Crystal Eastman
Crystal Eastman was an important early supporter of the ERA, joining Alice Paul as a founding member of both the NWP and its predecessor, the Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage. Eastman worked as a lawyer and a journalist, and outside of her efforts with the ERA, she was an ardent feminist and socialist.
Eastman’s career began with an investigation into workplace safety conditions, an endeavor that resulted in the first workers’ compensation law in the US, based on legislation that she drafted herself. In 1915 Eastman helped found the Women’s Peace Party, a left-wing antiwar group that combined the demand for an end to the war in Europe with the demand to expand suffrage to women. She also organized the founding of the National Civil Liberties Bureau, which would become the ACLU in 1920.
As an intelligent and eloquent writer, Eastman was a frequent contributor to the NWP’s Equal Rights magazine, amongst other left-wing and feminist publications. With the onset of the first Red Scare around the end of WW1, her open espousal of socialist beliefs left her blacklisted and unable to find well-paying work. Tragically, this disavowal of Eastman has severely affected the memory of her legacy, as her important role in events such as the founding of the ACLU has been all but erased with time.
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