by Jeremy Leaming
Judith L. Lichtman one of the nation’s leading -- and most successful -- advocates for equality says she has no intention of ceasing the work she loves anytime soon. And that is tremendous news for a nation where inequalities still loom large.
In an interview with Kathryn Alfisi for Washington Lawyer, Lichtman (pictured) provides insight into her decades-long career of fighting pervasive racial and gender discrimination, as well as income inequality. She entered law school in the 1960s, which was not at any easy endeavor for women because of deeply held prejudices, and she faced hazing for it.
Not terribly long after graduation, Lichtman launched what would become a tireless career as a civil rights activist. She started out investigating segregation and other forms of racial discrimination in southern cities.
“Despite the requirements to integrate public accommodations in Title II of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, there remained many places where public accommodations were segregated,” Lichtman said. “We definitely needed to be cautious during the spring and summer of 1966. One could see segregation all around.”
Later, Lichtman, a member of the ACS Board, would join the Women’s Legal Defense Fund, now the National Partnership for Women & Families, as its executive director. There she oversaw several landmark achievements, including the passage of the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) during President Bill Clinton’s first few weeks in office.
It took, Lichtman recalls, nearly nine years to enact FMLA.
“We Americans always like to say that we’re a family friendly nation, but for that to be true, people need to be able to take time off for medical needs without fear of losing their jobs,” she said. “We were vilified at that time as really being social engineers, but today we estimate that FMLA has been used more than a 100 million times and is wildly popular.”