X, Laura

Person

Staff Only

Parallel Names

Murra, Laura

Biographical Note

Laura Rand Orthwein, Jr. aka Laura X: A native of St Louis, MO, Laura was educated at Vassar, Washington University, Bank Street College of Education, the Universities of Vera Cruz and Puerto Rico (to become a pilot Headstart teacher). She took the name “Laura X “ in 1969, to symbolize her rejection of men’s legal ownership of women and the anonymity of women’s history, which was stolen from women and girls. She is a veteran of the anti-nuke, peace, civil rights, Free Speech, educational reform, anti-war, women’s, anti-antiSemitism and anti-homophobia movements. She advocates for farm workers, Native Americans, ecology, disability rights, environmental health, and healthy home movements. She began collecting materials in 1964 and has been committed to this effort since then. Women and women’s health and legal issues are the primary focus of her work. She founded the Women’s History Research Center in 1968 in Berkeley, California and the National Clearinghouse on Marital and Date Rape in 1978 in which she served as director. (lauraxinstitute.org)

Found in 1 Collection or Record:

Laura X Social Movements Records

Collection

Identifier: 2019-058

Found in: University of Houston Libraries Special Collections / Laura X Social Movements Records

Dates: 1963-2019

Content Description The collection includes documents, media, and other materials collected by Laura Rand Orthwein, Jr, aka Laura X, over the last fifty years documenting the Women’s Movement and overlapping social justice movements from the second half of the 20th century. The collection contains files, feminist publications, fliers, pamphlets, newsletters, newsclippings, and correspondence documenting the broad range of issues in the Women’s Movement. Special emphasis is placed on Laura X’s work for women’s...