Interview with Lorena Weeks, November 9, 2009
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=49&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Discrimination">Discrimination</a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=49&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Discrimination+in+employment--Law+and+legislation--United+States--Cases">Discrimination in employment--Law and legislation--United States--Cases</a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=49&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Civil+rights">Civil rights</a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=49&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Women%27s+rights">Women's rights</a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=49&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Gender">Gender</a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=49&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Politics+and+Public+Policy">Politics and Public Policy</a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=49&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=United+States--Civil+rights">United States--Civil rights</a>
<span>UGA History Professor Dr. Kathleen Clark interviews Lorena Weeks about her life and her discrimination case against Southern Bell in the 1960s. Lorena Weeks recalls how she started working at Southern Bell Telephone Company. She discusses her early life working several jobs to provide for her family. Weeks reflects on her decision to apply for a switchman job after President Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act into law. She discusses her reaction upon being denied on the basis of being a woman. Weeks comments on her attempt to get union backing and subsequent decision to sue. Weeks recalls appealing the decision with Sylvia Roberts after losing her suit in district court. She recalls Sylvia Roberts' personality and attitude toward the case. Weeks discusses the effect of the lawsuit on her family. She recalls testifying in Washington, D.C. to the FCC. Weeks discusses the circumstances surrounding her childhood and the early death of her parents.<br /><br />Lorena Weeks was born in 1929 in Columbia, South Carolina. Shortly afterward her family moved to Augusta, Georgia, and, when Lorena was nine, to Louisville, Georgia, where her father was killed in a sawmill accident. Lorena’s mother died nine years later, leaving Lorena to care for her younger siblings. In 1947 she went to work for Southern Bell Telephone Company as an operator. In 1965, following passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, Weeks sued the company after being barred from employment as a switchman (a higher paying job) on the basis of her sex. Although she initially lost the case, she appealed, and with the help of National Organization of Women (NOW) attorney Sylvia Roberts, had her case heard in front of Griffin Bell in the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. In 1969 Weeks won her case and went to work at Southern Bell as a switchman, retiring in 1983.<br /></span>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=39&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Lorena+Weeks">Lorena Weeks</a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=39&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Kathleen+Clark">Kathleen Clark</a>
2009-11-09
http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
video
oral histories
moving image
RBRL175OHD-012
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=38&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Georgia">Georgia</a>
Interview with Cathey Steinberg, February 24, 2010
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=49&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=State+governments--Officials+and+employees">State governments--Officials and employees</a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=49&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Women--Political+activity">Women--Political activity</a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=49&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Jewish+politicians">Jewish politicians</a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=49&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Discrimination">Discrimination</a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=49&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Women%27s+rights">Women's rights</a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=49&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=United+States--Civil+rights">United States--Civil rights</a>
Cathey Weiss Steinberg served in the Georgia General Assembly for sixteen years in both the Georgia House of Representatives (1977-1989) and in the Georgia Senate (1991-1993). She is recognized as a strong advocate for women’s rights. She was the primary sponsor of the 1981-1982 Equal Rights Amendment legislation. From 1993-1999, she was the managing partner for Ahead of the Curve, a public policy consulting and advocacy training firm. In 1999, Governor Roy Barnes appointed Cathey Steinberg as Georgia’s first Consumer Insurance Advocate. She held that position until 2003. Steinberg later served as the executive director of the Juvenile Justice Fund, a non-profit child advocacy organization based in Atlanta, Georgia. She has been a consultant in public and community relations and marketing, and a frequent guest speaker and lecturer. Steinberg discusses the sexism and antisemitism she faced early in her legislative career, her work in the private sector with juveniles, insurance, and women, and the state of party politics in Georgia.
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=39&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Cathey+Steinberg">Cathey Steinberg</a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=39&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Bob+Short">Bob Short</a>
2010-02-24
http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
video
oral histories
moving image
RBRL220ROGP-106
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=38&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Georgia">Georgia</a>
Interview with Nan Orrock, December 15, 2010
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=49&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=State+governments--Officials+and+employees">State governments--Officials and employees</a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=49&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Civil+rights">Civil rights</a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=49&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Political+activists">Political activists</a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=49&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Women--Political+activity">Women--Political activity</a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=49&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Women%27s+rights">Women's rights</a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=49&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Gender">Gender</a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=49&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=United+States--Civil+rights">United States--Civil rights</a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=49&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Gay+rights">Gay rights</a>
Senator Nan Orrock was elected by Atlanta voters to the Georgia Senate in 2006, after serving ten terms in the House of Representatives, where she was the first woman elected as House majority whip. She also served as the Governor’s Floor Leader, a committee chair, and a member of the Speaker’s Policy Committee. Her Senate District 36 encompasses downtown Atlanta, stretching north to Lenox Square, south to the city limits and west to the MARTA north-south line. Orrock discusses her early work in the civil rights movement, her time in the legislature, and the nature of party politics in Georgia.
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=39&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Nan+Orrock">Nan Orrock</a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=39&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Bob+Short">Bob Short</a>
2010-12-15
http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
video
oral histories
moving image
RBRL220ROGP-125
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=38&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Georgia">Georgia</a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=38&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Atlanta%2C+Georgia">Atlanta, Georgia</a>