Laura X

Laura X (born Laura Rand Orthwein, Jr.; in St. Louis, Missouri in 1940), is one of the world's leading advocates pertaining to the women's movement and a wide array of precursors and overlapping social movements from the second half of the 20th century.

Laura X
Born
Laura Rand Orthwein, Jr.

1940 (age 80–81)
St. Louis, Missouri
NationalityAmerican
Other namesLaura Shaw Murra (legal name)
Alma materUniversity of California, Berkeley
OrganizationWomen's History Research Center
National Clearinghouse on Marital and Date Rape
Known forActivism against date and marital rape
MovementFeminist
Websitelauraxinstitute.org

Laura X changed her name in 1962 to Laura Shaw Murra, which remains her legal name, and each of her other two sets of names she uses as an AKA. She took the name Laura X, on September 17, 1969, to symbolize her rejection of men's legal ownership of women and the anonymity of women's history, which was stolen from women and girls. She declared that, like Malcolm X, "I don't want to have my owner's name, either."[1]

Education and background

After attending Vassar College for three years, Laura X moved to New York City, became a Head Start Program teacher in the pilot program, having trained at the University of Puerto Rico. She also rose to Picket Captain in CORE (Congress of Racial Equality), attended New York University (NYU), and took graduate courses at Bank Street College of Education. Following her interests and research developed at Vassar College,[2] she worked with the American Committee on Africa to welcome delegates from 17 newly independent states, 16 from Africa, join the UN - the biggest increase in membership in any one year[3] - and to picket Chase Manhattan Bank about their investments in South Africa. In 1963, she moved to Berkeley, California and graduated from the University of California, Berkeley (UC-Berkeley), in 1971, having participated in the Free Speech Movement as well as other social justice movements.

Women's History Research Center

Laura X is the founder and was the director of the Women's History Research Center, in Berkeley, California, which was the first historical archive connected to the feminist movement.[4][5] Laura X founded the Women's History Research Center in 1968 after a University of California, Berkeley professor expressed doubt that there was enough material on women to fill a quarter's course in history.[1] By 1970 the Women's History Research Center was widely listed in early feminist publications. The Center put many of the early feminist writings on microfilm, making them available in libraries across the country.[4] The Women's History Research Center eventually closed, and its collections are now held in the women's history archive at the Schlesinger Library, which is part of Harvard University's Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, and at other institutions.[6][7]

Women's Institute for Freedom of the Press Associate

In 1977, Laura X became an associate of the Women's Institute for Freedom of the Press (WIFP).[8] WIFP is an American nonprofit publishing organization. The organization works to increase communication between women and connect the public with forms of women-based media.

National Clearinghouse on Marital and Date Rape

In 1978 the Women's History Research Center established the National Clearinghouse on Marital and Date Rape in Berkeley, California, with Laura X as director.[9]

Marital and Date Rape Legislation

In 1979 Laura X led a successful campaign to make marital rape a crime in California.[9] She also acted as a consultant to 45 other state campaigns on marital and date rape, as well as collecting and maintaining documents about the status of exemptions from prosecution in rape laws.[9] Repeal of date and marital rape exemptions occurred in 45 states, in Federal and military law, in the laws of Guam and the laws of twenty other countries.[10]

In September 1999 Laura X published her memoir "Accomplishing the Impossible: an Advocate's Notes from the Successful Campaign to Make Marital and Date Rape a Crime in All 50 U.S. States and Other Countries" in Violence Against Women: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal. [11]

Public service

Laura X served in 1985 with United States Surgeon General C. Everett Koop on the National Task Force on Violence as a Public Health Issue.

Awards and recognitions

In recognition of her achievements, Laura X received

  • Commendation by the American Library Association, 1971
  • Woman of Achievement award (from Mademoiselle Magazine),
  • World Congress of Victimology Award for Innovative Programs and Services,
  • Commendation Surgeon General C. Everett Koop, 1985.[10]
  • In 2009, Laura X was honored by the University of Missouri St. Louis (UMSL) receiving the Trailblazers Award.[12] In celebration of Women's History Month, women faculty, staff, students and alumnae who were the first to occupy positions traditionally held by men, and/or have worked to forge new pathways for women, and/or have contributed significantly to the University and/or community are recognized at the Trailblazer event.

Media

Laura has been a guest on the Television shows:

  • "Phil Donahue"[13]
  • "Sally Jessy Raphael"
  • "Geraldo"
  • "Gary Collins"[14]
  • "60 Minutes"
  • "Today"
  • "Mark Wahlberg"

among others as subject matter expert on marital and date rape and other social justice matters.

Laura X World Institute

In 2015, Laura X formed the 'Laura X - Laura Rand Orthwein, Jr. World Institute on Social Justice Movements.' Located physically in St. Louis, Missouri, the Institute serves as the home of both the physical archive which total over 400,000 individual items of history, the virtual museum, and the interpretation center for archival materials extant at UC Berkeley, Harvard, University of Illinois and other institutions, including guides to the Women's History Research Center (WHRC). Total items at universities around the world are over 1,000,000 items of history. Laura X serves as the Institute's activist-in-residence and together with others offers interpretation and teaching to enrich communities in St Louis via in-person events and around the world through online virtual exhibitions.

The collection pertains to the Women's Movement and a wide array of precursors and overlapping social movements from the second half of the 20th century, including materials from Laura X's successful state-by-state campaign to abolish the legal privilege for marital and date rape. She began collecting materials in 1964 and has been committed to this effort ever since. The Institute's Archives make historical research and presentation possible. Archive staff is currently engaged in cataloging the 580+ boxes of materials, in order to keep them vibrant, accessible, and available for researchers and other interested parties. Once finished, this archive will be a resource for students, professors, historians, film documentarians, museums, exhibitions, high school teachers, and the general public.[15]

References
  1. "lauraxinstitute". lauraxinstitute. Retrieved 15 April 2018.
  2. Carol Jones Vernon, Staff Writer for St. Louis Globe Democrat - January 4th, 1961. Archives of the defunct Globe-Democrat are presently housed at Mercantile Library at University of Missouri St. Louis (UMSL)
  3. https://www.un.org/Overview/milesto4.htm
  4. stephanie. "About the Archives". www.redstockings.org. Retrieved 15 April 2018.
  5. Caryn Neumann (14 December 2009). Sexual Crime: A Reference Handbook. ABC-CLIO. pp. 145–. ISBN 978-1-59884-178-7.
  6. "International Assembly of Women. Records of the International Assembly of Women, 1946: A Finding Aid". oasis.lib.harvard.edu. Retrieved 15 April 2018.
  7. "Women's History Research Center resource files". Rocky Mountain Online Archive. 1845. Retrieved 2014-04-26.
  8. "Associates | The Women's Institute for Freedom of the Press". www.wifp.org. Retrieved 2017-06-21.
  9. ABOUT LAURA X, on the National Clearinghouse on Marital and Date Rape website
  10. Renzetti, Claire M.; Edleson, Jeffrey L. (19 June 2008). Encyclopedia of Interpersonal Violence. SAGE. ISBN 9781412918008. Retrieved 15 April 2018 – via Google Books.
  11. Abstract of "Accomplishing the Impossible: an Advocate's Notes from the Successful Campaign to Make Marital and Date Rape a Crime in All 50 U.S. States and Other Countries," by Laura X, National Clearinghouse on Marital and Date Rape website
  12. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2015-09-06. Retrieved 2015-09-11.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  13. Laura X (23 October 2014). "Laura X on the Phil Donahue Show". Retrieved 15 April 2018 – via YouTube.
  14. Laura X (22 October 2014). "Kathy Stephens and Laura X on the Gary Collins show". Retrieved 15 April 2018 – via YouTube.
  15. "Laura X Institute". www.lauraxinstitute.org. Retrieved 15 April 2018.
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