According to her Wikipedia page (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molly_Yard), she moved to Pittsburgh in 1953, worked on David L. Lawrence's gubernatorial campaign in 1958, led the Western Pennsylvania presidential campaigns of John F. Kennedy in 1960 and George McGovern in 1972, and led an unsuccessful campaign to get NAACP President Byrd Brown the Democratic nomination to Congress.
In 1964 she made an unsuccessful run for the state legislature as a candidate from the 14th Ward. The club formed around her campaign.
Less well-known is that Yard apparently stepped down as president and quit the club in 1977 when she lost a race for ward chair following that year's tumultuous mayoral election.
In a letter to club members
announcing her resignation, Yard
addressed an ongoing philosophical debate about the club's mission:
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| Molly Yard's club resignation letter, 1977. Note the spilled coffee stains. (Click on letter for larger version.) |
Perhaps not coincidentally, Yard joined NOW's national staff the year after writing the letter, so she might have taken the occasion to make a dramatic exit. Still, it's good reading and raises an issues that remain relevant for the club today.
Molly Yard's New York Times obituary (2005) is at this link http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/22/national/22yard.html
Here's more background, from current club president Kathie Smith:
ReplyDeleteMolly Yard and the Club must have made up...
In 1987 when she ran for NOW National President, Club leaders (Celeste and Bill Behrend, Janet Kreisman, Marc and Georgia Schneider and others) had a fundraiser at the Schneiders. I was new to the Club then but was a NOW activist and was a delegate to the convention that elected Molly. The fundraiser was a very crowded event - everyone seemed happy to see Molly. By that time I think she was living in DC and Ligonier. She had been a staff member at National NOW for several years before running for President.
One more thing - her campaign slogan was "Inch by inch is much too hard. We want progress by the Yard"