SPRINGFIELD, Ill. -- Seventeen Equal Rights Amendment backers, shouting at state officials, vowed to remain chained to the entrance of the Senate chamber as long as it is 'necessary and useful' in their battle for the ERA.
The ERA supporters said they would decide today whether to continue their vigil. They were forced to spend the night on cold marble floors.
George Fleischli, state director of physical services, said he would allow the women to stay 'as long as they behave.'
'We will remain in our chains for as long as we decide it is necessary and useful,' the women yelled at state officials Thursday, locking their arms in protest.
In another demonstration, seven women fasting for passage of the amendment enter their 18th day of a hunger strike today. The fasters left the Capitol Thursday in an effort to separate themselves from the demonstration.
The demonstrators in the Senate, calling themselves a Grass Roots Group of Second Class Citizens, sponsored the 'Day of Rebellion' to symbolize the legal, economic and social chains that bind women.
'In the suffrage movement, this is called a militant demonstration,' said Mary Lee Sargent of Champaign, one of the women who was chained to rails at the chamber entrance earlier in the day.
'It's a willingness to put our bodies out here, to be a spectacle and to be laughed at by people ... but to face people directly.'
Security was tight but it was business as usual in the Senate, which met for about 15 minutes before adjourning for the weekend. The House was on an 11-day break. Republican Gov. James R. Thompson was in Chicago.
The group appeared undaunted. About 150 people chanting 'Equality now, break our chains' rallied in the rotunda with a black paper chain. The group marched to the third floor to join their colleagues at the Senate.
'These actions are symbolic -- to signal a new stage of confrontation,' Ms. Sargent said. 'This is just beginning. There are 27 days. We hope women will do even more dramatic, non-violent action.'
The hunger strikers, fasting since May 18, said they wanted to disassociate themselves from the group because they did not want to cloud their own efforts.
They have pledged to fast until the ERA is ratified or June 30, the deadline for ratification. Three more states must pass the amendment in order for the ERA to become law.
At a news conference, the fasters said lawmakers are liars if they use them as an excuse to withdraw their support for the amendment. Two legislators in as many weeks have warned the women to start eating or risk losing votes.
STOP ERA President Phyllis Schlafly, who earlier set up a booth directly across from the hunger strikers in the Capitol rotunda, said she feels sorry for the seven women.
She called the hunger strike a 'media event' that is 'not going to get them any votes.'
