Liberation Summer: Women's Movement and the Future of American Politics

In 1968 — the year of assassinations, Vietnam, and social upheaval — another revolutionary history was unfolding. The Miss America Pageant became the site of women's liberationist protests, while the first Miss Black America Pageant was mounted in direct response to the white-only national competition.

Author Micki McElya, professor at the University of Connecticut and author of Liberation Summer: The Moment That Changed the Women's Movement and the Future of American Politics, digs into the demonstrations and the women — from Betty Friedan to Phyllis Schlafly — who changed the conception of womanhood in that era.

Part of the New York Historical's outdoor lecture series at the Bryant Park Reading Room. Free; no reservation required, first come first served.