National Clearinghouse on Marital and Date Rape

The National Clearinghouse on Marital and Date Rape (NCMDR) was founded in 1980 as a project of the Women's History Research Center (WHRC) in order to document rape laws in the United States that entitled men to rape their wives and dates. It was a network of academic researchers; law interns; health, mental health, and religious professionals; prosecutors; defense attorneys; judges; and activists from the anti-rape and [Page 465]battered women's movements and especially of victims or survivors. Laura X, the founder and director, as an individual, campaigned successfully for the repeal of date and marital rape exemptions from prosecution, which were in the laws of 45 states, in federal and military law, in laws of Guam, as well as in the laws of 20 other countries, from 1978 through June 1993 for the United States, and until 2004 elsewhere, when she retired and closed NCMDR.

When Laura X started collecting materials in 1968 for what would become in 1970 the Women's History Library of the WHRC, one goal was to create an activists-shared archive for materials growing out of the emerging women's liberation movement. Operating out of her Berkeley, California, home, the formerly battered woman and University of California, Berkeley, alumna, harbored battered women and rape survivors who were in desperate straits because there were still no community services available to them. From this refuge, Laura printed interviews with survivors in her own publication SPAZM (the only national women's liberation newsletter from April to December 1969) as well as printed “Anatomy of a Rape” on July 23 in the newspaper she copublished in 1970 (It Ain't Me, Babe, the first newspaper of the women's liberation movement). She published the first rape bibliography and an entire reel of microfilm on rape by 1974 as part of the WHRC Women and Law collection. This research was used for several subsequent best-selling books on rape.

In 1975, Laura X learned from prominent feminist Diana Russell that rape was still legal within marriage in most places in the United States. That same year, she worked to publicize the words of the judge who presided in the trial of Judy Hartwell, a battered woman who had killed her husband. The judge in the case validated Hartwell's right to say no and to defend herself, even though marital rape was not yet a crime.

In December 1978, Laura X assisted a rape crisis center involved in the trial of John Rideout in Salem, Oregon, which was the first time in the United States a husband was tried for raping his wife while they were living together. This electrified and polarized the country. Rideout was acquitted, a verdict which motivated Laura to lead the successful campaign to make marital rape a crime in California.

From 1980, 44 state-by-state campaigns included research; newspaper and magazine articles; well over 300 high school, college, and law school campuses; TV and radio appearances; and activist involvement in court cases. Articles appeared in USA Today, the Wall Street Journal, and the New York Times. Television appearances included 60 Minutes, Donahue, Sally Jessy Rafael, Geraldo, The Today Show, and Mark Wahlberg. NCMDR also assisted the Montel Williams and Oprah shows.

...