Sallie Ann Harrison’s younger sister was sexually assaulted by her grandmother’s neighbor. Confused and angered at her community’s complacency over the issue, Harrison formed Gainesville’s first rape-crisis center.
Harrison and six other women later formed a panel to address the issues of the civil rights movement, and Thursday night they relayed the struggles of blacks and women to an audience of about 150.
The panel discussion at the Matheson Museum, Activists Among Us: The Gainesville’s Women’s Movement Across Generations, paid homage to women like Harrison’s sister.
The Samuel Proctor Oral History Program at UF had received feedback from the community that there should be an event honoring women’s history, according to Paul Ortiz, the director of Oral History at UF. They decided to hold an event to encourage more gender research.
Congresswoman Corrine Brown, the first black woman to be elected to Congress from Florida in 129 years, spoke to the audience.
“Women have been in the forefront of this region for a very, very long time,” she said.
Mayor Pegeen Hanrahan was unable to attend but recorded a video to welcome the panelists.
Vivian Filer, a panelist, said that when she was younger, white children would try to get her not to walk on the sidewalk. One day, she decided she would stand up for herself.
“I thought if I had something to say, it should get said,” she said.
Another panelist, Kathleen “Corky” Culver, had three friends kicked out of school for being lesbians. Seeing the injustice in this, she formed a lesbian-rights group and is the founding member of the Gainesville/Melrose Women’s Community.
“You’re not powerless, you know,” she told the audience.
The Gainesville Women’s Liberation, one of the sponsors of the event, set up a table with pamphlets, books and pictures of the women’s civil rights movement.
“I believe that women should have the same rights that men have,” said Natalie Maxwell, a member of the Gainesville Women’s Liberation. “I don’t think that being a woman should limit a person to be able to contribute to society.”
