GSU Library Research Guides: Feminist Action Alliance History Project: C

Cormack, Judith

Interviewee: Judith Cormack
Interviewer: Tristan Slade
Date of interview: August 11, 1998

Biography
Judith Gumpert [Lightfoot] Cormack was born in 1937, in New York, New York. After she married, she and her husband (Arthur) moved to Australia, where she worked for IBM from 1964 to1968. In 1968, Cormack returned to the United States and settled in Atlanta, Georgia where she continued working in the computer industry. Her involvement in the Women's Movement began in 1969 when she joined the newly-formed Atlanta branch of National Organization for Women (NOW). Through her activities with NOW, Cormack became a significant figure in the Women's Movement both in Georgia and nationally. She was a founding member of the Georgia Women's Political Caucus (1971), a member of the 1972 Georgia Commission on the Status of Women, and served as a member, southern regional director, and chair of the board during NOW's split in the 1970s. In 1978 Cormack returned to Australia where she has lived for over twenty years.

Abstract
Cormack discusses with vivid clarity what it was like growing up in a socially progressive, middle-class, multi-ethnic New York neighborhood and how that early experience resonated with her throughout her life. She also describes her experiences traveling in Australia as an "independent, young, American woman from New York City," who was faced with blatant sex discrimination. Cormack moved to Atlanta in 1968 and she describes her involvement with the local Jewish community. She also recounts her first contact with the Women's Movement at a suburban shopping center where members of the local chapter of NOW had set up a table and were disturbing literature and sign-up sheets. Cormack then describes her work for NOW and the problems within its membership at both state and national levels. She also discusses social causes that were of importance to her, including reproductive rights for women, inequality within the legal system, and the challenges involved in fighting a conservative Georgia legislature.

Cormack Interview, August 18. 1998: Transcript

Crockett, Delores

Interviewee: Delores Crockett
Interviewer: Janet Paulk
Date of interview: November 7, 2007

Interviewee: Delores Crockett
Interviewer: Tiffany Gray
Date of interview: October 26, 2023

Biography:
Delores Loraine "Raine" Crockett is a retired civil servant who spent twenty-seven years working for the U.S. Women's Bureau before retiring in 2006. Born in Daytona Beach, FL , she grew up in public housing, and was raised in a close family that included a single mother, three grandparents, and godparents. Valedictorian of her high school class, Crockett left Florida in 1965 to attend Atlanta's Spelman College, where she majored in psychology and graduated at age twenty-one (1969). Subsequently, she married, gave birth to a daughter, and earned a graduate degree in Counseling (1972), and divorced. After working for a nonprofit and later for Avon products, she joined the Women's Bureau, part of the U.S. Department of Labor. Over the years, she held several positions, at one point overseeing an eight-state region, and at another time, living in Washington, D.C. while serving as Deputy Director. She returned to Atlanta in 2001 and ended her career as Field Operations Manager in charge of all the Bureau's regional offices.

Crockett is a Leadership Atlanta alum (1977), and past board member, and she has served on a number of boards and commissions, including the American Red Cross, Big Brothers/Big Sisters, the Georgia Commission on the Status of Women, and Georgia’s Employment and Training Council. She was also a member of Georgia’s delegation to the 1977 International Women’s Year Conference.

Abstract, November 7, 2007:
Crockett discusses her youth in Daytona Beach, Florida as part of a large extended family. She reminisces about her college years at Spelman, including student marches, the Black Power movement, and the death of Martin Luther King, Jr. In jobs she held with the nonprofit Minority Women's Empowerment Project and the for-profit Avon products, she recalls her work on economic issues facing women in the 1970s: job training, interview-writing, and preparation for job interviews, also the challenges involving childcare and elder care, issues that were also important during her years with the U.S. Women's Bureau. Crockett discusses the speeches she gave across the country advocating for women's employment in nontraditional jobs and the importance of retirement security. She reviewed legislation that became the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993. The Women's Bureau endorsed the Equal Rights Amendment and Crockett recalls her attendance at the National Women's Conference in Houston in 1977 and her appointment to the Georgia Commission on the Status of Women by Governor George Busbee. She analyzes the reasons for the ERA's defeat.