Martha Griffiths | |
|---|---|
 | |
| 59thLieutenant Governor of Michigan | |
| In office January 1, 1983 – January 1, 1991 | |
| Governor | James Blanchard |
| Preceded by | James Brickley |
| Succeeded by | Connie Binsfeld |
| Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromMichigan's17th district | |
| In office January 3, 1955 – December 31, 1974 | |
| Preceded by | Charles Oakman |
| Succeeded by | William Brodhead |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Martha Edna Wright (1912-01-29)January 29, 1912 Pierce City,Missouri, U.S. |
| Died | April 22, 2003(2003-04-22) (aged 91) |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouse | |
| Education | University of Missouri, Columbia (BA) University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (LLB) |
Martha Wright Griffiths (January 29, 1912 – April 22, 2003) was an American lawyer and judge before being elected to theUnited States House of Representatives in 1954. Griffiths was the first woman to serve on theHouse Committee on Ways and Means and the first woman elected to theUnited States Congress fromMichigan as a member of theDemocratic Party. She was "instrumental" in including the prohibition of sex discrimination underTitle VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.[1] In 1982, Griffiths was also the first woman electedlieutenant governor of Michigan, asMatilda Dodge Wilson had been appointed the first female lieutenant governor of Michigan in 1939.
Martha Edna Wright was born inPierce City, Missouri. She attended public schools and went on to graduate with aB.A. from theUniversity of Missouri in 1934. She chose to continue her education by studying law and graduated from theUniversity of Michigan Law School in 1940.[2] She married Hicks George Griffiths (July 9, 1940 – March 4, 1996), a lawyer and a judge as well as chairman of theMichigan Democratic Party from 1949 to 1950.
She worked as a lawyer in private practice, then in the legal department of the American Automobile Insurance Co. inDetroit from 1941 to 1942 and then as the Ordnance District contract negotiator from 1942 to 1946. She was elected to theMichigan House of Representatives, serving from 1949 to 1953 for the Wayne County 1st district. In 1953, she was appointed as recorder and judge of theRecorder's Court in Detroit and sat as judge from 1953 to 1954,[2] the first woman to do so.
In 1954, Griffiths was elected as a Democrat fromMichigan's 17th congressional district to the84th Congress and was subsequently re-elected to the nine following Congresses, serving from January 3, 1955, to December 31, 1974, in theU.S. House.[3] She sat as a delegate at theDemocratic National Convention in1956 as well as in1968. She was not a candidate for re-election to the94th Congress in 1974.[4]
During her time in Congress, Griffiths sponsored theEqual Rights Amendment, one of 33 proposed amendments to pass in Congress and be sent to the states for ratification, and among the six that were not ratified.
The Guardian described her as "the mother of the Equal Rights Amendment", adding:
The weapons she deployed during her 10-term congressional career included implacable determination, a lawyer's grasp of procedural niceties, and a tongue like a blacksmith's rasp.[5]
In 1955, Griffiths introduced the first version of the federalHumane Slaughter Act alongside SenatorHubert Humphrey. The law sought to prohibit the shackling and hoisting of conscious animals and the use of sledgehammers for stunning.[6] A version of the law sponsored by Griffiths and RepresentativeWilliam R. Poage was enacted in 1958.[7]
"I don't know really that I have so much perseverance as I do a sense of indignity at the fact that women are not justly treated. I have the same sort of feeling for Blacks, Latinos and the Asiatics. If we are America, then we ought to be what we say we are. We ought to be the land of the free and the brave. What people sought in this land was justice."
"Some of that I get from my father. I adored my father. My father thought that girls were smarter than boys, which was unusual in my day and age."[8]
After her congressional service, Griffiths returned to the practice of law and then served as the59th lieutenant governor of Michigan from 1983 to 1991 on the ticket of GovernorJames Blanchard. She was inducted into theMichigan Women's Hall of Fame in 1983 and to theNational Women's Hall of Fame a decade later in 1993. She retired to her home in Armada, Michigan, where she lived until her death in 2003 at age 91.[3]
Martha Griffiths was a member of theAmerican Association of University Women. TheAAUW of Michigan named its "Martha Griffiths Equity Award" in her honor.[9]
Martha Wright Griffiths, a longtime United States representative who was a legend in Michigan Democratic politics and one of the most effective women's civil rights legislators of her day, died on Tuesday at her home in Armada, Mich. She was 91.
| U.S. House of Representatives | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromMichigan's 17th congressional district 1955–1974 | Succeeded by |
| New office | Chair of theHouse Beauty Shop Committee 1967–1975 | Succeeded by |
| Party political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Response to the State of the Union address 1972 Served alongside:Carl Albert,Lloyd Bentsen,Hale Boggs,John Brademas,Frank Church,Thomas Eagleton,John Melcher,Ralph Metcalfe,William Proxmire,Leonor Sullivan | Vacant Title next held by Mike Mansfield |
| Preceded by Olivia Maynard | Democratic nominee forLieutenant Governor of Michigan 1982,1986 | Succeeded by Olivia Maynard |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Lieutenant Governor of Michigan 1983–1991 | Succeeded by |
| International | |
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| National | |
| People | |
| Other | |
