Child of the Sit-Downs_ The Revolutionary Life of Genora Dollinger - Carlton Jackson [72]
After their vacation, the family made plans for their move to Detroit. Genora regretted leaving Flint again, for she had so many causes to pursue, loyal friends, and significant connections. But Detroit had been her wartime home, and it was not exactly as though she were a total stranger to the area. The first thing Genora did upon arriving in Detroit was to work full-time for the ACLU, which, in its quest to preserve First Amendment rights, frequently called itself the “most conservative organization in the country.” The Michigan state chairman of ACLU was Ernest Mazey (brother of Emil, an official in the UAW and a longtime friend of the Dollingers). Genora was development director; her chief function was to travel around the state, set up new chapters, and advise them on financial matters and how best to carry out the functions of the organization, making the Michigan ACLU one of the most active and successful organizations in the country. In addition to recruiting new members for the Michigan ACLU, Genora spoke her mind about the United States’ growing involvement in Southeast Asia, becoming an anti-Vietnam activist before it was fashionable. The entire world should have learned a lesson in 1954, she believed, when the Vietnamese ousted the French at the battle of Dien Bien Phu. It was economic and imperialistic interests that caused the United States to take France’s place in this outdated struggle that was not so much for the creation of colonies as for new markets.
On a local level, Genora acted on behalf of a young wife whose military husband had been shipped to Vietnam during the early years of U.S. involvement in the war. Pregnant with their second child, the lady suffered extreme nervous problems as newspaper, radio, and television accounts of the fighting in Vietnam “terrified her.” Genora and her colleagues hoped, for the future health of this family, that the U.S. Army would release the young soldier so he could return to Detroit and run his household.15 Her efforts were unsuccessful.
In 1962, she was elected president of Women for Peace. In this capacity, as well as in her ACLU role, Genora and her followers met every Saturday in downtown Detroit to display antiwar banners. On occasion, Genora invited public officials and other well-known individuals to speak, and these events usually drew large audiences.16 At one gathering, invited guest speakers Gus Scholle, president of the Michigan CIO Council; Emil Mazey of the UAW; and Al Barbour, president of the Wayne County Council, made numerous antiwar remarks. The biggest demonstration that Genora organized was down Woodward Avenue, a leading Detroit thoroughfare. Included in the huge crowd were a Methodist minister, a Jewish rabbi, and a Catholic priest. All three, dressed in their respective vestments, carried maces with the seals of their faith upon them. Occasionally, the Detroit protesters joined thousands of others from around the country in Washington, D.C., where they demonstrated in front of the White House. The saddest anti-Vietnam event that occurred while Genora was president of Women for Peace was when one of its members, Alice Hertz, immolated herself for the cause. “She was a kindly old lady,” eighty years old. She doused herself with gasoline and set herself on fire. Her death, said Sol, helped to harden “the country in opposing the undeclared war.”17
Genora and Sol participated in a “teach-in” at the University of Michigan, well attended because the famous playwright, Arthur Miller, was to be present. He spoke to the group about protest groups when he had been a student at Michigan, including the fascist invasion of Spain in the