Women of Courage

This book is about the Constitutional rights of illegitimate children and their parents, about the right to give birth and raise your own children regardless of race and marital status. It was inspired by Chrystal Chambers and her lawsuit against the Omaha Girls Club for pregnancy and race discrimination tried in l986. Ms. Chambers' case had a role in the passage of the l991 Civil Rights Act, Section 105 (a)(2)(a) banning the use of the business necessity defense in cases where intentional discrimination is alleged. It literally took an act of Congress to get the Omaha Girls Club to abandon their single pregnancy negative role modeling discharge policy. The case has been covered in The Loud Voice of the national media. In June of 2003, Ms. Chambers and her case were featured by national black syndicated morning radio talk show host Tom Joyner Show in his segment Little Known Black Heroes. In the winter of l986, the case was featured in the New York Times, in Newsweek, in The New York Daily News as well as locally. The case was also featured twice on National Public Radio's 'All Things Considered,' and Ms. Chambers and her lawyer Mary Kay Green and others were featured on Phil Donahue's national talk show. The book also covers the Magdalene asylums in Ireland for unwed mothers, and challenges the Constitutionality of the Welfare Reform Act.