In this photograph, women embark on the “Relay for ERA” from Seneca Falls, New York (the site of the first women’s rights convention), to Houston, Texas (the site of the National Women’s Conference). The posters on the car read: “Relay for E.R.A. – Seneca Falls, N.Y. to Houston, TX,” “New York to Houston,” and “Women on the Move.”
More than 20,000 people—including First Lady Rosalynn Carter, former First Ladies Lady Bird Johnson and Betty Ford, Coretta Scott King, and Susan B. Anthony II (the suffragist’s grandniece)—attended the First National Women’s Conference in Houston, Texas, in 1977. The torch was passed to a new wave of women reformers at the ambitious conference. Two thousand and five state delegates recommended to Congress and the President how to advance women’s rights. Delegates adopted a 26-plank national plan, addressing issues such as career interests, rights for minority women, and the Equal Rights Amendment. The outcome was a National Plan of Action for women’s rights, inclusive of women of color.
