Rosalyn Baxandall
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Rosalyn Baxandall ( Fraad; June 12, 1939 – October 13, 2015) was an American historian of women's activism and feminist activist.


Early life and education

Baxandall was born in New York City on June 12, 1939.
/ref> Her father, Lewis M. Fraad, was chairman of the Department of Pediatrics at Bronx Municipal Hospital, and Assistant Dean of the
Albert Einstein College of Medicine The Albert Einstein College of Medicine is a Private university, private medical school in New York City. Founded in 1953, Einstein is an independent degree-granting institution within the Montefiore Einstein Health System. Einstein hosts Doc ...
. Her mother, Irma London Fraad, was a curator of Middle Eastern Art at the
Brooklyn Museum The Brooklyn Museum is an art museum in the New York City borough (New York City), borough of Brooklyn. At , the museum is New York City's second largest and contains an art collection with around 500,000 objects. Located near the Prospect Heig ...
. She had two sisters, Harriet Fraad Wolff (born 1941) and Julie Fraad (born 1948). Baxandall's maternal great-uncle,
Meyer London Meyer London (December 29, 1871 – June 6, 1926) was a Lithuanian-born American politician from New York City. He represented the Lower East Side of Manhattan and was one of only two members of the Socialist Party of America elected to the Unit ...
, was a U.S. Congressional Representative elected on the Socialist Party ticket in 1915. He was one of 50 Congressmen and six Senators to oppose U.S. entry into
World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
. Rosalyn's uncle, Ephraim London, a labor lawyer, was a distinguished civil libertarian and legal scholar. She attended Riverdale Country Day School and then Hunter High School, graduating in 1957. After high school she attended
Smith College Smith College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts Women's colleges in the United States, women's college in Northampton, Massachusetts, United States. It was chartered in 1871 by Sophia Smit ...
for one year and then the
University of Wisconsin–Madison The University of Wisconsin–Madison (University of Wisconsin, Wisconsin, UW, UW–Madison, or simply Madison) is a public land-grant research university in Madison, Wisconsin, United States. It was founded in 1848 when Wisconsin achieved st ...
, from which she graduated with a major in French in 1961. While at the university, she was active in a struggle for racial integration in housing.


Early career and feminist activism

Baxandall began to work for Mobilization for Youth, a service organization on the lower east side of New York City founded by Frances Fox Piven and Richard Cloward in 1961, where she led youth groups and started a day care center. She translated French articles for the
New Left The New Left was a broad political movement that emerged from the counterculture of the 1960s and continued through the 1970s. It consisted of activists in the Western world who, in reaction to the era's liberal establishment, campaigned for freer ...
journals ''Liberation'' and ''Viet Report''. A leader from the earliest days of the New York City
women's liberation movement The women's liberation movement (WLM) was a political alignment of women and feminist intellectualism. It emerged in the late 1960s and continued till the 1980s, primarily in the industrialized nations of the Western world, which resulted in g ...
, Baxandall was a founding member of
New York Radical Women New York Radical Women (NYRW) was an early second-wave radical feminist group that existed from 1967 to 1969. They drew nationwide media attention when they unfurled a banner inside the 1968 Miss America pageant displaying the words "Women ...
, established in 1967, which published the well-known ''Notes from the First Year'' and ''Notes from the Second Year''. She was also a member of Redstockings, created in 1969; WITCH (the Women's International Terrorist Conspiracy from Hell), which arose as a split-off from New York Radical Women, emphasizing political rather than personal change; No More Nice Girls; and CARASA (Coalition for Abortion Rights and Against Sterilization Abuse).". She was a member of the east-coast Marxist Feminist Group #1, an informal discussion group of scholars on
socialist feminism Socialist feminism rose in the 1960s and 1970s as an offshoot of the feminist movement and New Left that focuses upon the interconnectivity of the patriarchy and capitalism. However, the ways in which women's private, domestic, and public roles ...
. Shortly after her son was born, she and other parents founded Liberation Nursery, a cooperative that continues as a daycare center today. In 1968, Baxandall appeared on the nationally syndicated David Susskind show with fellow feminists Kate Millett, Anselma Del'Olio and Jacqui Ceballoss. She was also the first speaker at the historic abortion speak-out at Washington Square Methodist Church in 1969.


Career

Baxandall taught Women's studies at
Queens College, City University of New York Queens College (QC) is a public college in the New York City borough of Queens. Part of the City University of New York system, Queens College occupies an campus primarily located in Flushing. Queens College was established in 1937 and offe ...
. She was among the early faculty, starting in 1971, at the new campus of the
State University of New York at Old Westbury The State University of New York at Old Westbury (SUNY at Old Westbury) is a public university in Old Westbury, New York, with portions in the neighboring town of Jericho, New York. It enrolls just over 5,000 students. History The State Unive ...
(SUNY). Beginning as Associate Professor of American Studies, in 1990 she became a full professor there. In 2004 she was awarded a Distinguished Teaching Professorship. She retired in 2012. Upon her retirement, a scholarship was established in her name and that of Barbara Joseph (the Rosalyn Baxandall and Barbara Joseph Scholarship). After retirement, she taught at the Labor Studies Program of the
City University of New York The City University of New York (CUNY, pronounced , ) is the Public university, public university system of Education in New York City, New York City. It is the largest urban university system in the United States, comprising 25 campuses: eleven ...
(CUNY) as well as in a women's prison,
Bayview Correctional Facility Bayview Correctional Facility was a medium-security women's prison located at the south corner of West 20th Street and 11th Avenue in Manhattan, New York City, directly across the avenue from the Chelsea Piers sports complex. It was one of the ...
in Manhattan, through the
Bard Prison Initiative The Bard Prison Initiative (BPI) is a program of Bard College that provides college education to people in prison. BPI currently enrolls 400 students full-time across seven prisons in New York State. It engage students in the full breadth of libera ...
. She was a frequent speaker and commentator on
women's liberation The women's liberation movement (WLM) was a political alignment of women and feminism, feminist intellectualism. It emerged in the late 1960s and continued till the 1980s, primarily in the industrialized nations of the Western world, which resu ...
, women's activist history, and radical activist movements. Especially in her later years, she was a champion for the rights of Palestinians, a commitment that led her to edit an anthology of films about the Palestine-Israel conflict.


Publications

Her books include: * * * (revised ed. 1995) * Baxandall wrote many articles for magazines and journals, including ''Second-Wave Soundings'' with co-author
Linda Gordon Irene Linda Gordon (born January 19, 1940) is an American feminist and historian. She lives in New York City and in Madison, Wisconsin. She won the Marfield Prize and the WILLA Literary Award in Historical Nonfiction for ''Dorothea Lange: A Life ...
in
The Nation ''The Nation'' is a progressive American monthly magazine that covers political and cultural news, opinion, and analysis. It was founded on July 6, 1865, as a successor to William Lloyd Garrison's '' The Liberator'', an abolitionist newspaper ...
and ''Re-Visioning the Women's Liberation Movement's Narrative: Early Second Wave African American Feminists'' in
Feminist Studies ''Feminist Studies'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal covering women's studies that was established in 1972. It is an independent nonprofit publication housed at the University of Maryland in College Park, Maryland. Besides scholarly artic ...
, as well as authoring the pamphlet, ''Women and Abortion: The Body as Battleground''. Her work is also in several anthologies, including ''A Companion to American Women's History''; ''Red Diapers: Growing Up in the Communist Left''; ''Technology, the Labor Process and the Working Class: Essays''; and the ''Encyclopedia of the American Left''. She wrote an introduction to a new collection of works by
Clara Zetkin Clara Zetkin (; ; ''née'' Eißner ; 5 July 1857 – 20 June 1933) was a German Marxist theorist, communist activist, and advocate for women's rights. Until 1917, she was active in the Social Democratic Party of Germany. She then joined the Inde ...
, ''Clara Zetkin: Selected Writings''. Baxandall was interviewed in the 2005 film by Gillian Aldrich and
Jennifer Baumgardner Jennifer Baumgardner (born 1970) is a writer, activist, filmmaker, and lecturer whose work explores abortion, sex, bisexuality, rape, single parenthood, and women's power. From 2013 to 2017, she served as the Executive Director/Publisher at The F ...
, ''I Had An Abortion''. Some of her papers on the women's liberation movement are available in the Duke University Library Special Collections; Papers from her work with
Linda Gordon Irene Linda Gordon (born January 19, 1940) is an American feminist and historian. She lives in New York City and in Madison, Wisconsin. She won the Marfield Prize and the WILLA Literary Award in Historical Nonfiction for ''Dorothea Lange: A Life ...
are housed in the
Tamiment Library The Tamiment Library is a research library at New York University that documents Far left, radical and Left-wing politics, left history, with strengths in the histories of History of communism, communism, History of socialism, socialism, History o ...
and the Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives at New York University. An extensive collection of her papers, interviews, and letters are in a collection at Radcliffe Library at Harvard University.


Personal life

At the University of Wisconsin, she met
Lee Baxandall Lee Raymond Baxandall (January 26, 1935 – November 28, 2008) was an American writer, translator, editor, and activist. He was first known for his New Left engagement with cultural topics and then as a leader of the naturist movement. Early ...
, to whom she was married from 1962 until they divorced in 1978. Together, they had one son, Phineas Baxandall. After leaving Madison, Rosalyn and Lee Baxandall spent some time in Germany, Hungary and Poland, where Lee pursued his interests in radical theater and European Marxism. The experience solidified their convictions that the Soviet system did not offer an alternative. Moving back to New York, she enrolled in the
Columbia University School of Social Work The Columbia School of Social Work is the graduate school of social work of Columbia University in New York City. It is one of the oldest social work programs in the US, with roots extending back to 1898. It began awarding a Master of Science d ...
from which she received a
Master of Social Work The Master of Social Work (MSW) is a master's degree in the field of social work. It is a professional degree with specializations compared to Bachelor of Social Work (BSW). MSW promotes macro-, mezzo- and micro-aspects of professional social work ...
(MSW). Rosalyn Baxandall's maternal cousin was
Sheila Michaels Sheila Babs Michaels, also known as Sheila Shiki-y-Michaels (May 8, 1939 – June 22, 2017), was an American feminist and civil rights activist credited with popularizing Ms. as a default form of address for women regardless of their marital s ...
, also a remarkable feminist in her own right, whom Ephraim London never publicly acknowledged as his daughter.


Death

After a 2015 diagnosis of
kidney cancer Kidney cancer, also known as renal cancer, is a group of cancers that starts in the kidney. Symptoms may include blood in the urine, a lump in the abdomen, or back pain. Fever, weight loss, and tiredness may also occur. Complications can include ...
, she left the hospital and held a party to say goodbye to the hundred attendees. She died on October 13, 2015, at her home in New York City.


References


External links



Rosalyn Baxandall, Social Archive
Tully-Crenshaw Feminist Oral History Project Records, 1961-2001
MC 548. Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass.
Papers of Rosalyn Baxandall, 1933-2015: A Finding Aid.Schlesinger Library
Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University. {{DEFAULTSORT:Baxandall, Rosalyn 1939 births 2015 deaths 20th-century American historians 20th-century American women writers 21st-century American historians 21st-century American women writers American women historians Queens College, City University of New York faculty Columbia University School of Social Work alumni Deaths from kidney cancer in New York (state) Feminist historians Historians from New York City New York (state) socialists New York Radical Women members Activists from Manhattan Redstockings members Riverdale Country School alumni Smith College alumni American socialist feminists State University of New York at Old Westbury faculty University of Wisconsin–Madison College of Letters and Science alumni Writers from Manhattan CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies faculty