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A PECULIAR PROBLEM ARISES when stories of social change - and the radical figures of those stories - persistently stay in the past tense. Much of what is known about the birth of radical feminism has been lost in archives, stunted by its out-of-print status or otherwise obscured by mainstream feminist efforts to make feminism palatable to a wider audience. As such, opportunities for intergenerational knowledge making and intermovement dialogue have been lost to many feminists who came of age after the late 1960s and early 1970s. In my ongoing work, I have sought to reestablish intergenerational links by gathering oral histories of early radical feminists.1 This article focuses in detail on the much understudied Ti-Grace Atkinson, whose role in the early radical feminist movement has received less recognition than it should. I present parts of an interview with Atkinson examining the impact of radical feminism, its ideological and political origins, key figures in the movement, her connection to key feminist figures, and lessons feminists have both succeeded and failed to learn while building and sustaining a progressive social movement for gender justice.
I came conduct to this interview in the context of writing a book about Valerie Solanas - noted author of the scum [Society for Cutting Up Men] Manifesto, whose shooting of artist Andy Warhol in 1968 provoked deep fissures within the feminist movement.2 In order to research Solanas, I interviewed several radical feminists, including Ti-Grace Atkinson, hoping to glean information about her contentious relationship with Solanas and to learn about Atkinson's role in the early years of radical feminism. Although my Atkinson interview certainly shed light on conflicts about Solanas, it also showcased Atkinson's role as a nucleus of early radical feminism, a one-woman networking powerhouse, and a subject of great interest in her own right.
Atkinson, born November 9, 1938, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, started as a writer for Art News in New York City. After divorcing her husband of five years in 1961, she graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1964 and joined the National Organization for Women (now) shortly thereafter, eventually becoming its president in 1967. In 1968, she split off from now dramatically and publicly when now decided to maintain its organizational hierarchical structure (e.g., insisting upon...