Laura X

Laura X (born Laura Rand Orthwein, Jr.; in St. Louis, Missouri in 1940), is one of the world's leading advocates pertaining to the women's movement and a wide array of precursors and overlapping social movements from the second half of the 20th century.

Laura X changed her name in 1962 to Laura Shaw Murra, which remains her legal name, and each of her other two sets of names she uses as an AKA. She took the name Laura X, on September 17, 1969, to symbolize her rejection of men's legal ownership of women and the anonymity of women's history, which was stolen from women and girls. She declared that, like Malcolm X, "I don't want to have my owner's name, either."

After attending Vassar College for three years, Laura X moved to New York City, became a Head Start Program teacher in the pilot program, having trained at the University of Puerto Rico. She also rose to Picket Captain in CORE (Congress of Racial Equality), attended New York University (NYU), and took graduate courses at Bank Street College of Education. Following her interests and research developed at Vassar College, she worked with the American Committee on Africa to welcome delegates from 17 newly independent states, 16 from Africa, join the UN - the biggest increase in membership in any one year - and to picket Chase Manhattan Bank about their investments in South Africa. In 1963, she moved to Berkeley, California and graduated from the University of California, Berkeley (UC-Berkeley), in 1971, having participated in the Free Speech Movement as well as other social justice movements.

Red W.I.T.C.H., a socialist spin-off of W.I.T.C.H., was created by teaching staff at UC Berkeley after they witnessed the W.I.T.C.H. actions in Chicago, and led by Laura X. Red W.I.T.C.H. responded to the patriarchal elements of socialist organization in the early 60's, criticising the contradictions between ideals of radical males and their behavior.

Laura X is the founder and was the director of the Women's History Research Center, in Berkeley, California, which was the first historical archive connected to the feminist movement. Laura X founded the Women's History Research Center in 1968 after a University of California, Berkeley professor expressed doubt that there was enough material on women to fill a quarter's course in history.By 1970 the Women's History Research Center was widely listed in early feminist publications. The Center put many of the early feminist writings on microfilm, making them available in libraries across the country. The Women's History Research Center eventually closed, and its collections are now held in the women's history archive at the Schlesinger Library, which is part of Harvard University's Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, and at other institutions.

In 1977, Laura X became an associate of the Women's Institute for Freedom of the Press (WIFP). WIFP is an American nonprofit publishing organization. The organization works to increase communication between women and connect the public with forms of women-based media.

In 1978 the Women's History Research Center established the National Clearinghouse on Marital and Date Rape in Berkeley, California, with Laura X as director.

In 1979 Laura X led a successful campaign to make marital rape a crime in California.She also acted as a consultant to 45 other state campaigns on marital and date rape, as well as collecting and maintaining documents about the status of exemptions from prosecution in rape laws. Repeal of date and marital rape exemptions occurred in 45 states, in Federal and military law, in the laws of Guam and the laws of twenty other countries.

In September 1999 Laura X published her memoir "Accomplishing the Impossible: an Advocate's Notes from the Successful Campaign to Make Marital and Date Rape a Crime in All 50 U.S. States and Other Countries" in Violence Against Women: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal.

Laura X served in 1985 with United States Surgeon General C. Everett Koop on the National Task Force on Violence as a Public Health Issue.

In recognition of her achievements, Laura X received

• Commendation by the American Library Association, 1971
• Woman of Achievement award (from Mademoiselle Magazine),
• World Congress of Victimology Award for Innovative Programs and Services,
• Commendation Surgeon General C. Everett Koop, 1985.
• In 2009, Laura X was honored by the University of Missouri St. Louis (UMSL) receiving the Trailblazers Award. In celebration of Women's History Month, women faculty, staff, students and alumnae who were the first to occupy positions traditionally held by men, and/or have worked to forge new pathways for women, and/or have contributed significantly to the University and/or community are recognized at the Trailblazer event.

Laura has been a guest on the Television shows:

• "Phil Donahue"
• "Sally Jessy Raphael"
• "Geraldo"
• "Gary Collins"
• "60 Minutes"
• "Today"
• "Mark Wahlberg"

among others as subject matter expert on marital and date rape and other social justice matters.

In 2015, Laura X formed the 'Laura X - Laura Rand Orthwein, Jr. World Institute on Social Justice Movements.' Located physically in St. Louis, Missouri, the Institute serves as the home of both the physical archive which total over 400,000 individual items of history, the virtual museum, and the interpretation center for archival materials extant at UC Berkeley, Harvard, University of Illinois and other institutions,including guides to the Women's History Research Center (WHRC).Total items at universities around the world are over 1,000,000 items of history. Laura X serves as the Institute's activist-in-residence and together with others offers interpretation and teaching to enrich communities in St Louis via in-person events and around the world through online virtual exhibitions.

The collection pertains to the Women's Movement and a wide array of precursors and overlapping social movements from the second half of the 20th century, including materials from Laura X's successful state-by-state campaign to abolish the legal privilege for marital and date rape.She began collecting materials in 1964 and has been committed to this effort ever since. The Institute's Archives make historical research and presentation possible. Archive staff is currently engaged in cataloging the 580+ boxes of materials, in order to keep them vibrant, accessible, and available for researchers and other interested parties. Once finished, this archive will be a resource for students, professors, historians, film documentarians, museums, exhibitions, high school teachers, and the general public.