Elly Peterson: Fighting for Ford and Feminism

Thursday, August 25th, 7PM

Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum

303 Pearl NW

Book TV will be filming

Reception & Book Signing

Free & Open to the Public

Every year the Greater Grand Rapids Women's History Council celebrates Women's Equality Day, the anniversary of the Nineteenth Amendment granting universal suffrage in 1920. On August 25th we partner with the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum to sponsor an evening with Sara Fitzgerald, author of a new biography on Michigan political icon Elly Peterson: Elly Peterson: Mother of the Moderates.
 

Thirty-five years ago this summer, Peterson was a key leader in two of the most important political campaigns then under way: Gerald R. Ford's contest for the presidency and the campaign to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment. Speaker Sara Fitzgerald will highlight the roles Peterson played in these battles which capped her long political career. Peterson ran for a U.S. Senate seat from Michigan in 1964, twice served as assistant chair of the Republican National Committee, and became the first woman to chair a state committee when she assumed that role in Michigan in 1965.

A native of Michigan, Sara Fitzgerald worked for the Washington Post for fifteen years as an editor and new-media developer. Prior to that, she worked as a reporter and editor for National Journal magazine, the St. Petersburg Times, the Miami Herald, and the Akron Beacon Journal. Fitzgerald was the first woman to serve as editor-in-chief of The Michigan Daily, the University of Michigan's student newspaper.

Join us! BOOK TV will tape our Equality Day program for national distribution!

During a reception after the program, Fitzgerald will sign copies of her new book, available for sale at the Ford gift shop. More information on the Peterson biography is available on the website of the University of Michigan Press, specifically at: http://www.press.umich.edu/titleDetailDesc.do?id=3152225.