"I believe in the stubbornness of civil disobedience and I'm not afraid of it. I remember one May Day demonstration. In 1971. Still wartime. We were arrested and we were in this big, sort of football field. Barbara Deming and I were walking around, arm in arm. We had been arrested together. It was very cold. Everybody was finding someone to walk very close to. Later on, one person wasn't enough, we would try to get into groups that huddled: fifteen. But at that point, Barbara and I were walking arm in arm and it was a pretty messy place, because that was the year they arrested thirteen or fourteen thousand people, just picking them up off the street, and then they didn't know what the hell to do with them. At that point we were in a football field. Later, we were put inside a stadium. And so we were walking around, arm in arm, talking to each other, and then congresspeople came in to see what was going on, and Bella Abzug came over to talk to us. She and I had always had these disagreements about the electoral work and what you can call action, direct action, and we would talk to each other about this. So she came over and she looked at me and Barbara walking arm in arm. She asked how we were. She was a congresswoman at this time. She was worried about us. We said we were all right. And then she said, "Well, I guess you're where you want to be and I'm where I want to be." And we laughed, we all laughed together. And I want to say about Bella that she was at this Women's Pentagon demonstration. She came, she walked with everybody, she didn't look for any limelight of any kind. She just sort of walked, and begged me not to get arrested. Again, she said she thought it was a waste of time. I could do more outside. But she really was just a part of the action. That's what we wanted all of our leaders to be, just a part of the women's action."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Lawyers from New York (state)Feminists from the United StatesWomen activists from the United StatesWomen's rights activistsWomen in law
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
1981 interview in Conversations with Grace Paley
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Bella_Abzug
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Bella Abzug
Bella Savitsky Abzug (July 24, 1920 – March 31, 1998) was an American political figure, a leader of the women's movement, and a member of the United States House of Representatives.
39 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Bella Abzug →
Related Quotes
"When I went to represent my law firm anywhere—I was a young kid just out of college—I said, “How do you do? I'm Bella…"
"Just imagine for a moment what life in this country might have been if women had been properly represented in Congres…"
"When it comes to child care, the United States is at a primitive stage compared to countries like Israel, Denmark, Sw…"
"All I say is that anybody who thinks he can take me lightly because I'm fresh and colorful had better watch out. (p 49)"
"Ever since my youth I've been a Zionist, and I worked hard for the cause of a Jewish homeland too. I've visited Israe…"
"The test for whether or not you can hold a job should not be in the arrangement of your chromosomes. (p. 80)"
"Then up gets Carl Albert to tell us he supports Bolling's resolution because he wants to see us work together with th…"
"Without getting scientific or psychological or historical about it, it's long been my judgment that women have been a…"
"This moment in history requires women to lead the movement for radical change (p 203)"
"When I was a young lawyer, working women wore hats. It was the only way they would take you seriously."