Phyllis Schlafly
American conservative activist (1924-2016)
Phyllis Stewart Schlafly (; born Phyllis McAlpin Stewart; August 15, 1924 – September 5, 2016) was an American attorney and activist who was nationally prominent in conservatism. She opposed feminism, gay rights, and abortion, and campaigned against the ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
More than three million copies of her self-published book A Choice Not an Echo (1964), a polemic in support of Republican candidate Barry Goldwater and condemning more liberal East Coast Republicans personified by Nelson Rockefeller, were sold or distributed for free. Schlafly co-authored books on national defense, and was critical of arms control agreements with the Soviet Union.
In 1972, Schlafly founded the Eagle Forum, a conservative political interest group, and remained its chair and CEO until her death in 2016, while staying active in conservative causes.
Early life
Born Phyllis McAlpin Stewart, Schlafly was raised in St. Louis. Schlafly's great-grandfather Stewart, a Presbyterian, emigrated from Scotland to New York in 1851 and moved westward through Canada before settling in Michigan. Her grandfather, Andrew F. Stewart, was a master mechanic with the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway. Schlafly's father, John Bruce Stewart, was a machinist and salesman of industrial equipment, principally for Westinghouse.
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This entry incorporates text from “Phyllis Schlafly” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.