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= Lottie Beth Hobbs = On July 7, 1921, in Callahan County, Lottie became the ninth of 10 children born to A.G. and Sarah Sikes Hobbs, a rancher and a teacher. She grew up in Abilene, Texas and upon graduation from Abilene Christian University in 1943, she moved to Fort Worth where she worked for a defense contractor during World War II until 1946 and writing and publishing books for bible classes. Hobbs was a member of the Church of Christ. She acted as church secretary, Bible teacher, author, editor and publisher and taught at seminars and conferences for Christian women throughout the United States. After learning about the ERA through one such conference and interpreting it as an attack on her Christian way of life as decreed by God, she began working in grassroots fundamentalist christian religious and political activism to fight the ERA.

Hobbs founded the organization Women Who Want to Be Women (WWWW), later renamed the National Pro-Family Forum (in about 1977/1978), of which she served as president. She wrote and circulated newsletters colloquially know as "pink sheets," for the pink paper they were printed on and entitled, "Ladies! Have You Heard?" which became highly influential in spreading arguments against the Equal Rights Amendment. She later changed the title of these newsletters to "The Family Educator". WWWW was established to get Texas to rescind its ratification of the ERA (which they did not accomplish) and spread to other states, such as Tennessee, where efforts were led by Shirley Curry and Tottie Ellis, and Oklahoma, led by Beverly Findley, all members of the Church of Christ.

In1975, Lottie Beth Hobbs and WWWW partnered with with Phyllis Schlafly and her group Stop Taking Our Privileges (STOP-ERA) and coalesced into a broader "pro-family" movement which fought against women's rights issues such as the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) to the constitution, legalized abortion, and LGBTQ civil rights, among others. Hobbs even became Vice President of another of Schlafly's organizations, the Eagle Forum. While Schlafly, experienced in politics, was more concerned with advancing legal arguments against the ERA and promoting conservative politics, Hobbs and her fundamentalist cohort were not experienced with politics and more concerned about religious liberty and government interference in a family's right to raise children according to their religious convictions. However, at Hobbs suggestion, they organized the Pro-Family Rally at the Astro-Arena in Houston on Saturday, November 19, 1977, as a counter protest/event to the National Women's Conference being held by the government, also known as the International Women's Year (IWY) Conference, being held in Houston at the Albert Thomas Convention Center.

Phyllis Schlafly wrote of Lottie Beth Hobbs and the Pro-Family counter rally, "Although the success of the Pro-Family Rally was a team effort that involved many dedicated people, the indispensable leader was Lottie Beth Hobbs. She had the vision to see that the Pro-Family Rally could be accomplished despite almost insurmountable odds. She had the courage to set a goal that appeared to be beyond human reach. She had the determination to do the hard work, and to motivate others to do likewise, so that that goal would be reached. We salute a great lady who saw her “impossible dream” crowned with the glory of success."

During this counter rally, Lottie Beth Hobbs spoke and presented the following resolutions:


 * "mandatory human life amendment to the constitution to protect all persons born and unborn"
 * "preschool child development programs shall be controlled by the private sector giving parents freedom of choice over the physical and philosophical environment of their children"
 * "oppose the ratification of the ERA"
 * "homosexuality, lesbianism, prostitution shall not be taught, glorified, or otherwise promoted as acceptable through the laws of society, through the adoption of children, or within the institutions, such as our schools."

Lottie Beth Hobbs, through WWW/ National Pro-Family Forum, mobilized thousands of previously apolitical Evangelical and Fundamentalist Christian women. Some called it their "political baptism". This is in part due to an interpretation of John 17:15 that Christians were "In this world, but not of this world" and therefore many did not vote and were not politically active. Approximately 20,000 people came to Houston to protest women's rights, however, almost all who attended the Pro-family counter rally were white, and large numbers were men and children. Regardless, this led to the declaration that this was the the beginning of a new "Pro-family" movement based on "family values" as opposed to women's rights. This set the tone for the Republic Party moving forward, particularly around women's rights, reproductive rights, abortion rights, civil rights, privatization, and small government with fewer regulations, etc. It also resulted in the expansion of conservative christian organizations working in the political sphere, such as the Moral Majority. These newly political white conservative Christians became a key population in the next election, resulting in the election of Ronald Reagan.

The ERA, which had been broadly supported across political parties and was expected to pass without issue, stalled with only 4 states shy of the needed number to pass.

After 1977
Lottie Beth Hobbs served on President Reagan's Council on Family Values. She was also part of the Council for National Policy, which began meeting in 1981 and which has been cited by Southern Poverty Law Center for it's anti-gay activism, and has had a notable number of fundamentalist christian leaders among their members.

Publications
Lottie Beth Hobbs wrote and published the following books:

Daughters of Eve: Strength for Today from Women of Yesterday

Choosing Life's Best: The Practical Plan of Proverbs

Your Best Friend: Our Precious Privilege: A Persons Friendship with Jesus Christ

You Can Be Beautiful: With Beauty That Never Fades

Victory Over Trials: Encouragement for the Life of Job

If You Would See Good Days: Help for Daily Decisions

Recognition/ Awards
Lottie was recipient of the Newsmaker of the Year award from the Fort Worth Press Club (1977), Alumni Citation award from Abilene Christian University (1977), Woman of the Year by Women for Constitutional Government (1978) and Christian Literature Award from Christian Educators of California (1978).

In Media
She was portrayed by the actress Cindy Drummond on the FX miniseries Mrs. America in 2020.