Description
Fighter in Velvet Gloves: Alaska Civil Rights Hero Elizabeth Peratrovich, is the story of how Elizabeth Peratrovich came to give a speech that helped Alaska lead all of America in the battle for civil rights. This book is written by Annie Boochever in consultation with Elizabeth Peratrovich’s eldest son, Roy Peratrovich, Jr.(Tlingit) who read and edited each revision of his mother’s story. In Fighter in Velvet Gloves, the words, "No Natives Allowed!” was a sign that blared at the young Tlingit girl from southeast Alaska and the sting of those words stayed with Elizabeth Peratrovich all her life. They also made her determined to work for change. In 1945, when Elizabeth was 34 years old, she gave a powerful speech before a packed session of the Alaska Territorial Legislature. Her testimony about the evils of racism crowned years of work by Alaska Native People and their allies and led to passage of Alaska's landmark Anti-Discrimination Act, nearly two decades before President Lyndon Johnson signed the US Civil Rights Act of 1964. Elizabeth Peratrovich represented her Tlingit people, and all Alaska Natives as the Grand President of the Alaska Native Sisterhood, Today, Alaskan's honor Elizabeth Peratrovich (1911-1958) every year on February 16 "for her courageous, unceasing efforts to eliminate discrimination and bring about equal rights in Alaska." (Alaska Statutes 44.12.065). This book has explanatory text and Tlingit words, and images.