Archives West Finding Aid

Alice Allred Pottmyer

Alice Allred was born in South Dakota but spent her early years as an active Mormon growing up in Texas in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Her father was transferred to Washington, D.C. during the summer of 1954. She attended Brigham Young University and received her B.S. degree in Journalism. During her time at BYU she became friends with Maida Rust Withers and Hazel Davis Rigby (later to be founding members of Mormons for ERA).

Allred worked for 12 years in Washington D.C. as a trade and professional editor. After having young children, she started to work from home. For the next five years, she produced and wrote articles for Dialogue magazine. She also wrote numerous articles for Sunstone magazine, was twice an Arlington delegate to the Virginia Democratic Convention, volunteered for Arlingtonians for a Better County, a member of the PTA, a leader for Girl Scouts, and worked for the LDS Church public communications department.

Allred had long supported the Equal Rights Amendment, and in 1975 the issues of ERA began to heat up. With the increasing anti-ERA activity from conservative groups, including the LDS Church (which formally opposed ERA on Oct. 22, 1976), Allred's friends from BYU, Maida Rust Withers and Hazel Davis Rigby, along with Teddie Wood and Soina Johnson co-founded Mormons for ERA in 1978.

Allred did a great deal of background work with Mormons for ERA. She organized and gave background information to the media about the organization and their activities, including their lobbying efforts, their views on the complexities of ERA issues, and their public debates on ERA issues. She also developed press kits that were given to the media. This proved to be an invaluable task once the media coverage exploded when the Mormon Church excommunicated Sonia Johnson on December 5, 1979.

On December 11, 1982 Alice Allred Pottmyer succeeded Sonia Johnson as president of Mormons for ERA and took over the newsletter. She functioned as president until 1987 when funds and interest began to diminish.

Hazel Davis Rigby

Hazel Davis grew up in Salem, Utah and was an active member of the Mormon community. She attended Brigham Young University with childhood friend Maida Rust (Withers). Davis received her B.A. from BYU and then went on to receive her M.A. from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.

Hazel Davis grew up in Salem, Utah and was an active member of the Mormon community. She attended Brigham Young University with childhood friend Maida Rust (Withers). Davis received her B.A. from BYU and then went on to receive her M.A. from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.

Davis served as the treasurer for the organization. In November of 1980, Mormons for ERA held a demonstration in front of the Washington Temple in Washington State. A scuffle erupted between the demonstrators and anti-ERA supporters. Subsequently, the police were called and Davis was one of several demonstrators who were arrested. In the years following, she played other important roles in Mormons for ERA activities and development.

Maida Rust Withers

Maida Rust was born October 13, 1936 in Kanab, Utah, and was the youngest of eight children. She was raised in Salem Utah, as a member of the LDS Church from which she was a sixth generation pioneer descendant. She graduated from Spanish Fork High School in 1954, and then attended Brigham Young University where she received her B.S. in Music and Dance in 1958. She completed her M.A. in Dance from the University of Utah.

Withers began her teaching career at Purdue University. In 1963, she took a teaching position at Howard University for one year. During that time she marched with the other Faculty members (she being the only white female faculty) to the Lincoln Memorial, where Martin Luther King was giving a speech.

At the end of 1963, she accepted a position in the Department of Theater and Dance as an Associate Professor at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. During her career at George Washington University, she directed the M.F.A. dance program, taught advanced dance, dance and movement improvisation, choreography, and performance art theory. She also served on the Board of Directors of Washington Projects for the Arts for eight years, and served a three year term on the Kennedy Center Education Committee. In 1974 Withers founded the critically acclaimed dance troupe Maida Withers Dance Construction Company.

During the early seventies, she became increasingly involved in the social and political issues of the Vietnam war and the Civil Rights movement. In 1975, the issues of the Equal Rights Amendment began to heat up. It was during this year that Maida Rust Withers and one of her friends, Teddie Wood became active participants in the pro-ERA movement.

During the 80's Wither's focus on social reform turned to environmental awareness. The social issues of the past and her activism in the Equal Rights movement prepared her for her passionate environmental activism. In 1992, she and her dance troupe participated with other international artists for ecology at the United Nation's Conference on Environment and Development. Withers continues to tour nationally and internationally with her dance company and uses dance as interpretive means for environmental awareness. She has created over 35 distinctive works for the stage and video, and subsequently has received a myriad of prestigious awards and accolades from her peers, critics, and the public.

More details concerning the history of Mormons for ERA and bios of Allred, Rigby and Withers, are also available in COLL MSS 225.