Category: Women's History

Watch "Talkin' Union" online - What You Can Do Now

3/26/2025

Women's History Month - Texas Labor Organizers
online

Gender Equity Forum

In honor of Women's History month in March, the Gender Equity forum brings you Talkin Union, a 4-part documentary about four women who organized labor unions in Texas in the 1930s, 40s, and 50s. This film is available for viewing online here. Each part is about 15 minutes long and features footage of the women. Fascinating!

There is also a book, Talkin' Union: Texas Women Workers, about these pioneering labor organizers that you can buy at this link.

Alta Price (she/her)

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PACG Book Club - "The All-Girl Filling Station's Last Reunion" May 2024

4/23/2024

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PACG Book Club - The All-Girl Filling Station's Last Reunion by Fannie Flagg
Monday, May 20th at 5:15 pm - hybrid meeting

Edwards Congregational UCC
3420 Jersey Ridge Rd
Davenport, IA (map)

PACG Book Club

For May we will read and discuss The All-Girl Filling Station's Last Reunion by Fannie Flagg. I loved learning this largely forgotten early history of women in aviation. And the book was just fun! Contact me for the Zoom link if you want to come that way.

Here is more information from Goodreads:

Poland, 1909
Stanislaw is determined to escape the Russians and follow his brother to America, a land where anything seems possible.

Wisconsin, 1941
With all the men off to war, Fritzi and her sisters must learn men’s work -- from fixing flats to driving the tow truck. They add their own touches, too: neat little caps, short skirts and roller skates, and the All-Girl Filling Station is born. Their peace doesn’t last long though: skilled women are needed to fly planes for the war effort.

Alabama, 2005
Mrs Sookie Earle has just married off the last of her daughters and is looking forward to putting her feet up. But then one day a package arrives. Its contents knock Sookie sideways, propelling her back to the 1940s, and four irrepressible sisters whose wartime adventures force them to reimagine who they are, and what they are capable of.

Alta Price

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PACG Book Club - "Looking for Jane", January 2024

12/30/2023

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PACG Book Club - Looking for Jane by Heather Marshall
Monday, January 15th at 5:15 pm - hybrid meeting

Edwards Congregational UCC
3420 Jersey Ridge Rd
Davenport, IA (map)

PACG Book Club

Note: Our PACG Book Club discussion will start 15 minutes later as another group now uses the room at the church until 5 pm.

For January we will read and discuss Looking for Jane by Heather Marshall. The book is set in Canada in current times, but follows the lives of the characters in earlier decades before abortion was legal in Canada. Although abortion is a theme, there is more emphasis on mothers, daughters and relationships. I would consider it historical fiction.

Here is more about the book from Goodreads:

"A debut about three women whose lives are bound together by a long-lost letter, a mother’s love, and a secret network of women fighting for the right to choose—inspired by true stories."

"2017: When Angela Creighton discovers a mysterious letter containing a life-shattering confession, she is determined to find the intended recipient. Her search takes her back to the 1970s when a group of daring women operated an illegal underground abortion network in Toronto known only by its whispered code name: Jane."

"1971: As a teenager, Dr. Evelyn Taylor was sent to a home for “fallen” women where she was forced to give up her baby for adoption—a trauma she has never recovered from. Despite harrowing police raids and the constant threat of arrest, she joins the Jane Network as an abortion provider, determined to give other women the choice she never had."

"1980: After discovering a shocking secret about her family, twenty-year-old Nancy Mitchell begins to question everything she has ever known. When she unexpectedly becomes pregnant, she feels like she has no one to turn to for help. Grappling with her decision, she locates “Jane” and finds a place of her own alongside Dr. Taylor within the network’s ranks, but she can never escape the lies that haunt her."

Our February book will be Prequel: An American Fight Against Fascism by Rachel Maddow. Read more about the book at this PACG Blog post.

Hope you can make it! Click on my name for a link to the Zoom meeting.

Alta Price

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Did You Know About African-American Women's Clubs in Davenport During the Progressive Era?

2/8/2020

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Did You Know About African American Women's Clubs in Davenport During the Progressive Era?

Donate to Preserve Local Cultural and Ethnic History

During the Progressive era (1890 - 1920) women of all backgrounds joined clubs to advocate for social and political change. These movements included women's suffrage and prohibition. Progressive reformers strove to end political corruption, improve the lives of individuals, and increase government intervention to protect citizens. Read more about female reformers in the progressive era.

In Davenport African American women formed their own women's clubs, as they were not welcome in white women's clubs. In addition to issues faced by women in particular and citizens in general, African American women had additional issues to confront. For example, many African American women's clubs wanted to demonstrate that black women were as moral and refined as white women, contrary to widespread negative racist stereotypes about them. Anti-lynching campaigns were promoted by some African American Women's clubs, also an issue of more concern to African American women.

Read more at this Wikipedia article on the Woman's Club Movement, which has a section devoted to African American women's clubs if you scroll down.

By 1919, African American women in Davenport had formed about 13 women’s clubs, starting with the oldest, the Silver Autumn Leaf Club founded in 1893, to the two newest, the Young People’s Progressive League and the Madame C J Walker Club, both founded in 1919.

You can help preserve this history by making a donation to purchase a display screen for the Martin Luther King Interactive Center.

Iowa Federation of Colored Women’s Club photo - 1903

Members of the Iowa State Federation of Colored Women's Clubs gathered in front of Bethel A. M. E. Church at 624 West Fourth Street in May 1903. (State Historical Society of Iowa--Des Moines) Organized in 1902 in Ottumwa, Iowa, the Iowa Federation of Colored Womens Clubs (IFCWC) worked to improve the home and social lives of African-American women in Iowa. Guided by their motto Sowing the Seeds of Kindness, the IFCWC also focused on the welfare of children and civil rights. Proud to host the clubs second annual meeting in 1903, the Davenport delegation was led by Ruth Richardson, who is seated in the front row on the far left.

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Celebration of Women: March 25, 2018 - Sponsored by Quad Cities NOW

3/11/2018

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PACG Book Club - March 20, 2018

3/1/2018

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Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine is our March 2018 book.

The PACG Book Club met for the first time on Tuesday, Feb 27th at 6 pm at Fresh Deli to discuss The Little Book of Restorative Justice by Howard Zehr. We had an interesting group that included a few experts in restorative justice as well as many who had never heard of the concept. It was a productive conversation.

We agreed to meet on the third Tuesday of the month in the future, since the Sierra Club book club meets on the fourth Tuesday. So our next discussion will be Tuesday, March 20, 6 - 7:30 pm. We will meet at Fresh Deli in the Davenport Freight House (421 W River Dr, Davenport IA).

We had three professors from St. Ambrose at our discussion, including a professor of English literature, Emily Kingery. Emily suggested a book she teaches in class that will be perfect for Women's History month. It is Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine. You can read more about the book at the link to the title. I am going to include a few quotes from reviews.

(Note: Since the book includes visual art, you may want to get the paperback rather than get it on your e-reader.)

"Marrying prose, poetry, and the visual image, Citizen investigates the ways in which racism pervades daily American social and cultural life, rendering certain of its citizens politically invisible. Rankine's formally inventive book challenges our notion that citizenship is only a legal designation that the state determines by expanding that definition to include a larger understanding of civic belonging and identity, built out of cross-racial empathy, communal responsibility, and a deeply shared commitment to equality."—National Book Award Judges' Citation

"So groundbreaking is Rankine's work that it's almost impossible to describe; suffice it to say that this is a poem that reads like an essay (or the other way around)—a piece of writing that invents a new form for itself, incorporating pictures, slogans, social commentary and the most piercing and affecting revelations to evoke the intersection of inner and outer life."—Los Angeles Times

For book discussion questions click here.

Alta Price

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Watch "Talkin' Union" online - What You Can Do Now

Women's History Month - Texas Labor Organizers
online

PACG Book Club - "The All-Girl Filling Station's Last Reunion" May 2024

PACG Book Club - The All-Girl Filling Station's Last Reunion by Fannie Flagg
Monday, May 20th at 5:15 pm - hybrid meeting

Edwards Congregational UCC
3420 Jersey Ridge Rd
Davenport, IA (map)

PACG Book Club

PACG Book Club - "Looking for Jane", January 2024

PACG Book Club - Looking for Jane by Heather Marshall
Monday, January 15th at 5:15 pm - hybrid meeting

Edwards Congregational UCC
3420 Jersey Ridge Rd
Davenport, IA (map)

PACG Book Club

Did You Know About African-American Women's Clubs in Davenport During the Progressive Era?

Did You Know About African American Women's Clubs in Davenport During the Progressive Era?

Iowa Federation of Colored Women’s Club photo - 1903

Celebration of Women: March 25, 2018 - Sponsored by Quad Cities NOW

PACG Book Club - March 20, 2018

Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine is our March 2018 book.

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Watch "Talkin' Union" online - What You Can Do Now

Women's History Month - Texas Labor Organizersonline

PACG Book Club - "The All-Girl Filling Station's Last Reunion" May 2024

PACG Book Club - The All-Girl Filling Station's Last Reunion by Fannie FlaggMonday, May 20th at 5:15 pm - hybrid meetingEdwards Congregational UCC3420 Jersey Ridge RdDavenport, IA (map)​PACG Book Club

PACG Book Club - "Looking for Jane", January 2024

PACG Book Club - Looking for Jane by Heather MarshallMonday, January 15th at 5:15 pm - hybrid meetingEdwards Congregational UCC3420 Jersey Ridge RdDavenport, IA (map)​PACG Book Club

Did You Know About African-American Women's Clubs in Davenport During the Progressive Era?

Did You Know About African American Women's Clubs in Davenport During the Progressive Era?

Iowa Federation of Colored Women’s Club photo - 1903

Celebration of Women: March 25, 2018 - Sponsored by Quad Cities NOW

PACG Book Club - March 20, 2018

Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine is our March 2018 book.

Archives

Categories

Women's History Month - Texas Labor Organizers
online

PACG Book Club - The All-Girl Filling Station's Last Reunion by Fannie Flagg
Monday, May 20th at 5:15 pm - hybrid meeting

Edwards Congregational UCC
3420 Jersey Ridge Rd
Davenport, IA (map)

PACG Book Club

PACG Book Club - Looking for Jane by Heather Marshall
Monday, January 15th at 5:15 pm - hybrid meeting

Edwards Congregational UCC
3420 Jersey Ridge Rd
Davenport, IA (map)

PACG Book Club