Artist Natalie White Has Used Art to Advocate for the Equal Rights Amendment for Years. Now, She’s Using the Law

On January 15, both houses of the Virginia legislature voted to
ratify the Equal Rights Amendment, finally giving the bill, passed
by Congress back in 1972, the 38 states needed to make it law.

The ratification resolution is a big step forward for the
E.R.A., which promises to guarantee the same rights to all
Americans regardless of gender.

But it’s also a personal achievement for artist Natalie White,
who has been working in support of the long-stalled amendment since
2015.

“I was in the room when they passed the vote,” White told Artnet
News. “The whole gallery of the senate and the house just
erupted.”

In an effort to ensure that the amendment’s ratification is
recognized, White has helped file a lawsuit against David S.
Ferriero, the archivist of the United States, asking the court to
compel Ferriero to record Virginia’s ratification in the National
Archives, which would the amendment closer to becoming a law.

The E.R.A.—though effectively dead for decades—is still a hope
for some on the left. Opponents of the amendment point out that the
original ratification deadline set by Congress was March 22, 1979.
An extension to June 30, 1982, came and went, with ratification
from only 35 states.

White’s lawsuit contends that there is nothing in the text of
the amendment about a deadline. “Our argument is a very textual,
conservative argument,” she said.

“The extra-textual deadline is unconstitutional as it imposes
unlawful constraint on the states to elect a schedule of their
choosing on which to consider and ratify—or decline to ratify—a
proposed constitutional amendment,” argues the complaint.

Advocating for the E.R.A. is the backbone of White’s practice.
In 2016, she staged a 16-day E.R.A. march, walking 250
miles from New York to Washington. When she got there, White
painted “ERA NOW” the steps of the Capitol in red letters. (She
surrendered to authorities after her illegal
act and was banned from the Capitol building for six
months.)

White moved to a Virginia swing district last year to support a
campaign to unseat Republican incumbents who refused to back the
amendment. Before that, she staged art performances at the state
capitol as a means of civil disobedience.

“The police had to cuff us and physically drag us
out,” she said.

Last year, White refocused on the election and helped create an
artist-designed van from which organizers lobbied voters to support
the amendment. “We were focusing on ten races hoping to flip
two, and we flipped six,” White said.

The artist plans to continue pursuing her goals, even though
she’s facing quite some opposition.

Her lawsuit against Ferriera is facing separate legal
filings by the attorneys general from Alabama, Louisiana, and
South Dakota seeking to bar the archivist from recording Virginia’s
ratification. Their suit contends, in part, that Ferriera
needs to recognize the states that rescinded ratification.

But White’s main frustration now is that the news cycle is
dominated by impeachment proceedings, and that few people are
talking about the E.R.A.

“I cant believe every single news station isn’t reporting
on this,” she said of the ratification in Virginia. “This is a
happy and uplifting win.”

The post Artist Natalie White Has Used Art to Advocate for
the Equal Rights Amendment for Years. Now, She’s Using the Law
appeared first on artnet News.