in its entire history when the stock market plunged 508 points, a loss in value nearly double that of the 1929 “crash.” (10/19/87)

President Reagan nominated Judge Anthony Kennedy of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in his third attempt to appoint a replacement for Justice Lewis Powell. NOW President Molly Yard declared the organization’s opposition to Kennedy’s nomination, citing his decisions in cases concerning comparable worth and the right to privacy as well as his membership in men-only clubs. (11/11/87)


Lifestyles

A resolution sponsored by Rep. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) in the House and Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) in the Senate designating March as “Women’s History Month” passed both houses of Congress without debate. (01/87)

Faced with an organized assault from a coalition of New Right organizations and the national business community on the Family and Medical Leave Act, National NOW launched “The Great American Mother’s Day Write-In” as a counter-campaign to push for Congressional passage of this bill. NOW President Eleanor Smeal testified on behalf of all women’s groups for the Medical Leave Act and asked for paid leave. (04/87)

Edith Green, former school teacher, member of Congress (D-OR) for 10 terms (1954-1974), principal author of Title IX – federal legislation banning sex discrimination in federally-funded educational programs – and sponsor of the 1963 Equal Pay Act, died on April 21 in Oregon. (04/21/87)

The Maryland State Senate voted 27-20 to repeal that state’s statute which made sodomy a crime. The legislation was referred to the House of Delegates. Maryland NOW took the lead in calling for the repeal effort and was instrumental in forming the Maryland Committee for Personal Privacy, a statewide advocacy group. (1987)

A three-judge panel of the D.C. Court of Appeals upheld a D.C. Superior Court order forcing a Caesarean section operation on Angela Carder, a 27-year old woman terminally ill with cancer at George Washington University Hospital, against her wishes, against her family’s wishes, and against the advice of her physician’s and that of the hospital’s obstetrics staff. She died two days later; so did the fetus. (06/87)

A Harris poll showed opposition to a Constitutional amendment banning abortion had increased by seven points since 1986 and stood 62% opposed versus 33% in favor. The Harris poll and New York Times/CBS polls (May, 1987) showed ERA support was at a record high of 75%. The Harris poll revealed that an amazing 84%-14% majority supported pay equity measures for women while 68%-25% supported federal affirmative action laws in employment. (07/87)

The National Gay and Lesbian Rights March drew 500,000 to Washington, DC. More than 5 times the size of the 1979 lesbian and gay rights march, it was ignored by Congress a few days later when it passed repressive Helms and Dannemeyer amendments restricting AIDS spending. NOW facilitators aided the march and NOW President Eleanor Smeal spoke. (10/87)

A Times-Mirror survey conducted by Gallup disclosed that feminists (women’s rights supporters) were a majority. The study found feminists to be 51% of the electorate while only 31% were Republicans, 44% Democrats, 34% liberals, and 45% conservatives. (09/87)

Southwest Indiana NOW forced the Evansville, IN post office to eject an anti-abortion group which the post office had allowed to use lobby space for fundraising. At the invitation of the local postal authorities, the group was wrapping and mailing packages for the general public and charging a fee for their services. (11/30)

As in 1986, 1985, and 1984, Rep. Rose Mary Oakar’s (D-OH) pay equity bill, Rep. Patricia Schroeder’s (D-CO) Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), and the Civil Rights Restoration Act were blocked. The FMLA moved out of the House committee only after it was severely compromised. The Equal Rights Amendment was introduced as was the “Act for Better Child Care Services of 1987.” The latter was the first comprehensive child care legislation to be introduced in Congress since the 1971 legislation vetoed by Nixon. (1987)


Education

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists reported that for the first time, first-year female residents in obstetrics and gynecology outnumbered men. (05/87)

FairTest, the National Center for Fair & Open Testing concluded that sex-bias in standardized tests, including the SAT and the PSAT, deprived female students of National Merit Scholarships and other academic opportunities. Although girls tended to earn better grades than boys in both high school and college, the organization found that boys won a disproportionate number of Merit Scholarships. NOW President Ellie Smeal endorsed the new study and pointed out that the failure of standardized tests to accurately predict girls’ academic performances denied them access to competitive universities and opportunities for special college preparatory programs. (04/16/87)

The first and second place winners in the Westinghouse Science Talent Search were for the first time both young women: Louise Chia Chang, 17, and Elizabeth Lee Wilmer, 16. (1987)

Basing its decision on the state’s ERA, the Washington State Supreme Court ruled that all money, scholarships and the number of players for women’s and men’s sports at Washington State University must be split by an equitable formula based on enrollment. The case was brought in 1979 by 53 coaches and athletes. (08/87)

Sex discrimination “is alive and well in America’s schools,” and educators were doing little or nothing to combat it, according to the report issued by the Project on Equal Education Rights (PEER) of NOW’s Legal Defense and Education Fund. The 36-page report called “The Heart of Excellence: Equal Opportunities and Educational Reform,” pointed out that “How schools treat women and girls is not even considered in evaluating the effectiveness of schools.” (09/29/87)

The Project on Equal Education Rights (PEER) of the NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund presented its annual “Silver Snail” and “Golden Gazelle” awards to 18 national and local people and institutions for particularly sluggish or exemplary behavior in the field of education. (09/87)


Economic

In a victory for American women, a landmark sex discrimination settlement decree was filed in federal court in New York City, ending 10 years of litigation by female clerical employees of the Sumitomo Corporation of America, a U.S. subsidiary of a multinational Japanese trading company. In two class action suits under Title VII, (Avagliano v. Sumitomo Shoji America, Inc. and Incherchera v. Sumitomo Corporation of America), female employees charged Sumitomo with sex discrimination and preferential treatment for male Japanese nationals and American males in positions above the clerical level. Under terms of the decree, female employees, including past employees, were to receive cash payments up to $6,000. Sumitomo would spend at least $1 million during the next three years on a series of career development programs for women. The company would also be required to establish standard U.S. job titling and job description systems and, based on the systems, Sumitomo would increase its annual aggregate payroll for women employees by 16.5% over its present payroll. This case settled the question that foreign owned companies must abide by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 forbidding sex discrimination. (01/08/87)

Dulles Area (VA) NOW picketed the office of Air France in downtown Washington, DC, to protest the airline’s personnel policies. Air France had been charged with sex harassment in a suit filed by a female employee who contended she was paid less than her male colleagues for doing the same job and was told her job status could improve if she granted sexual favors. (03/13/87)

The number of pay equity settlements increased in 1987. According to the National Committee on Pay Equity, Pennsylvania nurses won a $16 million (for 3,000 nurses) out-of-court settlement in its sex discrimination suit against Pennsylvania- believed to be the largest pay equity award in the history of nursing; the Oregon legislature passed a $22.6 million pay equity adjustment for 8-9,000 (out of 41,000) state workers; the Connecticut legislature appropriated $11 million for pay equity adjustments; the Tennessee Valley Authority reached a collective bargaining agreement as a result of a law suit for $5 million in pay equity adjustments. In all of these actions the settlements were pushed by labor unions. (1987)

In San Francisco, Mayor Dianne Feinstein agreed to a $34.5 million comparable-worth settlement on both race- and sex-based wage discrimination which affected 12,000 workers as a result of passage of a local referendum. (1987)

Thirty-thousand Washington State workers received the second installment of a pay equity increase – the first installment paid was in July, 1986. (07/87)

The Executive Committee of the Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Services reported that in the Pacific, “abusive behavior,” and “blatant sexual harassment continue to exist in both the Navy and Marine Corps.” (09/87)

The Air Force struck down the last restriction on the assignment of women officers to nuclear missile crews and authorized mixed teams for duty in underground launch control centers. The new policy, effective on January 1 ended the requirement that women must be teamed with other women on the two-person crews that served at the controls of long-range Minuteman and MX nuclear missiles. (12/09/87)

The Navy announced that it would open a wide range of new jobs to women and would increase efforts to combat sexual harassment against female sailors. The new assignment policy would open about 10,000 posts aboard logistics ships and some aircraft to enlisted women and officers, but was designed to keep women out of combat. The Navy study that preceded these changes, also disclosed that sexual harassment was the most common complaint from women sailors. (12/22/87)

A national “Jobs with Justice” march and rally was held in Nacogdoches, TX, to support food service workers at Stephen F. Austin University in their fight for non-discriminatory hiring and promotion practices at the college. Jobs with Justice was a national coalition of 15 labor organizations, NOW and groups such as the NAACP and the Southern Christian Leadership Council. Speakers at the rally included National NOW Vice President-Executive Patricia Ireland. (12/12/87)


Religion

During Pope John Paul’s visit to the U. S., crowds were sparse at many sites. Feminists (including Eleanor Smeal, Molly Yard, Patricia Ireland, Sheri O’Dell, Jeanne K.C. Clark and Frances Kissling) were arrested at a demonstration at the Vatican Embassy, Washington, DC – proclaiming “women’s right’s are human rights.” Demonstrations were coordinated by NOW and Catholics for a Free Choice. (09/87)

Lawrence Lader’s new book, Politics, Power, And The Church, published by Macmillan, accused the Catholic hierarchy of a determined campaign to destroy the “wall of separation” between church and state and erode the 110-year tradition of American pluralism embedded in the First Amendment. He produced an exhaustive analysis of the bishops’ intrusion into politics on issues ranging from destruction of abortion rights to combating equality for homosexuals, from forcing prayer into the classroom to diverting public funds to benefit parochial schools. Lader defined the power structure built by Catholic conservatives and Fundamentalists, which blocked the Equal Rights Amendment and depicted this alliance as the most dangerous force in American politics today. He cited evidence of how the Catholic hierarchy had used vast amounts of tax exempt money to back political candidates favorable to its stands and to attack candidates opposed to them, violating federal law. (1987)


Media

Randa Haines, director of the 1986 film, Children of A Lesser God, becomes the first American woman ever to be nominated by the Directors Guild of America as best director of a motion picture. (01/87)

The National Museum for Women in the Arts opened in Washington, DC. Conceived by Wilhelmina Holladay and funded with broad-based individual and corporate support, the museum was intended to be a place for works by women artists to be seen, acknowledged and enjoyed. (04/87)

Ms. magazine celebrated its 15th anniversary. (07/87)

The Writers Guild of America West reported that TV and movie producers discriminated against women, members of minority groups and writers over 40 years old. The 110-page study, based on data from 1982 to 1985, also found that women were most likely to be employed by the networks in the lowest-paying jobs, such as daytime serial writers and children’s programming. (06/87)

Ms. magazine was sold for an undisclosed price to an Australian media group, John Fairfax Ltd. The new owner published 80 magazines and 53 newspapers in Australia but had only recently entered the U.S. market. Profits from the sale went to the Ms. Foundation for Education and Communication, Inc. Both Editor Gloria Steinem and Publisher and Editor-in-chief Patricia Carbine planned to leave those positions but continue as consultants. (09/24/87)

Seventy-five percent of Americans surveyed in a New York Times/CBS News poll said that they supported the ERA, an increase of 2l% since 1982. (05/87)


Legal

The U.S. Supreme Court, in California Federal Savings and Loan v. Guerra upheld a California law requiring employers to grant a new mother up to four months unpaid disability leave as well as job security. In rejecting a conflict between the California law and the federal law, Justice Thurgood Marshall stated the federal Pregnancy Discrimination Act was a “floor beneath which preg-nancy disability benefits may not drop-not a ceiling above which they may not rise.” NOW’s position in this case was widely misreported in the press. NOW favored the California law and the federal Pregnancy Discrimination Act which it had helped pass and liked the court decision. Days later the Court also upheld a Missouri law which disallowed pregnancy as a reason to be awarded unemployment compensation and said the Missouri law did not violate Federal Unemployment Compensation which forbids discrimination on the basis of pregnancy. (01/13/87)

In People v. Stewart. the San Diego, CA, Municipal Court considered criminal charges against a woman, Pamela Rae Stewart, whose baby was born brain dead. The prosecutor argued that the woman’s failure to get timely medical care, among other things, constituted criminal non-support under California law. California NOW, San Diego County NOW, and the NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund (LDEF) filed an amicus brief in support of Stewart. NOW argued that the statute under which Stewart was charged had been consistently applied in California as a financial child support statute; application of the law in this manner violated the Constitutional rights of pregnant women; and that the use of the law in this manner undermined the doctor-patient relationship by forcing doctors to avoid giving specific medical advice for fear their patients might not follow it. The case was dismissed. (01/87)

In an historic first case for women, Johnson v. Transportation Agency Santa Clara County, (CA), the U.S. Supreme Court upheld in a solid 6-3 decision a voluntary affirmative action plan which permitted an employer to take into consideration as one factor, in making promotions, the sex of a qualified applicant. The media widely misreported that the Court ruled in this decision that a more qualified man could be passed over by a less qualified woman. In fact, the woman in this case was as qualified and had more experience than the man suing. This case was only a small step forward for women since it involved a clear case of prior job sex- segregation and a very weak affirmative action plan. There had never been a woman in the skilled crafts positions of this transportation agency. The Santa Clara decision marked the fifth time in a row the Supreme Court had repudiated the Reagan Administration’s arguments that affirmative action plans were reverse discrimination against white males. (03/25/87)

Some 150 people took part in the “Memphis March Against Rape” in conjunction with the Mid-South Regional Conference. According to the 1986 FBI Uniform Crime Report, the South had the highest incidence of rape with Tennessee first among the states. (04/87)

Pennsylvania NOW et al v. State Farm et al, revealed the anti-consumer marketing strategies behind auto insurers’ rating practices. Pennsylvania NOW President Deborah Sieger, First Pittsburgh NOW President Phyllis Wetherby, and four individual plaintiffs accused the defendant auto insurers of violating both the Insurance Rate Regulatory Act and the Pennsylvania ERA. (05/87)

In New York State Club Association. Inc. v. The City of New York, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld as constitutional a New York City ordinance placing sharp limits on male-only clubs. The ordinance provided that private clubs with more than 400 members, which regularly serve meals and regularly receive payment from or on behalf of non-members in furtherance of trade or business, could not discriminate on the basis of race, sex or other invidious grounds in regard to membership. (06/87)

President Reagan nominated Judge Robert Bork of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to be an Associate Justice on the U.S. Supreme Court, to replace retiring Justice Lewis Powell. Reagan described Bork as “the most prominent and intellectually powerful advocate of judicial restraint.” Bork, an ardent opponent of the legalization of abortion in Roe v. Wade, was immediately opposed by leaders of women’s organizations, including NOW President Eleanor Smeal. (07/01/87)

President Reagan nominated Judge Douglas Ginsburg to fill the vacancy on the U.S. Supreme Court after Bork was rejected. (10/29) Ginsburg withdrew as the nominee after public disclosures that he had smoked marijuana. (11/07/87)

The U.S. Supreme Court let stand a Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals ruling unconstitutional an Illinois parental notification in abortion law. (12/14/87)

For the second year, South Palm Beach County (FL) NOW visited the women’s jail on Christmas morning bearing gifts for each inmate. Two-thirds of the women at the jail were awaiting trial, unable to make bail. The visit was part of an on-going effort to improve conditions at the county jail. Thanks to chapter action, there were now sufficient beds and mattresses so women were no longer sleeping on the floor and were being admitted to GED classes, to the drug treatment and mental health programs, which were what most of them needed. (12/25/87)

The U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a lower court ruling that had declared the National Democratic Party’s equal division rule unconstitutional in Bachur v. Democratic National Party et al. The equal division rule, for which NOW had fought successfully in the 70s, required voters to allocate their votes on the basis of the sex of the candidates running for convention delegate. Voters were required to vote for equal numbers of male and female delegates. NOW and The Fund for the Feminist Majority as well as NWPC had filed an amicus brief arguing that the equal division was a legal affirmative action measure designed to remedy discrimination against women in the Democratic Party. (12/29/87)


Political

Empowered by dramatic victories in the 1986 elections, major national women’s groups, including NOW, presented to Congressional leaders a shared agenda which sought not only to stem the recent erosion of civil and economic rights for women, but also to press for major gains in both areas. The shared agenda called for prompt passage of the Civil Rights Restoration Act, a Federal pay equity bill, the Family and Medical Leave Act, welfare reform proposals, an increase in the minimum wage, full Federal funding for reproductive health care for all women, legislation providing affordable and accessible child care, dependent care and reintroduction of the ERA in Congress during the Bicentennial of the Constitution. The legislative agenda included only those issues on which there was a consensus. Each participating organization also had other priority issues specific to its own agenda. NOW’s legislative agenda also included lesbian and gay rights and a reduction in military spending as priority issues. The 16 organizations endorsing the agenda all participated in the Council of Presidents in Washington, D.C. and included the American Association of University Women (AAUW), Business and Professional Women (BPW), and the National Women’s Political Caucus (NWPC), as well as NOW. (01/15/87)

NOW President Eleanor Smeal spoke at the Peace March in Washington, D.C. which drew some 75,000 people to stop U.S. intervention in Central America and to fight apartheid in South Africa. (04/87)

Seventy-five percent of Americans surveyed in a New York Times/CBS News poll said that they supported the ERA, an increase of 2l% since 1982. (05/87)

NOW convened the first national conference on Women of Color and Reproductive Rights to a standing room only audience of over 400 women and men at Howard University in Washington, DC. Key women of color organizations that participated included: Women of All Red Nations, the National Black Women’s Health Project, the Organization of Pan Asian American Women, the National Institute for Women of Color, and the Alliance Against Women’s Oppression. (05/15-17/87)

The National Women’s Political Caucus celebrated its 16th anniversary at its biennial convention in Portland, OR. (08/20-23/87)

Representative Patricia Schroeder (D-CO), after spending the summer exploring her chances of winning the Democratic nomination for President, announced that she would not become a candidate in 1988. Schroeder had raised an encouraging amount of money in her brief run-nearly half a million dollars; she had qualified in the requisite number of states for federal matching funds were she to become an announced candidate; and her test direct mail fundraising efforts showed a high potential for raising the necessary funds. Wherever she traveled during her exploratory campaign, she drew large sometimes larger than expected crowds and struck a deep, responsive chord in the electorate. Her superior experience and vast knowledge of issues made her stand out as much as her gender. Significantly, the polls had her running third and indicated an extremely high “trust” factor among voters.(09/28/87)

Sen. Howard Metzenbaum (D-OH) once again led the fight to keep an anti-abortion amendment off the District of Columbia’s appropriation legislation. He made it clear to his right- wing colleagues that he was prepared to review the history of some 470 anti-abortion bills and amendments that had been introduced in the Senate since he took office in 1976 unless the anti-abortion amendment to the D.C. appropriations bill was tabled. The motion to table passed 60-39, the largest vote to date on this recurring amendment. (10/01/87)

Queen Elizabeth II amended the statutes of the Most Noble Orders of the Garter and Thistle to permit non-royal women (like non-royal men) to be accepted in this highest of her nine appointed chivalric orders. (11/25/87)

Political victories for women included the election of the first women mayors of Houston, TX, Annette Strauss, Corpus Christi, TX, Betty Turner, and Charlotte, NC, Sue Myrick; the first Black woman mayor of Hartford, CT, Carrie Saxon-Perry; and re-election of Mayor Kathy Whitmire of Houston, TX. (11/03/87)


The Backlash

Anti-abortion terrorists launched another clinic attack at the Northern Illinois Women’s Center in Rockford, resulting in minor damages estimated at $300 and the arrest of David Holman, 57, a high school janitor who was charged with arson. (01/06/87)

The Eastern Women’s Center, located on the fifth floor of a building that houses business offices, was the target of an arson attempt resulting in the charring of the outside of an office building adjacent to the clinic. This was the second attack on the Manhattan clinic which was bombed in the early hours of October 29, 1986, injuring two pedestrians and sending glass flying onto the street below. (01/13/87)

Phyllis Schlafly formed a new group called the Coalition for Teen Health, advocating abstinence from sexual activity until marriage. (03/87)

The Vatican’s 1987 document, “Instruction on Respect for Human Life in Its Origin and on the Dignity of Procreation,” condemned artificial fertilization, surrogate motherhood, sperm and embryo banks, etc. addressed Catholics world-wide and called for the passage of legislation. (03/87)

Oliver North addressed Concerned Women for America on the need for aid to the Contras. (09/87)

The Reagan Administration’s “comprehensive” anti-abortion legislation, officially entitled the President’s Pro-Life Bill of 1987, was introduced in the House by Congressman Henry Hyde (R-IL). The bill declared Congress’s opposition to the U.S. Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion; made permanent the Hyde Amendment prohibition on the use of Medicaid funds and other federal health program funds for abortion services; prohibited the awarding of Title X funds to organizations such as Planned Parenthood that offered abortion services, counselling and referrals for abortion, or advocated f abortion rights. (03/19/87)

A Maryland Court ordered Charlotte Fedders, ex-wife of former Securities and Exchange Commission official John Fedders, to share the proceeds of her book, Shattered Dreams, with her former husband. The domestic-court official found that Ms. Fedders was equally responsible for the break-up of their marriage, even though her husband had repeatedly beat her throughout their marriage. (10/87)

Jerry Falwell called it quits as leader of the Moral Majority. According to major polls, a Falwell political endorsement had a negative impact on a political candidate’s campaign even in Falwell’s native Virginia and in his hometown. (11/03/87)

The family that gave Coors beer to the U.S. public also brought the New Right and the Reagan “Revolution” by supporting them with donations from the Adolph Coors Foundation, which was giving away $3.4 million annually. The Heritage Foundation, which served as the Think Tank for Reagan, was founded in 1972 with the help of Coors money and still receives $100,000 annually from Coors. The foundation also gave $10,000 to Accuracy in the Media, $100,000 to the Free Congress Research and Education Foundation; $30,000 to the Washington Legal Foundation; $15,000 to Morality in the Media-all anti-feminist right wing organizations. The Coors Foundation’s Vice Chairman Joseph Coors also admitted giving $65,000 of his own money to help the Nicaraguan Contras. (1987)

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