Hughes, Alison

Part 1 of 3 was recorded at Alison Hughes’ house in Tucson, Arizona on January 27th, 2022.  It covers the following themes: 

b. 1940 

  • Early life in Glasgow, Scotland. World War II. Lack of higher educational opportunities. 

  • Move to United States in 1959. Life in Washington, D.C. 

  • Attitude towards work and a childhood job picking leeks in Scotland. 

  • Early jobs in America, including work at the Civil Rights Commission on an educational conference in the mid-1960s.  

  • Impressions of racism in America. 

  • An aside about developing the English Language Arts curriculum for the State of Wisconsin in the mid-1960s. 

  • Relocation to Tucson in the late 1960s and writing grants for Pima College. 

  • Memories of the Civil Rights March and Poor People’s March in Washington, D.C.  

  • Further details about work at the Civil Rights Commission. 

  • Developing interest in women’s rights. 

  • First impressions of Tucson. 

  • Joining United Farmworkers protests. Visiting farms and seeing working conditions. Interactions with Cesar Chavez. 

  • The early days of Pima College and an equal pay lawsuit against the college. 

Part 2 of 3 was recorded at Alison Hughes’ house in Tucson, Arizona on March 14th, 2022. It covers the following themes: 

  • The women’s rights movement in Tucson. Foundation of Tucson chapter of the National Organization for Women in the early 1970s. 

  • Employment discrimination against women and a N.O.W. lawsuit against the City of Tucson for paid pregnancy leave. 

  • Hughes’ involvement in various women’s organizations of the 1970s. The activist zeitgeist of the 1970s. Staging a grant-writing workshop for women. 

  • The Equal Rights Amendment and the dissolution of the Arizona Governor’s Commission on Women for its ERA support. 

  • Serving on Arizona Governor Bruce Babbit’s Judicial Selection Commission. 

  • Formation of the Arizona Women’s Hall of Fame. 

  • Seeing the Equal Rights Amendment lose momentum. 

  • Joining Jim McNulty Jr.’s congressional campaign in 1982 and working in constituent services in his Tucson office. 

Part 3 of 3 was recorded at Alison Hughes’ house in Tucson, Arizona on April 26th, 2022. It covers the following themes: 

  • The congressional career of Jim McNulty, Jr., continued. Organizing a Tucson conference to help local businesses bid for government contracts.  McNulty’s failed re-election. 

  • Taking a job with Andy Nichols at the University of Arizona’s Rural Health Office in the mid-1980s. 

  • Lobbying for the funding of Area Health Education Centers in Arizona. 

  • The state of rural health in Arizona in the late-1980s. 

  • Billing. Telemedicine. 

  • Stories about Andy Nichols. 

  • A few projects originating from the Rural Health Office. 

  • Becoming the director of the Rural Health Office in 2001. 

  • Retirement in 2011 and work on a local Women’s Commission and current projects. 

Aengus Anderson