Celebrating Women's History Month: Flora M. Trimmer Crater

The Farm Team, in accordance with Women’s History Month, celebrates the lives of Virginia Women who were pioneers in state politics and public affairs. These are the women who felled the trees and cleared the land so that those of us coming later could till the political soil.

Flora M. Trimmer Crater 1915-2009

Small, grandmotherly, even quiet, would be a good description of Flora Crater. Not a likely portrait of someone who was a committed activist for women’s rights and the organizer of a group called Crater’s Raiders. The Raiders lobbied tirelessly for the passage of ERA in Virginia and in the U.S. Congress.

Born in Costa Rica, Flora grew up in Orange County, Virginia. Although she lived in Cuba, New York, Washington and Falls Church, Orange was always home and she spent her last years in her girlhood home there, which she rebuilt after it burned.

Like so many women, Flora’s interest in public affairs began with her interest in her children’s schools, working to integrate the Falls Church school system. But it wasn’t until 1970 when she began to work for ERA that she found her true political passion.

She served as the first president of NOW’s Virginia Chapter and was a guiding force in the Women’s Political Caucus and the Virginia Women’s Network. She convened the Virginia Equal Rights Amendment Ratification Council.

She attended Strayer College in Washington D.C., but did not obtain a BA degree until she was 67 years old and graduated from George Mason University with a degree in Government and Politics. Lack of academic credentials did not deter her from a long career in publishing. She founded the Woman Activist, Inc. and published the Woman Activist from 1973 to 2008. She also published the enormously useful Almanac of Virginia Politics from 1976 until 2003.

Inspired by the Women’s Movement, Flora ran for as an Independent in 1973 for Lt. Governor and then ran for the Democratic nomination for U. S. Senate in 1978. A long-time member of the Fairfax Democratic Committee, Flora lived long enough to vote for the first African-American for President

She received numerous awards in her long life, which might be summed up by Northern Virginia NOW’s naming her the “First Feminist of Virginia.”

Submitted by Janet