Crystal Eastman was a fierce believer that the woman’s place was in the courtroom – and anywhere else where important decisions were made. Graduating second in her class from NYU’s law school, Crystal was a fierce advocate for workers’ rights. She rallied for health and safety laws in the workplace and helped draft the first workers’ compensation law in New York State. During Woodrow Wilson’s presidency she was an investigating attorney for the U.S. Commission on Industrial Relations.

No stranger to starting organizations, Crystal founded the Congressional Union (later becoming the National Women’s Party) in 1913 alongside Lucy Burns and Alice Paul. She led the state’s branch of the Women’s Peace Party throughout World War I. And in 1917 she was part of the historic group of people who founded the National Civil Liberties Bureau (NCLB), which is known today as the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

Together with her brother Max, Crystal established a socialist magazine called The Liberator, in which they published essays, art, poems, and more. Featured writers included Helen Keller, Ernest Hemingway, and Claude McKay.

A self-described ‘militant idealist’, Crystal advocated for women’s rights throughout her life. In fact, when she divorced her first husband in 1915, she refused to take alimony. She didn’t want to play into the notion that women are financially dependent on men! After the 19th Amendment was ratified in 1920, she showcased her vision for total women’s freedom in her famous speech “Now We Can Begin”.