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Excerpt from Oral History Interview with Rita Jackson Samuels, April 30, 1974. Interview A-0077. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007) See Entire Interview >>

Few white women in Georgia state legislature

Samuels resists answering a question about the absence of women in the state legislature, but eventually makes a reply: she thinks that white women need to be more aggressive in running for office.

Citing this Excerpt

Oral History Interview with Rita Jackson Samuels, April 30, 1974. Interview A-0077. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007) in the Southern Oral History Program Collection, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Full Text of the Excerpt

JACK BASS:
Let me ask you this question. Why do you think that . . .how do you explain the fact that there are no women . . . no white women in the Georgia legislature? There are only two women in the Georgia legislature and both are black.
RITA JACKSON SAMUELS:
Well, now, I don't think that you can address questions like that to me and expect me to come up with answers.
JACK BASS:
You're a woman.
RITA JACKSON SAMUELS:
Yeah, but . . .
JACK BASS:
You're a woman and you deal with . . .and part of your role is to deal with discrimination and the role of women, and I just wondered how you . . .
RITA JACKSON SAMUELS:
But I'm really not into that a whole lot.
JACK BASS:
Okay.
RITA JACKSON SAMUELS:
I mean, . . .
JACK BASS:
Do you have any theories on it, though?
RITA JACKSON SAMUELS:
No, I just think that white women ought to be more aggressive and they ought to go ahead and run. You know, they might feel that the representatives that they have are representing them well and are really being fair. But I think that you might see some change since the Equal Rights Amendment was defeated in the upcoming election in November. You'll probably have some women running for a lot of different positions, probably. I don't know. You can . . .or think you only have one, or you had, so you don't even have her any more. But it used to be a white woman in the house. We have two black women in the house, so, you know, I don't know.