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Philadelphia Student Organizes Equal Rights Amendment March

by Mark Abrams

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- A student at Friends Select School in Philadelphia organized a march and rally Thursday afternoon in Center City to raise awareness about a highly-charged political and social issue.

Junior Anna Holemans from Sewell, NJ was behind the march from City Hall, up JFK Boulevard to Eakins Oval where some 300 students, staff, and supporters gathered to press the case for passage of the Equal Rights Amendment.

The 16-year-old Holemans put together the event as part of a civic engagement project to earn her Girl Scout Gold Award.

"I think that my generation just doesn't know about this issue, and I'm hoping to educate my generation about this and I think this march is the first step for that," said Holemans.

Ginny Marino is CEO for the Girl Scouts of Southern New Jersey.

"She took history from her town in southern New Jersey by looking at the legacy of Alice Paul, and put it forward in a contemporary way," said Ginny Marino, CEO for the Girl Scouts of Southern New Jersey.

Paul was the author of the 1923 Equal Rights Amendment.

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