- Virginia "Ginny" Montes
Infobox person
name = Virginia Montes
image_size = 150px
birth_date =1943
birth_place =Guanaja ,Honduras
death_date =October 6 ,1994
death_place =Atlanta, Georgia
nationality =United States (naturalized)
field =
work_institutions =National Organization for Women
alma_mater =University of Florida Florida State University
doctoral_advisor =
doctoral_students =
known_for =Civil rights activist and feminist
spouse = Donald Albury
prizes =Virginia Elenor "Ginny" Montes (1943 - 1994) was a
civil rights activist and feminist who was the first Latina to become a national officer of theNational Organization for Women . Ginny Montes was born in 1943 inGuanaja ,Honduras . Her family moved toTampa, Florida when she was ten years old. She graduated from Jefferson High School in Tampa, and attended theUniversity of Florida , receiving a B.A. with a major inSociology in 1968.Ginny Montes became active with the [http://www.uflib.ufl.edu/spec/pkyonge/gwer.htm Gainesville Women for Equal Rights] (GWER) while still a student. She eventually was elected president of GWER. After graduation, she worked as a
social worker for what is now the Florida Department of Children and Families. In 1975 she moved toTallahassee, Florida to pursue a masters degree incriminal justice atFlorida State University .Ginny Montes moved to
Atlanta, Georgia in 1980 to work for the [http://www.southerncouncil.org Southern Regional Council] (SRC) as director of legislative research. She also served as director of Project 1990 and director of SRC Voting Rights Programs. Over a 14-year period she assisted SRC in developing legislative analysis on issues relating to civil rights, poverty, children and housing. She also helped blacklegislator s in the southern states as they organized legislativecaucus es and was involved in efforts supporting the extension of the federalVoting Rights Act in 1982. During the mid-1980s she served as director of the Georgia Housing Coalition, but later returned to the SRC.Ginny Montes was associated with the National Organization for Women (NOW) for thirteen years. She served two terms as the president of the Georgia state NOW, two terms on the national NOW board of directors, and as government liaison officer and chief
lobbyist for the national organization. She led NOW's defense ofLani Guinier when she was nominated by President Clinton to head the Justice Department's civil rights division. In 1991 Ginny Montes was elected as national secretary of NOW, serving until 1993. She was the first Latina to hold a national office in the organization. She also served as treasurer of NOW'sPolitical Action Committee until 1993.Ginny also served on the national board of directors of the Center for Community Change, the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, the Advisory Council of Morehouse Medical School, and as a delegate to the
Democratic National Convention in 1978, '80, '84 and '88. She was named to Who's Who Among Hispanic Americans and Who's Who in American Politics.Ginny Montes died of a stroke in her home in Atlanta on
October 6 1994 .Ginny Montes was married to Donald Albury from 1966 until 1979, and had one daughter, Rebecca Lynne Albury, born in 1971.
References
* [http://icreport.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?r103:E29NO4-B405: HON. DON EDWARDS in the House of Representatives TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 1994] - retrieved
January 23 2006
* [http://www.legis.state.ga.us/legis/1995_96/leg/fulltext/hr492.htm Georgia House of Representatives - 1995/1996 Sessions HR 492 - Montes, Virginia E. "Ginny"; condolences] - retrievedJanuary 23 2006
* [http://www.now.org/nnt/01-95/ginny.html In Memory, in National NOW Times, January, 1995] - retrievedJanuary 23 2006
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