Oral history interview with Suzanne Post, June 23, 2006

Though she is best known for her work in helping eliminate race-based segregated education in Louisville and launching Louisville's Metropolitan Housing Coalition, Suzanne Post insists that her most important work centered on women's rights. After the 1975 court-ordered busing that merged and desegregated Jefferson County and Louisville City schools (she was president of the ACLU in Kentucky, which filed the desegregation suit), Post realized how much gender inequality still existed in these same newly desegrated districts. She organized volunteers to monitor Louisville's Title IX violations. Eventually, the federal government sent an outside monitor, which caused administrators to make a few concessions. Post reflects on how class issues divided the women's movement and ultimately prevented it from being as effective as it could have been. One of her biggest struggles, she says, was to get the ACLU to recognize a feminist agenda. After leaving the ACLU, she became the director of the Metropolitan Housing Coalition, and she found that her agenda balanced well with the concerns of the housing advocates. Post reflects on what she sees as economic and racial injustices brought about by urban renewal programs. Along with the resegregation of downtowns, Post worries about the destruction of community structures that provide support to poorer income families. Post retired when she developed lung cancer. Though she acknowledges the progress that has been made in civil rights, Post laments that much work remains to be done. She hopes that people remember her commitment to eradicating injustice and credits the women who surrounded and supported her.