Grassroots Group of Second Class Citizens

{{Infobox group

| name = Grassroots Group of Second Class Citizens

| formation = 1981

| dissolved = 1993

| type = Feminist

| purpose = Activist group for the Equal Rights Amendment and reproductive rights

| headquarters = Illinois

| key_people = Berenice Carroll, Mary Lee Sargent

}}

Grassroots Group of Second Class Citizens was a political organization of feminist women created in the early 1980s to undertake non-violent direct action tactics to raise awareness for the need of an Equal Rights Amendment.{{Cite book |last=Love |first=Barbara J. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kpNarH7t9CkC&dq=grassroots+group+of+second+class+citizens+ERA&pg=PA405 |title=Feminists Who Changed America, 1963-1975 |date=2006-09-22 |publisher=University of Illinois Press |isbn=978-0-252-03189-2 |language=en}} The group also advocated for reproductive rights and lasted throughout the 1980s.{{Cite news |last=Guy |first=Sandra |date=November 1, 1989 |title=Pro-Choice Group to Follow Example |work=The Times}}

Actions at the Illinois State House

Grassroots Group of Second Class Citizens were especially known for their direct actions at the Illinois State House in 1982. One of the grandmothers of a founder, Mary Lee Sargent, was a suffragist. Sargent co-founded this group while teaching at Parkland Community College in Illinois.{{Cite web |title=Oral History Interview - ERA Fight in Illinois Mary Lee Sargent |url=https://presidentlincoln.illinois.gov/oral-history/collections/sargent-mary-lee/interview-detail/ |access-date=2022-07-24 |website=presidentlincoln.illinois.gov}} The group included a wide range of activists from eighteen year old Sue Yarber to Berenice Carroll who was in her late 40s.{{Cite news |last=Good |first=Sherie |date=November 25, 1982 |title=Why are these women in chains? |work=Illinois Times}} In 1982, the ERA was set to expire and both pro and anti-ERA groups descended upon the Capitol in Illinois to lobby state legislators.{{Cite news |last=Schoenburg |first=Bernie |date=June 27, 1982 |title=ERA Fasters Play Politics |work=The Pantagraph}} Members of the Grassroots Group of Second Class Citizens were often referred to as a chain gang because they had chained themselves together inside the capitol.{{Cite news |date=July 3, 1982 |title=Women Sentenced to Jail in ERA Protest |work=Evansville Press}}

File:Day of Rebellion.jpg]]

Day of Rebellion for ERA

One of the most notable actions undertaken by Grassroots Group of Second Class Citizens was known as their Day of Rebellion for the ERA on June 3, 1982. That day, 17 women chained themselves inside the Illinois State Capitol.{{Cite web |author=Staff Writer |title=36 years later, Catania hopeful about ERA |url=https://www.sj-r.com/story/opinion/columns/2018/04/15/36-years-later-catania-hopeful/12699274007/ |access-date=2022-07-24 |website=The State Journal-Register |language=en-US}} According to the Macon Telegraph, "When asked if they were worried the sit-in might alienate ERA supporters, Mary Lee Sargent...said, 'It's too late for that...we're here to step up the confrontation."{{Cite news |date=June 4, 1982 |title=Women Chain Themselves in Front of State Senate to Lobby for ERA |work=The Macon Telegraph}} Sargent noted this action had connections to the militant actions of the women's suffrage movement.{{Cite news |date=June 4, 1982 |title=Chained ERA Supporters Stage 'Day of Rebellion' in Illinois Senate |work=The Times Argus}} She said, "It's our willingness to put our bodies out here, to be a spectacle and to be laughed at by people...but to face people directly."

The Grassroots Group of Second Class Citizens refused to leave the Capitol and members spent four nights in jail. Anne Casey-Elder, a member of the group was quoted as saying, "Nobody has ever occupied a capitol building like this."{{Cite news |last=Rusnak |first=Veronica |date=February 5, 1983 |title=The ERA War: Alive and Well |work=The Daily Illini}} A photo of the women in chains appeared in Life magazine in 1982.

Spilling animal blood

The group then sprayed animal blood inside the capitol to symbolize the death of the ERA.{{Cite news |last=Schoenburg |first=Bernie |date=June 29, 1982 |title=Pro-ERA Group Sets Final Act Wednesday |pages=55 |work=The Pantagraph}} They were ordered to pay more than $2,000 in cleanup fees.{{Cite news |date=August 26, 1982 |title=ERA Backers Must Pay for Cleanup |work=Hawaii Tribune-Herald}} Mary Lee Sargent felt the fine was unfair and said, "We are being asked to pay thousands of dollars for protesting. I would have felt fine paying the cleanup costs. But it did not cost $2,300 to clean up.{{Cite news |date=August 26, 1982 |title=ERA Backers Pay for Cleanup |work=Journal Gazette}}

Women Hunger for Justice

File:Speaker Door ERA Protest 1982.jpg

Grassroots Group of Second Class Citizens were politically active at the same time and place when another group of women fasted for the ERA in Illinois in 1982. This event was known as Women Hunger for Justice.{{Cite news |date=2024-02-23 |title=Women End 37-Day Fast for ERA in Illinois |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1982/06/24/women-end-37-day-fast-for-era-in-illinois/283fae32-4998-4820-b750-3130880eebed/ |access-date=2024-04-20 |work=Washington Post |language=en-US |issn=0190-8286}} Both groups expressed solidarity for one another in the press.{{Cite news |date=May 28, 1982 |title=ERA Fasting 7 Blasts Holiday |work=The Dispatch}} Fasters included longtime women's rights activists Zoe Nicholson and Sonia Johnson.{{Cite book |last=Banaszak |first=Lee Ann |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qdgzAAAAQBAJ&dq=grassroots+group+of+second+class+citizens+ERA&pg=PA70 |title=The U.S. Women's Movement in Global Perspective |date=2005-09-21 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield Publishers |isbn=978-1-4616-4591-7 |language=en}}{{Cite web |title=Zoe Ann Nicholson |url=https://onlinewithzoe.typepad.com/about.html |access-date=2022-07-24 |website=onlinewithzoe.typepad.com}}

Later years

After the failure of the ERA campaign, Grassroots Group for Second Class Citizens continued to be politically active as they advocated for a variety of feminist causes including for abortion rights. In 1982, the group undertook an action where they posed as "witches" while holding a mock trial of legislators.{{Cite news |date=November 2, 1983 |title=Capitol Witches |work=St. Louis Post-Dispatch}} In 1984, Sargent ran for a seat on the Board of Trustees for the University of Illinois-Champaign. The group finally disbanded in 1993.{{Cite web |title=Collection: Papers of Mary Lee Sargent, 1982-2004 {{!}} HOLLIS for |url=https://hollisarchives.lib.harvard.edu/repositories/8/resources/12218 |access-date=2022-07-24 |website=hollisarchives.lib.harvard.edu}}

Members of the Grassroots Group of Second Class Citizens

Berenice Carroll{{Cite web |title=Berenice Carroll |url=https://theccwh.org/about-the-ccwh/berenice-carroll/ |access-date=2022-07-24 |website=Coordinating Council for Women in History |language=en-US}}
Anne Casey-Elder
Kari Alice Lynn
Loretta Manning
Page Mellish
Joyce Meyer{{Cite news |last=Ogintz |first=Eileen |date=August 2, 1982 |title=August 2, 1982 |work=The Tampa Times}}
Caroline Plank{{Cite news |date=June 30, 1982 |title=ERA Protests Planned Despite Permit Rejection |work=The Herald}}
Mary Lee Sargent{{Cite web |title=Mary Lee Sargent |url=https://www.maryleesargent.org/projects/Grassroots_Groups_of_Second_Class_Citizens.html |access-date=2022-07-24 |website=www.maryleesargent.org}}
Alice Weber
Marlena Williams{{Cite news |date=June 12, 1982 |title=Clock Ticks Away on ERA in Illinois |work=The Pantograph}}
Sue Yarber