Nellie’s March and the Fall of Roe V. Wade
It may take an army to bring about a revolution, but it just takes one person to start one
She'd have been 100 years old this year.
Born on June 24, 1924, on the Feast of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist, the spunky girl from Big Spring, Texas, entered the world.
Nellie Jane Gray and her sister, Marie, were raised in a modest home by her father, Edward, and mother, Marie, in a growing town whose character would influence their own.
Nestled within the vast expanse of the Permian Basin, Big Spring retained a frontier spirit, with vast open skies overhead and the rolling plains stretching endlessly beyond the town's modest borders.
The town was a blend of rustic wooden buildings and new industrial structures--a portrait of its rugged past and promising future as an oil town. It was a town built on a spirit of hope and grounded in Old Western values.
In her teens, she moved East to Denton, Texas, to attend Texas State Women's College. However, her tenure would be short-lived due to the attack on Pearl Harbor, which compelled her to join the Women's Air Corps for the duration of WWII.
After the war, she returned to college, earning a Bachelor's Degree in Business Administration and a Master's Degree in Economics. And finally, she graduated from Georgetown University Law School with a law degree in 1959.
After graduating, Gray began a notable career in the federal government, where she served for 28 years. She worked in the Departments of State and Labor, and her role often found her practicing law before the U.S. Supreme Court, pointing to her proficiency and the significance of her work.
But it all ended abruptly following the landmark Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade in 1973. Deeply moved by the ruling, Gray retired early from her professional career in the government and became a full-time pro-life advocate.
The March for Life
In a profile published by Catholic News Service, she described how it all began, "I received a call from the Knights of Columbus. I didn't even know who they were, but they explained their stance against abortion and needed a place to meet to discuss plans for a march. That place was my living room…I always say…be careful who you let in your living room because you may wind up being the president of a corporation!"12
Working closely over several months with pro-life advocates and the Knights, the March for Life was born with Nellie Gray at the helm. And on Tuesday, January 22, 1974, under a deep blue sky and unprecedented 70-degree temperature, a crowd of 20,000 descended upon the nation's capital in prayerful solidarity.
A March that she would lead for the next 38 years.
And so began a grassroots movement that would ignite the soul of a nation, give rise to countless organizations, and inspire generations to stand for the dignity and right to life.
She wouldn't live to see her dream of overturning the law that allowed the slaughter of the innocent and the agony of those who bear the scars…
But it was her leadership that united the nation around the cause. Joined in prayer and solidarity. Standing together for the ultimate right. The right from which every right flows.
The Right to Life.
And on June 24, 2022, what would have been Nellie Jane Gray's 98th birthday, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned 50 years of precedent and overruled Roe v. Wade.
A fitting birthday present for "The Joan of Arc of the pro-life movement."
She would have been 100 years old this year.
From a little girl on the plains of West Texas to a seasoned attorney on the steps of the Supreme Court and finally to an icon of Faith, courage, and hope at the forefront of the pro-life movement, her life is a parable to us all.
She placed the lives of others before hers. She sacrificed her professional life to fight for theirs. And she proved the timeless truth that's a clarion call to us all:
It may take an army to bring about a revolution, but it only takes one person to start one…
And that one person could be you.
https://religionnews.com/1998/01/15/news-profile-nellie-gray-25-years-behind-the-march-for-life/
https://www.kofc.org/en/news-room/columbia/2018/january/movement-is-born.html
Wonderful tribute, Jeff. Thank you. I had the honor to meet Nellie 25 years ago. She had a presence of passion and determination but was equally gentle and approachable. I am glad Nellie was “chosen” to provide leadership for the March. I sincerely wonder where the pro-life movement would be had she not accepted the task.
I never heard of this woman. Thank you Jeffrey.