Women's Forum Oral History Collection Interview Index

Sandra Porter Babb was born in 1940 and grew up near Greenville, North Carolina, where her parents owned a small farm. She has one son, Jonathan. Babb attended public schools in Pitt County, North Carolina, and received her Bachelors degree in history from East Carolina University (ECU). After teaching in California for a few years, she returned to North Carolina to get a Masters in teaching from ECU. Babb later earned another Masters degree from UNC Chapel Hill in history. While in graduate school, she also taught part-time at North Carolina State University. Babb became involved in women’s activism in the late 1970s and early 1980s after reading Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique, and joined women’s groups that supported the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA). Through these groups, Babb lobbied for the amendment by making phone calls, writing letters, and lobbying state legislators. During the fight for ratification, Babb worked in Governor Hunt’s administration as the Director of the Division of Community Assistance. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Babb headed the group NC Equity. During her time with NC Equity, the group successfully lobbied to require health insurance companies to provide coverage for mammograms. Babb passed away in 2022.