Yolanda Bako

Yolanda Bako (born 1946) is an American feminist and activist against domestic violence.

Yolanda Bako
Born1946
NationalityAmerican
OccupationActivist against domestic violence
Known forCo-founded New York City's first state-funded shelter for battered women (1977)

Early life

Yolanda Bako was born in the Bronx; both of her parents were born in Hungary.[1] Her father was a bouncer at a bar.[2] She graduated from Evander Childs High School. "When I think of the universe, the Bronx is at its center," she commented about her origins, in 1978.[3]

Career

Bako worked as secretary and at the Guggenheim Museum as a young woman.[4][5] She became coordinator of the Center for the Elimination of Violence in the Family,[6] and in 1977 co-founded Women's Survival Space in Brooklyn,[7] the city's first state-funded shelter for battered women.[1][8] She was a rape prevention educator at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and a founding member of the Mayor's Task Force on Rape.[9] She was active in the New York City chapter of the National Organization for Women,[10] and with the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence.[11] She coordinated the 1976 Women’s Walk Against Rape in Central Park, telling the New York Times, "We have the right to use the world at night."[12]

In 1978, she testified at Congressional hearings on domestic violence and sexual assault.[13][14] She was the author of How to start a county-wide task force on family violence (1980), a booklet for the American Friends Service Committee.[15] In the 1980s she worked at the Bronx State Psychiatric Hospital as a mental health therapy aide, and in 1995 she attended the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing.[16] In 2017, Bako spoke at "a reunion of second-wave feminists" held by the Veteran Feminists of America in New York.[17][16]

Personal life

Over six feet tall,[14] Bako was a striking presence in feminist activism in the 1970s New York.[3] Her papers are in the Schlesinger Library at Harvard.[18]

References
  1. Brownmiller, Susan (2000). In Our Time: Memoir of a Revolution. Dial Press. pp. 272–273. ISBN 978-0-385-31831-0.
  2. "Battered Women Gain Floor As Washington Gathers Data". Hartford Courant. 1977-07-27. p. 13. Retrieved 2019-12-22 – via Newspapers.com.
  3. Wood, Ann (1978-02-25). "A Leader in the Fight for Battered Women". Daily News. p. 10. Retrieved 2019-12-22 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. "4. Peggy Guggenheim Collection". Guggenheim. 2019-04-19. Retrieved 2019-12-22.
  5. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum; Theodoron (Foundation) . (1971). Ten young artists : Theodoron awards : [exhibition, Sept. 24-Nov. 7, 1971] the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. New York : Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation. p. 26 – via Internet Archive.
  6. United States Commission on Civil Rights (1983). Battered Women: Issues of Public Policy : a Consultation Sponsored by the United States Commission on Civil Rights, Washington, D.C., January 30-31, 1978. The Commission. pp. 357–363.
  7. Shepard, Jan (1977-12-11). "Beaten Wives Find a Secret Shelter". Daily News. p. 219. Retrieved 2019-12-22 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. Klemesrud, Judy (April 30, 1977). "Wives Recite Litany of Abuse by Their Husbands". p. 39 – via ProQuest.
  9. Pawlyna, Andrea (1975-11-15). "Conference Held to Launch Rape Crisis Center". Poughkeepsie Journal. p. 3. Retrieved 2019-12-22 – via Newspapers.com.
  10. "Guide to the National Organization for Women, New York City Chapter (NOW-NYC) Records TAM.106". Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archive, Elmer Holmes Bobst Library, New York University. Retrieved 2019-12-22.
  11. Ellison, Alice A. (1980-01-24). "Meeting to Focus on Domestic Violence". The Evening Sun. p. 22. Retrieved 2019-12-22 – via Newspapers.com.
  12. "Central Park Night Walk Protests Rapes". The New York Times. 1976-08-05. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2019-12-22.
  13. United States. Congress. House. Committee on Science and Technology. Subcommittee on Domestic and International Scientific Planning, Analysis, and Cooperation, Research Into Violent Behavior: Overview and Sexual Assaults (U.S. Government Printing Office, 1978).
  14. Education, United States Congress House Committee on Education and Labor Subcommittee on Select (1978). Domestic Violence: Hearings Before the Subcommittee on Select Education of the Committee on Education and Labor, House of Representatives, Ninety-fifth Congress, Second Session, on H.R. 7927 and H.R. 8948 ... March 16 and 17, 1978. U.S. Government Printing Office. pp. 403–410.
  15. Bako, Yolanda. How to start a county-wide task force on family violence (American Friends Service Committee 1980).
  16. "Report on the Feminist Reunion, June 10, 2017" Veteran Feminists of America.
  17. Reinholz, Mary. "Veteran feminists show they’re young at heart at reunion" The Villager (June 15, 2017).
  18. Papers of Yolanda Bako, 1970-1995, Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University.
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