Geraldine Ferraro was the first woman nominated by a
major 
political
power as its candidate for Vice President of the United States.
A teacher and then attorney, Ferraro worked in the Queens, New York District Attorney's office, where she started the Special Victims Bureau. Ferraro ran successfully for Congress from New York City's 9th District in 1978. There, she was a women's and human rights advocate, working for passage of the Equal Rights Amendment, sponsoring the Women's Economic Equity Act ending pension discrimination against women, and seeking greater job training and opportunities for displaced homemakers.
In 1984, Ferraro was picked to run as Vice President of
the United States on the Democratic Party ticket, with former Vice President
Walter Mondale as the candidate for President. In
her acceptance speech, she spoke of the realization of the American dream:
"Tonight, the daughter of an immigrant from Italy has been chosen to run
for vice president in the new land my father came to love..."
The ticket lost, but Ferraro's candidacy forever reshaped the American political
and social landscape.
Info courtesy http://www.greatwomen.org/frraro.htm
 YYogi Berra Rings Closing Bell at the NYSE |
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| 09/20/99 Former Yankee catcher, Yogi Berra, with former congresswoman, Geraldine Ferraro, and Frank Guarini, National Italian American Foundation Chairman, rang the Closing Bell today at the NYSE. Note: Richard A. Grasso, chairman and chief executive officer of the New York Stock Exchange |
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Anti-Italian - Charges of suspect real estate deals and unethical campaign funding filled the airwaves and newspapers for two weeks. Some publications, especially the Wall Street Journal, also pursued Zaccaro's purported, extremely tenuous Mafia connections – so intensely, in fact, that many observers perceived anti-Italian prejudice in the quest.
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