Marie Equi

Description

Radical Politics and Outlaw Passions

By Michael Helquist
OSU Press

Marie Equi explores the fiercely independent life of an extraordinary woman. Born of Italian-Irish parents in 1872, Marie Equi endured childhood labor in a gritty Massachusetts textile mill before fleeing to an Oregon homestead with her first longtime woman companion, who described her as impulsive, earnest, and kind-hearted. These traits, along with courage, stubborn resolve, and a passion for justice, propelled Equi through an unparalleled life journey.

Equi self-studied her way into a San Francisco medical school and then obtained her license in Portland to become one of the first practicing woman physicians in the Pacific Northwest. From Pendleton, Portland, Seattle and beyond to Boston and San Francisco, she leveraged her professional status to fight for woman suffrage, labor rights, and reproductive freedom. She mounted soapboxes, fought with police, and spent a night in jail with birth control advocate Margaret Sanger. Equi marched so often with unemployed men that the media referred to them as her army. She battled for economic justice at every turn and protested the U.S. entry into World War I, leading to a conviction for sedition and a three-year sentence in San Quentin. Breaking boundaries in all facets of life, she became the first well-known lesbian in Oregon, and her same-sex affairs figured prominently in a U.S. Supreme Court case.

Marie Equi is a finely written, rigorously researched account of a woman of consequence, who one fellow-activist considered “the most interesting woman that ever lived in this state, certainly the most fascinating, colorful, and flamboyant.” This much-anticipated biography will engage anyone interested in Pacific Northwest history, women’s studies, the history of lesbian and gay rights, and the personal demands of political activism. It is the inspiring story of a singular woman who was not afraid to take risks, who refused to compromise her principles in the face of enormous opposition and adversity, and who paid a steep personal price for living by her convictions.

For more reading on Marie Equi, check out author of Fight Like Hell Kim Kelly’s debut labor column entry for The Nation, “What We Can Learn from Portland’s ‘Queen of the Bolsheviks'”

“[Marie] Equi was a complex person who challenged social norms in a variety of ways. One of the few licensed women physicians in Oregon, she lived openly as a lesbian, provided abortion services for women of all classes, supported strikers as a member of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), fought for woman suffrage as a member of the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAW-SA), and opposed the war as a member of the American Union Against Militarism. [Michael] Helquist’s account holds all these aspects of her life in balance in an engaging narrative that gives equal weight to her personal, professional, and political life.”—Carole R. McCann, Pacific Historical Review