 I was born in 1945 in Brookhaven, Mississippi, while my father was in the army in WWII. I sometimes say, never stereotype anyone or any place. I was born into a very loving family with really wonderful "family values." We believed in treating people with decency, and living the values we cared about - and about building a better world. Being surrounded by such love, I thought all people should be treated this way. I was also brought up Jewish and learned the values of struggling for freedom from the history, the culture, the holidays-and the texts: "Justice, justice thou shalt pursue." Twice saying justice, because it was that important.
My mother, Hazel Victoria Weisbard Tobis, was a wonderful person-filled with song, warmth, humor, energy and love. She was her high school valedictorian, but her father denied her the right to go to college on scholarship because he didn't believe women should get an education. She returned to school after we, her kids, were in high school. She became a special ed teacher and a loved part of schools where she taught. She shared the values of treating people equally. She was the first person who showed me Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique (when I was in high school) and encouraged me to read it. She died in 2004 from Alzheimer's and I still miss her in my life. One of the nicest things a person can say to me is that I remind them of my mother.
My father, Jerry Sanford Tobis, is also a remarkable and wonderful person. He is beloved by almost all who know him-personally as a fabulous friend, professionally as a skilled and insightful physician and teacher, and is always reaching out, engaged, connecting people and acting on his beliefs. He is a physician of physical therapy medicine and has specialized in treatment of brain damage, of the elderly, and as a medical ethicist. With emeritus status at his University Hospital, he still works four days a week and has nearly endless interest, groups he is part of (complementary medicine, ethics, book club, a mens' group he has been in for 40 years, and the list goes on).
For all the loving, I think I was very insecure - perhaps this is a plight of most women. Would I be good enough, know enough was always a question. In the ways that weaknesses can become strengths (and strengths weaknesses) I used this to engage others, to learn, to break down how to do things in small understandable parts and became a real teacher, because I was trying to learn. I still acted for change, but in spite of this insecurity (not because I was confident - just committed to doing justice).
Heather playing the guitar for Fannie Lou Hamer, a great hero of the civil rights movement |
In high school, I quit a sorority I was recruited into, when I realized they did not include any kids who were "outsiders"-- outside of traditional notions of beauty (though I thought I was not attractive), who were black in an overwhelmingly white school, who were overweight, or idiosyncratic. I decided to join the "outsiders." For the same reason I quit the cheerleading team. And sought out those working for a better society. I connected through the American Friends Service Committee with anti-death penalty work and then with CORE and support for the sit-ins against Woolworth's. From there, I connected with SNCC.
Entering the University of Chicago, my life opened up as I found others who shared my beliefs and wanted to turn them into action. I became very active in the civil rights movement, head of campus Friends of SNCC, student government, our progressive campus political party and student organization that became SDS, and many other activities. In response to one of the guys telling me to "shut up" when I was talking...I formed the first campus women's organization in the country (in 1965): Women's Radical Action Program or WRAP. We did an analysis of "significant responses" to women and men in class - and found men received 4 times more significant responses from the faculty when they spoke (whether positive or negative). We designed ways to highlight how women were kept "in their place" and ways to support women (students and faculty and in subjects, getting student initiated classes).
Leaving Western College to head South, volunteers in the Mississippi Summer Project sing "We Shall Overcome" with their whole hearts as they prepare to face the unknown during the summer of '64 civil rights protests. (Photo by Ted Polumbaum/Newseum collection.) | In 1964, I went to Mississippi, as part of the Freedom Summer Project, and returned to campus with even deeper commitment to the "movement" for justice.
I went to an SDS conference in 1965, where "the woman question" was being discussed and returned to set up many consciousness raising groups around Chicago. A friend was raped at knife point. We went with her to get a gynecological exam. Student health said gynecological exams were not covered and she was given a lecture on her promiscuity. We sat with her. Over time, women now can receive gynecological exams from student health. Organizing works.
In 1965, a friend told me his sister was pregnant and needed an abortion. I had not thought about this issue before. I thought I would try to help (as you should do if you believe in the "golden rule."). I found a doctor through the Medical Committee for Human Rights (TRM Howard, who it turns out was an  amazing civil rights activist.) The treatment was successful; word spread and others came to see me for this. Over time, this became JANE or The Service, which performed 11,000 abortions (which the women who ran it learned to perform themselves) until Roe became the law in 1973.
In 1966, I was a leader of a sit-in against the war in Vietnam. We were the first campus in the country where the students took over the administration building over the war. Paul Booth was the National Secretary of SDS, based in Chicago, which was (at that time) the largest student organization in the country. He came to my campus (both as a leader of the anti-war movement and he says he was looking for me). We sat next to each other for several days. After three days he asked me to marry him. After 5 days, I said I would, though said we should wait a year, till I graduated. We have been married for 43 years. There has been a lot we have learned together - about how to be mindful of a relationship and the benefits of struggle as well as love and support. And we look forward to growing old together, supporting each other. We love our two grown sons and their wives (filled with creativity, warmth, wonderful values) and now four grandchildren. Truly a joy in life.
 In 1967, I helped to found the Chicago Women's Liberation Union-and set up work groups: Action Committee for Decent Childcare (won $1 million for childcare, revision of childcare center licensing, and parents and providers on a childcare review board), Women's Liberation School, and many other groups. In 1970, with the Women's Strike ("don't iron while the strike is hot!" was the slogan), I realized NOW was the leading edge of this movement and joined with them. I was going to graduate school and teaching school - and raising two kids. After I was fired for union organizing (defending the rights of clericals where I worked who were terribly abused), I won a back pay suit from the NLRB. With that money, I started a training center for organizers: Midwest Academy - still very effective today training the next generation of activists.
We helped to start and support the working women's movement and move direct action campaigns. I trained a good portion of the early leadership/chapters/regional conferences of NOW and other parts of the women's movement. We helped to design a campaign against Sears Roebuck, which discriminated against women as employees (held In low paying jobs) and customers (wives could not get credit in their own name). The campaign was destroyed when Sears undercut the leadership election in NOW. Had there been this campaign that might have united women from working class (Sears customers and employees) areas, I think the history of the women's movement might have been an even stronger one.
I helped to start many national organizations and local ones. In 1980 when Reagan was elected, I decided to learn about elections and train others in how to approach this work in their organizations. I helped many organizations find ways to combine their efforts with politics in a time when few issue groups made this link. I became very active in Chicago and became the deputy field director for the Mayor Washington campaign.
 My husband got a job in Washington (where I had been commuting as the co-director of Citizen Action-an organization working on consumer issues, with nearly 3 million members at its height). We moved to DC, and though I hated it (it wasn't Chicago) initially, I've come to love it, filled with friends and good work and quite a wonderful area. I've led or organized or advised many groups - immigration reform, health care reform (through AFL-CIO running their campaign in 2008), campaign to pass the Obama budget (the first campaign of the new administration) and recently I directed Americans for Financial Reform that won reforms to regulate the financial industry. I ran the state outreach for the first mobilization for women's lives (pro-choice rallies-with 250,000 in DC and 250,000 more around the country).
In 1992, I ran Carol Mosely Braun's field operation when she successfully ran for Senate. In 1993, I went to work for the Democratic Party and became their training director, helping to create a model of modern campaign training. And I was the founding director of NAACP National Voter Fund, which helped to increase the African American vote by nearly 2 million voters in 2000. I am now working with One Nation Working Together: Putting America Back to Work and Pulling America Back Together. It is a mobilization to re-engage and re-inspire people to act to change this world for the better.
It is a great life. Demanding, challenging, rewarding. Filled with wonderful friends and family. And great joys. We can change the world, IF we organize! And we have changed the world, because we organized!
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