Beth Butler
Beth Butler joined ACORN in 1974 after taking a free class on ACORN at the local university in Little Rock. She was later transferred to Texas and to Tennessee before settling in New Orleans in 1980, where she worked as the Louisiana Head Organizer through the end of ACORN and where she continues to work with A Community Voice and ACORN International. In this interview, Butler talks about her parents’ political work and its influence on her, the leaders and members she worked with over time, the ACORN organizing model, and the many campaigns she worked on over the course of her fifty year career. Of particular note are her memories of the rape campaigns she led through ACORN and ACORN’s involvement nationally in canvassing for the Violence Against Women Act as well as the work she led in response to Hurricane Katrina. In addition, Butler talks about race and gender dynamics in ACORN, including her participation in forming the Women’s Caucus around 1980. Butler also discusses the events of 2008-2010, lessons she learned from the attacks on ACORN from the right, and where she sees the organization going in the future.