Ms. Blogger
Loretta Ross
Loretta J. Ross is a co-founder and the National Coordinator of the SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Health Collective, a network founded in 1997 of 80 women of color and allied organizations that work on reproductive justice issues to fulfill a need for a national network that would organize women of color in the reproductive justice movement. SisterSong is headquartered in Atlanta, GA and serves as a national organizing center for feminists of color. Ms. Ross was National Co-Director of the April 25, 2004 March for Women’s Lives in Washington D.C., the largest protest march in U.S. history with more than one million participants. As part of a 30-year history in social justice activism, between 1996-2004, she was the Founder and Executive Director of the National Center for Human Rights Education (NCHRE) in Atlanta, Georgia. She was one of the first African American women to direct a rape crisis center in the 1970s. She is the co-author of Undivided Rights: Women of Color Organize for Reproductive Justice, written with Jael Silliman, Marlene Gerber Fried, and Elena Gutiérrez, and published by South End Press in 2004 (awarded the Myers Outstanding Book Award by the Gustavus Myers Center for the Study of Bigotry and Human Rights), and author of “The Color of Choice” chapter in Incite! Women of Color Against Violence published in 2006. She has also written extensively on the history of African American women and reproductive justice activism. She is a graduate of Agnes Scott College and holds an honorary Doctorate of Civil Law degree awarded in 2003 from Arcadia University. She is pursuing a PhD in Women’s Studies at Emory University in Atlanta. She is a mother, grandmother and a great-grandmother.
Website: http://www.sistersong.net
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Loretta Ross's Posts
Defeating Personhood: A Critical But Incomplete Victory for Reproductive Justice
November 10, 2011 by Loretta Ross · 2 Comments
The headlines all say it: “Personhood defeated in Mississippi!” This was a tremendous victory for the pro-choice movement, one that started campaigning on the ground only September 8, years after proponents of the “Yes on 26” ballot initiative flooded the state with a superbly orchestrated campaign that included well-financed organizing and petition drives. As of this writing, [...]
Race, Class and Rights in Mississippi: Save the Pill and Save the Vote
November 1, 2011 by Loretta Ross · Leave a Comment
Two upcoming Mississippi ballot initiatives–Number 26, on so-called “personhood,” and Number 27, on Voter ID exclusions–may be one of the most important on-the-ground opportunities for the pro-choice and reproductive justice movements to work together. By co-joining race (Voter ID-27) with gender (so-called “Personhood”-26), we have an excellent opportunity to experience intersectionality in practice. Black women [...]
Dr. Dorothy Height, A Sister Whose Shoulders We Stand On
April 21, 2010 by Loretta Ross · 8 Comments
I join the nation in mourning the passing of Dr. Dorothy Height, one of our iconic feminist leaders. She was one of a legion of women who did not get the fame and recognition of their more famous male counterparts, but whose impact on the struggle for human rights leaves footprints so large they may [...]
