The longtime conservative activist Phyllis Schlafly has died. Her family says she passed away at her St. Louis home Monday. Illinois became ground zero in the debate over the Equal Rights Amendment in the 1970's. Schlafly led the fight against it. In a 2011 interview with the Lincoln Presidential Library's Oral History Project, Schlafly explained what she saw as the strategies for both sides.
"The battleground we fought on was the legal rights that women would lose if ERA were ratified. And so my testimony was always, it was going to hurt women, A, B, C, D. Their argument was, Phyllis is a bad person. (laughs) I mean, they were playing a defensive game. They never went over the fifty yard line." - Phyllis Schlafly
Schlafly remained a leading voice on the far right until her death. She recently authored a new book where she makes the case for electing Donald Trump. Schlafly was 92.
