Heather Booth has been called “the most influential person you never heard of.” Heather has been involved in battles over voting rights, child care, workers’ rights, immigrant rights, and reproductive freedom. As ealry as elementary school, she stood up against racial discrimination inresponse to an incident. She joined the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) while still in high school to help protest racial discrimination at the lunch counter atWoolworth’s. During her college years, Heather volunteered with the Freedom Summer project to register black voters and set up freedom schools and libraries in Mississippi and formed the Jane Collective to help women get safe abortions before Roe v. Wade. In the 1970’s, Heather founded Midwest Academy to teach grassroots organizing methods.
In more recent years, Heather served as outreach coordinator for the Democrat National Committee (DNC) for women, labor, and related concerns and later was named coordinator for the committee’s National Healthcare Campaign. In 1996, she became training Director for the DNC. She also led the National Voter Fund for the NAACP, served as the Get-Out-the-Vote coordinator forthe New Mexico Kerry/Edwards presidential campaign, directed the AFL-CIO Health Care Campaign, directed the campaign to promote the congressional passing of President Obama’s first budget, and worked to establish theConsumer Financial Protection Bureau.
This is only a brief description touching on just some of the ways Heather has influenced our country. Here are links to some websites with more details and additional information about Heather Booth.
