August 15 Illinois History Minute

It’s August 15th, the day that conservative activist Phyllis Schlafly was born Phyllis Stewart in 1924. The St. Louis native moved across the river to Alton Illinois when she married attorney Fred Schafly. As a leader in the Republican Party’s conservative wing, Phyllis Schlafly campaigned against feminism, gay rights and abortion. She helped to block ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment, which she argued would take away women’s rights, not expand them.

Also on this day in 1812, Pottawatomi forces allied with the British routed a badly outnumbered U-S garrison in what is now Chicago in the battle of Fort Dearborn.