Flora Crater (1914–2009) was a Virginia politician, lobbyist, and activist. Her causes included women's rights, school integration, collective bargaining, and minority rights. She most famously led the Virginia lobby for the Equal Rights Amendment and was the first president of the Virginia chapter of the National Organization for Women. She was the first woman to run for statewide office in Virginia.
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Life
Flora Marina Trimmer was born on April 19, 1914, in Costa Rica. She was the daughter of a Nicaraguan mother and an American father. After living in Cuba, New York City, and Washington, D.C., the family moved to Orange, Virginia, when Crater was a child. As a young woman, she attended Strayer College, in Washington, D.C., but did not graduate. At the age of 67 she received her bachelor's degree from George Mason University. She married Walter James Crater and had three children. He died in 1982.
Flora Crater first became involved in politics in 1942, when she advocated for educational issues in Fairfax County. In particular, she lobbied against the policies of Wallace Carper, chairman of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, a Democrat aligned with Harry F. Byrd Jr. In 1945, Crater supported Ed Lynch's successful campaign against Carper to represent Fairfax County in the General Assembly.
Women's rights
Crater convened the Virginia Equal Rights Amendment Ratification Council, which brought together more than thirty organizations to fight for the ERA.
"Crater's Raiders"
Crater led a group of lobbyists, made up mostly of NOW members, who were instrumental in pushing the U.S. Congress's passage of the Equal Rights Amendment in 1972, and which led the fight for the passage of the ERA in Virginia from that point on. They were retroactively dubbed "Crater's Raiders," and were known for handing out pink paper flowers, in reference to Crater's first name.
Campaigns for political office
Archives
Flora Crater's papers are held at the Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library at the University of Virginia.
Records of the Virginia Equal Rights Amendment Ratification Council are held at the Library of Virginia.