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November 20

11-20 TABLE of CONTENTS: Women and Jury Duty DATES, ANNIVERSARIES, and EVENTS QUOTE by Barbra Streisand. Women and Jury Duty       Event 11-20-1961, the Supreme Court upholds a Florida law which exempts women from jury duty, unless they volunteer. In all, 18 states allow the jury duty exemption while three state, Alabama, Mississippi, and South Carolina outright barred women from jury duty.       However, on 02-07-1966, a federal court rules that such laws should end on June 1, 1967 because such laws "deny to women the equal protection of the laws in violation of the 14th amendment."       In January of 1975 the Supreme Court says a Louisiana law forbidding women serving on juries is unconstitutional.       The first woman juror served in the State of New York in 1936... 1936, that's no typo. | PRIOR DATE |        | HOME |       | WOA INDEX |       | NEXT DATE |   | RETURN TO TOP OF PAGE | 11-20 DATES, ANNIVERSARIES, and EVENTS B. 11-20-1827, Emily Howland, received an honorary doctorate by the University of the State of New York at age 99 for her services to educating black students which included helping establish or aiding more than 30 institutions of learning in the youth, and schools in New York and Virginia. B. 11-20-1858, Selma Lagerlof, Swedish writer, was translated into 30 languages and the first woman member of the Swedish Academy. B. 11-20-1885, Olive D. Wetzel Dennis, service engineer with Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. She is responsible for such unheard of things as air conditioning, reclining seats, and dressing rooms to be installed on trains. She had an MA in mathematics and a civil engineering degree. B. 11-20-1912, Carman Dee Barnes, her first novel Schoolgirl (1929) published at 16 got her expelled from a private New York City school because it was so "risque." It is still considered readable by some critics, but the play adaptation turned the novel into white bread. Her daughter is Diantha Barnes, Southern poet and folklorist. B. 11-20-1923, Nadine Gordimer, South African writer, winner of the 1991 Nobel Prize for literature. One of her most notable books is A Guest of Honor. | PRIOR DATE |        | HOME |       | WOA INDEX |       | NEXT DATE | | RETURN TO TOP OF PAGE | QUOTES DU JOUR STREISAND, BARBRA:       "Language gives us an insight into the way women are viewed in a male-dominated society. A man shows leadership; a woman is controlling. If a man wants to get it right, he's looked up to and respected. If a woman wants to get it right, she's difficult and demanding."             -- Barbra Streisand, 1992 | PRIOR DATE |        | HOME |       | WOA INDEX |       | NEXT DATE | | RETURN TO TOP OF PAGE |