Phyllis Schlafly

Phyllis Schlafly was a lawyer, activist, author and speaker, and founder of the Eagle Forum known for her staunch social and political conservatism and her successful campaign against the ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Schlafly was born August 15, 1924 in St. Louis, Missouri. She earned her A.B. Phi Beta Kappa from Washington University, in St. Louis in 1944, a master of arts degree in government from Radcliffe College in 1945, and her J.D. from Washington University Law School in 1978.

In 1946, Schlafly became a researcher for the American Enterprise Institute and worked in the successful U.S. House of Representatives campaign of Claude I. Bakewell. In 1952, she ran unsuccessfully for Congress as a Republican in the majority Democratic 24th congressional district of Illinois. She gained national attention when millions of copies of her book, "A Choice, Not an Echo," were distributed in support of Goldwater's 1964 presidential campaign. In 1970, she ran unsuccessfully for a House of Representatives seat in Illinois.

Schlafly became an outspoken opponent of the Equal Rights Amendment during the 1970s as the organizer of the STOP ERA campaign. Schlafly served as a member of the Commission on the Bicentennial of the U.S. Constitution, 1985 to 1991, appointed by President Reagan. She testified before more than 50 congressional and state legislative committees on constitutional, national defense, and family issues. She was the author of 23 books and wrote a syndicated weekly newspaper column.

Schlafly died on September 5, 2016.