THE VFA PIONEER HISTORIES PROJECT
Catherine “Katie” Roraback
“Feminism and Its Values, an Intergenerational Dialogue”
April 16, 2005, Cromwell CT
There are a couple of things that I have wanted to say. One of them was that being a lawyer ever since 1948, I may say, it wasn’t so unusual for me to realize that a woman could be a lawyer and also that you could make a living at it. Not a great one, as some people have made it, but I had a great time doing it. But one of the things I want to tell you is that when I was first retained to bring the litigation which ended up as Griswold vs Connecticut, I was in my office, and my name had gotten in the papers. In case you don’t know it, the Roraback name was notorious in those days.
Not because of me, but because of my family. But in any event, it had been in the paper. And the phone rang, and I answered the phone, and this voice said to me, Miss Roraback? And I said, yes. She said, this is Alice Paul.
Alice Paul lived, I think it was, in Ridgefield or somewhere down in that part of Connecticut. And she called because she had read about the case, and she wanted me to understand that it was a great case to be involved in, and she hoped we would win. But I should not think that if you won that case, you had won everything for women in this country, that it was just one more step in this long, long fight to get equality for women. And we must have talked for half an hour that day. And she sort of had me practically swearing on the Bible that I would be good and remember her lesson.
But she would call me every few months to be sure that I hadn’t forgotten and that I was going to keep the faith. I always think of her as over the years, things have gone on, and I did try to follow through, but she is still with us, as far as I’m concerned, as is Elizabeth Katie Stanton, as is every name you can think of. Isabella Hooker of Hartford, who was certainly one of the great leaders of the women’s movement back in the days of Elizabeth Katie Stanton. Let’s remember, they’re all there.
It’s not a first wave, a second wave, or a third wave. We’ve had a continual movement of the ocean, sometimes a little ebb tide here or there, but we keep on fighting. And I hope you all take Alice Pauls lesson to heart. Remember, she’s up there looking at you and saying, what are you doing today?