THE VFA PIONEER HISTORIES PROJECT

Ernestine Eckstein

April 23, 1941 – July 15, 1992

“Any movement needs a certain number of courageous people, there’s no getting around it. They have to come out on behalf of the cause and accept whatever consequences come. – Ernestine Eckstein for The Ladder, A Lesbian Review,  1966

Marched at some of the first public protests for LGBTQIA rights. Protested against psychologists considering homosexuality a mental illness until 1973. Saw herself as a connecting link between the LGBTQIA community and the civil rights movement, 1960s. NAACP chapter officer, Indiana State University. Leader, New York chapter of Daughters of Bilitis (DOB), the first lesbian civil and political rights organization in the United States. Marched at first Annual Reminder Day, Philadelphia; and in front of the White House as the only woman and person of color demonstrating, 1965. Became involved in the Black feminist movement and joined Black Women Organized for Action (BWOA), 1970s. Graduated, Indiana University, Magazine Journalism and minor in Psychology and Russian, 1963.