From her early days supporting the Equal Rights Amendment to her tireless work on behalf of mental health issues, Rosalynn Carter has kept pace with her husband, Jimmy Carter, as a promoter of civic good.
Her achievements were recognized in 2010 when she was elected to the National Women's Hall of Fame, in Seneca Falls, N.Y., the birthplace of the women's suffrage movement.
Now the hall of fame is completing a short documentary on the former first lady to be shown in its exhibition hall and to be available on the group’s website.
Merrill Amos, a curator and educator at the hall of fame, traveled to the Carter Center in Atlanta this summer to conduct interviews with Mrs. Carter. Audio from that interview is available on the Wavemaker podcast hosted by Michael Schulder, formerly with CNN, who also participated in the interviews.
The hall of fame is also raising money to pay for video equipment to display that footage in the Seneca museum. Those who want to contribute can go to their Give Gab website.
In her interview, Carter spoke of personally calling senators and congressmen during her husband’s first year in office to ask for their support of the Equal Rights Amendment, said Amos. “The response she got from many of these men was that (women) belonged in the kitchen. That’s what they told the first lady.”
Amos said the Carter project is part of a larger initiative to gather oral histories from a variety of hall of fame members. “The goal for the project is to create exhibits out of these interviews with living inductees,” she said. “It’s a new way to engage with these women’s stories.”
About the Author
