Yolanda Bako
Born1946
NationalityAmerican
OccupationActivist against domestic violence
Known forCo-founded New York City's first state-funded shelter for battered women (1977)

Yolanda Bako (born 1946) is an American feminist and activist against domestic violence.

Early life

Yolanda Bako was born in the Bronx; both of her parents were born in Hungary.[1] Her father was a bouncer at a bar.[2] She graduated from Evander Childs High School. "When I think of the universe, the Bronx is at its center," she commented about her origins, in 1978.[3]

Career

Bako worked as secretary and at the Guggenheim Museum as a young woman.[4][5] She became coordinator of the Center for the Elimination of Violence in the Family,[6] and in 1977 co-founded Women's Survival Space in Brooklyn,[7] the city's first state-funded shelter for battered women.[1][8] She was a rape prevention educator at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and a founding member of the Mayor's Task Force on Rape.[9] She was active in the New York City chapter of the National Organization for Women,[10] and with the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence.[11] She coordinated the 1976 Women's Walk Against Rape in Central Park, telling the New York Times, "We have the right to use the world at night."[12]

In 1978, she testified at Congressional hearings on domestic violence and sexual assault.[13][14] She was the author of How to start a county-wide task force on family violence (1980), a booklet for the American Friends Service Committee.[15] In the 1980s she worked at the Bronx State Psychiatric Hospital as a mental health therapy aide, and in 1995 she attended the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing.[16] In 2017, Bako spoke at "a reunion of second-wave feminists" held by the Veteran Feminists of America in New York.[17][16]

Personal life

Over six feet tall,[14] Bako was a striking presence in feminist activism in the 1970s New York.[3] Her papers are in the Schlesinger Library at Harvard.[18]

References

  1. 1 2 Brownmiller, Susan (2000). In Our Time: Memoir of a Revolution. Dial Press. pp. 272–273. ISBN 978-0-385-31831-0.
  2. ↑ "Battered Women Gain Floor As Washington Gathers Data". Hartford Courant. 1977-07-27. p. 13. Retrieved 2019-12-22 – via Newspapers.com.
  3. 1 2 Wood, Ann (1978-02-25). "A Leader in the Fight for Battered Women". Daily News. p. 10. Retrieved 2019-12-22 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. ↑ "4. Peggy Guggenheim Collection". Guggenheim. 2019-04-19. Retrieved 2019-12-22.
  5. ↑ Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum; Theodoron (Foundation) . (1971). Ten young artists : Theodoron awards : [exhibition, Sept. 24-Nov. 7, 1971] the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. New York : Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation. p. 26 – via Internet Archive.
  6. ↑ United States Commission on Civil Rights (1983). Battered Women: Issues of Public Policy : a Consultation Sponsored by the United States Commission on Civil Rights, Washington, D.C., January 30-31, 1978. The Commission. pp. 357–363.
  7. ↑ Shepard, Jan (1977-12-11). "Beaten Wives Find a Secret Shelter". Daily News. p. 219. Retrieved 2019-12-22 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. ↑ Klemesrud, Judy (April 30, 1977). "Wives Recite Litany of Abuse by Their Husbands". p. 39 – via ProQuest.
  9. ↑ Pawlyna, Andrea (1975-11-15). "Conference Held to Launch Rape Crisis Center". Poughkeepsie Journal. p. 3. Retrieved 2019-12-22 – via Newspapers.com.
  10. ↑ "Guide to the National Organization for Women, New York City Chapter (NOW-NYC) Records TAM.106". Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archive, Elmer Holmes Bobst Library, New York University. Retrieved 2019-12-22.
  11. ↑ Ellison, Alice A. (1980-01-24). "Meeting to Focus on Domestic Violence". The Evening Sun. p. 22. Retrieved 2019-12-22 – via Newspapers.com.
  12. ↑ "Central Park Night Walk Protests Rapes". The New York Times. 1976-08-05. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2019-12-22.
  13. ↑ United States. Congress. House. Committee on Science and Technology. Subcommittee on Domestic and International Scientific Planning, Analysis, and Cooperation, Research Into Violent Behavior: Overview and Sexual Assaults (U.S. Government Printing Office, 1978).
  14. 1 2 Education, United States Congress House Committee on Education and Labor Subcommittee on Select (1978). Domestic Violence: Hearings Before the Subcommittee on Select Education of the Committee on Education and Labor, House of Representatives, Ninety-fifth Congress, Second Session, on H.R. 7927 and H.R. 8948 ... March 16 and 17, 1978. U.S. Government Printing Office. pp. 403–410.
  15. ↑ Bako, Yolanda. How to start a county-wide task force on family violence (American Friends Service Committee 1980).
  16. 1 2 "Report on the Feminist Reunion, June 10, 2017" Veteran Feminists of America.
  17. ↑ Reinholz, Mary. "Veteran feminists show they’re young at heart at reunion" The Villager (June 15, 2017).
  18. ↑ Papers of Yolanda Bako, 1970-1995, Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University.
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