THE VFA PIONEER HISTORIES PROJECT
Luellen Laurenti
August 27, 1939 – June 17, 2000
“The Equal Rights Amendment is needed to revise a myriad of federal and state statutes which discriminate against men and women and to provide equal opportunity for all citizens.” – Luellen Laurenti, April 1974
Educator, Activist, Lobbyist. A major force behind the Women’s Movement in Illinois. President of the Bloomington-Normal Chapter of the National Organization for Women. Served in several state office positions for Illinois NOW. Served as Illinois NOW’s President 1985-1987. Executive director of the International Women’s Year Conference in Bloomington, 1977. Worked in Springfield as a lobbyist for Illinois NOW, American Association of University Women, and the Governor’s Commission on the Status of Women in Illinois. Was a Democratic Central Committee woman from 1984 to 1998.
More About Luellen:
- Obituary
- Women’s Studies Loses a Friend: In Memory of Luellen Laurenti by Val Moghadam and Sandra Harmon, Illinois State, August 2000
- The Luellen Laurenti Scholarship Fund
- Luellen Laurenti Collection, McLean County Museum of History
- Cited in Barbara Love’s book, Feminists Who Changed America 1963-1975, page 271