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Document Not Available for Interview with Catherine G. Roraback
Interview with Catherine G. Roraback
Document Not Available for Interview with Catherine G. Roraback

Interview with Catherine G. Roraback

IntervieweeInterview with Catherine Roraback American, 1920 - 2007
Date2004 May 4
DimensionsDuration (k): 1 Hour, 59 Minutes, 18 Seconds
ClassificationsGraphics
Credit LineGift of the Connecticut Bar Foundation
DescriptionOral history interview with Catherine G. Roraback who was interviewed by Howard Klebanoff on May 4, 2004 and September 14, 2004 for the Connecticut Bar Foundation's History of Connecticut Women in the Legal Profession Project.

Topic Discussed:

- Personal Background: Catherine Gertrude Roraback was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1920. She experienced the Depression during her childhood and high school years. Her family emphasized education and social consciousness.

- Family's Legal Involvement: Many of her family members were involved in the legal profession. Her grandfather became a lawyer in 1873 in Salisbury, later serving on the Supreme Court of Connecticut until his retirement. Her great-uncle, J. Henry Roraback, was a well-known political figure and "Republican Boss of Connecticut" until his death in 1937. Her uncle, Clint Roraback, practiced law in the family office in Canaan until his death in 1955, and Catherine inherited that office.

- College Life and Activism: Catherine enrolled in Mount Holyoke College in 1937, majoring in economics with a focus on labor law, labor history, and political science. She was involved in the Student Industrial Club (which she later headed), meeting factory workers to understand their lives. She also participated in student political organizations like "Students for Democracy" (SDS). During the lead-up to World War II, she was active in student movements and a student parade for Roosevelt in the fall of 1940. In the summer of 1939, she joined a Peace Caravan, a pacifist project of the Friends Service Committee. She also attended Hudson Shore Labor School, an independent school for women workers.

- Early Career and World War II: After graduating from college, Catherine sought employment during the Depression, which ended with the entry into World War II.
She worked briefly in an unemployment insurance office after Pearl Harbor. She then accepted a Civil Service job in Washington D.C. with the Department of Agriculture as an analyst on public opinion surveys. She later transferred to the War Labor Board in Detroit, which settled labor disputes during World War II.

- Law School and Early Legal Practice: Catherine attended law school immediately after the war. Her class had 30 women out of 450 students. As a Roraback, she found herself accepted in the legal community, though she stood out as a woman in the courtroom.

- Smith Act Cases (1954): She was involved in the Smith Act Cases around 1954, during the height of McCarthyism, defending Communist Party leaders in Connecticut who were arrested on charges of conspiring to advocate the overthrow of the government.

- Civic Activities (NAACP): After law school, she joined the NAACP, assisting individuals with affidavits for police complaints in a then-segregated society.

- Griswold Case (beginning 1958): In 1958, she was approached by Fowler Harper of Yale Law School to participate in the Griswold Case. This litigation challenged a Connecticut statute prohibiting contraceptive use. Earlier, the Nelson Case in the late 1930s had upheld the statute's constitutionality, leading Planned Parenthood to close its six birth control clinics in the state. Catherine argued the Griswold case in the U.S. Supreme Court. The case focused on the right of married people to privacy.

- Feminist Movement: She became more conscious of the feminist movement during this period, recognizing that the courtroom was predominantly a "man's world".

- Divorce Cases: She represented a woman in her fifties in a divorce case, who was afraid to leave her unpleasant marital situation due to fears of losing her children.

- Vietnam War Protests: Catherine was involved in cases related to Vietnam War protests, including a march from the Yale campus to selective service headquarters and a demonstration in Hartford at the Welfare Department.

- Black Panther Case (late 1960s): For two years in the late 1960s, she was involved in the Black Panther case in New Haven, representing members of the Black Panther organization to assert Black rights and self-protection.

- Wounded Knee Case: She represented women arrested during the Wounded Knee occupation in South Dakota, with the trial held in Federal Court in Lincoln, Nebraska.
Object number2024.38.17a-k
NotesProject Overview: At the turn of the 20th century, other than Mary Hall, women lawyers were virtually unknown in Connecticut. By contrast, at the turn of the 21st century, law schools were enrolling roughly the same number of women as men. Since their earliest time at the bar, women have become leaders in all areas of the profession at a pace out of all proportion to their brief history and number.

In 1999, the Fellows of the Connecticut Bar Foundation initiated the Oral History of Connecticut Women in the Legal Profession Project. Within the framework of this dynamic project, the Fellows have been creating a permanent video, audio, and photographic historical record of milestone achievements of women as they have become more visible and achieved prominence in the field of law. In 2019, a leadership donation of $20,000 from the law firm of Carmody Torrance Sandak & Hennessey enabled the project to significantly broaden its scope and plan for the future.

Through its first two phases, the project worked with award-winning documentarian Karyl Evans and attorney/photographer Isabel Chenoweth to produce fifty-eight oral history interviews with outstanding female attorneys and 118 portraits of women in the Connecticut judiciary.

The oral history interviews have collected the stories of women whose ingenuity, perseverance, and intelligence dismantled barriers that historically prevented women from pursuing careers in the law. Connecticut has benefited from the efforts of these “pioneers” as they enriched the legal profession by joining the ranks of their male peers and paved the way for more women to join the profession. (Source: Connecticut Bar Foundation)
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