Collection: Loretta J. Ross papers (original) (raw)

Collection

Identifier: SSC-MS-00504

Scope and Contents

The Loretta J. Ross Papers contain speeches, writings, correspondence, organization and conference files, subject files, periodicals, memorabilia and audiovisual materials. The papers pertain primarily to her activism for reproductive justice rights for women of color, anti-violence, and international human rights work. The collection is particularly strong in issues related to black women's health. Other topics include abortion, women's health, teenage pregnancy, housing, socialism, South Africa, and national political activities. Organization files include printed material, board meeting documents, correspondence, memorabilia and notes that document the numerous organizations that Ross founded and was active in, as well as related organizations on which she collected information. They include the Center for Democratic Renewal, National Black Women's Health Project, National Women Health Network, National Center for Human Rights Education, National Organization for Women, Religious Coalition for Abortion Rights, American Friends Service Committee, International Council of African Women, and Women's Global Network on Reproductive Rights.

Dates of Materials

Creator

Language of Materials

English

Conditions Governing Access

This collection is open for use without restriction beyond the standard terms and conditions of Smith College Special Collections.

Conditions Governing Use

Loretta Ross owns copyright to her writings. However, copyright in other items in this collection may be held by their respective creators. For reproductions of materials that are governed by fair use as defined under U. S. Copyright Law, no permission to cite or publish is required. For instances which may regard materials in the collection not created by Loretta Ross, researchers are responsible for determining who may hold materials' copyrights and obtaining approval from them. Researchers do not need anything further from Smith College Special Collections to move forward with their use.

Biographical / Historical

Loretta June Ross was born in Temple, Texas, August 16, 1953, the sixth of eight children in a blended family. Her mother, who brought five older children to her marriage with her father, had been owner of a music store and a domestic worker. She was a housewife as Loretta was growing up. Loretta's father, who hailed from Jamaica, was an Army weapons specialist and drill sergeant. After retiring from the military in 1963, he worked for the US Post Office and often held additional jobs to support the family.

Loretta attended integrated schools - Army schools through second grade, then public schools. She was double-promoted in elementary grades and was an honors student in high school. When Loretta was 11-years-old, a stranger beat and raped her. At age 15 she was the victim of incest by a distant relative; she gave birth to a son, Howard, in April, 1969. Because she chose to keep her child, she lost a scholarship to Radcliffe College.

Soon after enrolling at Howard University in 1970, Ross became involved in black nationalist politics and tenant organizing in Washington, D.C. She joined the D.C. Study Group, a Marxist-Leninist discussion group, and the South Africa Support Project. She became a founder of the National Black United Front and an officer of the City Wide Housing Coalition (1974-80). The murder of her friend and political colleague Yulanda Ward in November 1980, which she considers a political assassination, was a turning point in her life.

Sterilized by use of the Dalkon Shield at the age of 23, Ross found her way to reproductive rights and anti-violence activism. She became one of the first women to win a suit against A.H. Robins, manufacturer of the device. In 1979 she became director of the D.C. Rape Crisis Center, the only center at the time run primarily by and for women of color. In that capacity she organized the first National Conference on Third World Women and Violence in 1980. While serving as Director of Women of Color Programs for the National Organization for Women (1985-89), she organized women of color delegations for the pro-choice marches NOW sponsored in 1986 and 1989, and organized the first national conference on Women of Color and Reproductive Rights in 1987. In response to the Supreme Court's Webster decision in 1989, Ross co-coordinated production of the pathbreaking statement "We Remember: African American Women Are For Reproductive Freedom." As Program Director for the National Black Women's Health Project (1989-90), she coordinated the first national conference of African American women for reproductive rights. From 1980 to 1988, she was a member of the D.C. Commission on Women.

From 1991 to 1995, Ross was National Program Research Director for the Center for Democratic Renewal (formerly the National Anti-Klan Network), where she directed projects on right-wing organizations in South Africa, Klan and neo-Nazi involvement in anti-abortion violence, and human rights education in the U.S. In 1996 she created the National Center for Human Rights Education, a training and resource center for grassroots activists aimed at applying a human rights analysis to injustices in the U.S.

Active internationally, Ross is a founding member of the International Council of African Women and of the Network of East-West Women. She has been a regular participant in International Women and Health Meetings and helped organize the delegation of 1100 African American women to the International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo in 1984. She attended United Nations Women's Conferences in Copenhagen, Nairobi, and Beijing.

Ross has served on numerous boards (including National Women's Health Network, SisterLove Women's AIDS Project, Men Stopping Violence) and testifies on women's health and civil rights issues before Congress and the UN as well as via such national media as the Donahue Show and Pacifica News Service. She publishes on the history of abortion in the black community and is co-author of Undivided Rights: Women of Color Organize for Reproductive Justice (2004). Ross is completing a bachelor's degree at Agnes Scott College.

Ross was co-director for women of color for the April 2004 March for Women's Lives. In January 2005, she became National Coordinator of the SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Health Collective, a growing network of Native American, Latina, African American, Asian American and other women of color groups. SisterSong's mission is to connect reproductive rights to human rights. SisterSong promotes reproductive justice through a combination of the Self-Help approach to internalized oppression and the human rights approach to structural inequity.

The recipient of an honorary degree from Smith College in 2013, Ross has been a visiting professor at Smith, where she has organized two community-wide conferences on Calling In the Calling Out Culture.

For more biographical information see Loretta Ross' oral history, part of the Voices of Feminism Oral History Project.

Extent

33.461 linear feet (73 containers)

87 Gigabytes (35 digital video files)

Additional Description

Abstract

Loretta J. Ross is a Reproductive Rights advocate, Civil Rights activist, feminist, women's health activist. Her papers contain speeches, writings, correspondence, organization and conference files, and audiovisual materials. The collection pertains primarily to Ross' activism for reproductive justice rights for women of color, anti-violence, international human rights work, and particularly to issues related black women's health. Other topics include abortion, women's health, teenage pregnancy, housing, socialism, and South Africa. Organizations represented include the Center for Democratic Renewal, National Black Women's Health Project, National Women Health Network, National Center for Human Rights Education, National Organization for Women, Religious Coalition for Abortion Rights, American Friends Service Committee, International Council of African Women, and Women's Global Network on Reproductive Rights.

Arrangement

This collection is organized into nine series with two additional series based on more recent accessions. The nine original series are:

  1. SERIES I. BIOGRAPHICAL MATERIALS AND PHOTOGRAPHS, 1956-2004
  2. SERIES II. CORRESPONDENCE, 1956-2005
  3. SERIES III. WRITINGS AND SPEECHES, 1956-2005
  4. SERIES IV. ORGANIZATION FILES , 1938-2002
  5. SERIES V. CONFERENCES AND EVENTS, 1986-2003
  6. SERIES VI. SUBJECT FILES , 1961-1997
  7. SERIES VII. AUDIOVISUAL MATERIALS, 1983-2001
  8. SERIES VIII. MEMORABILIA, 1982-94
  9. SERIES IX. PERIODICALS, 1978-1999

Arrangement

This collection has been added to over time in multiple "accessions." An accession is a group of materials received from the same source at approximately the same time.

Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements

Some audiovisual content was received in digital form and is not currently available online. Please consult with Special Collections staff to request access to this digital content.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Donated by Loretta Ross, 2003 and 2013-2014. Calling In the Calling Out Culture conference video recordings were donated by Kate Geis, 2018.

Additional Formats

Video and audio recordings in this collection have been digitized for research use and are available online (Smith campus only). Playlist available online: http://www.smith.edu/libraries/libs/ssc/audiovisuals.html.

Additional audiovisual content was received in digital form and is not currently available online. Please consult with Special Collections staff to request access to this digital content.

Processing Information

Processed by Susan Boone, 2005.

Processing Information

Between September 2022 and February 2023, Smith College Special Collections renumbered many boxes to eliminate duplicate numbers within collections in order to improve researcher experience. A full crosswalk of old to new numbers is available.

Finding Aid & Administrative Information

Title

Finding aid to Loretta J. Ross papers

Status

Legacy Finding Aid (Updated)

Author

Finding aid prepared by Susan Boone, Revised by Tanya Pearson, 2014; Revised by Ellice Yasner Amanna, 2020

Date

2013; 2020

Description rules

Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Language of description

English

Script of description

Latin

Revision Statements

Repository Details

Repository Details

Part of the Sophia Smith Collection of Women's History Repository