{{Short description|American women's rights activist (1927–2004)}} {{use mdy dates|date=September 2023}} '''Corrine Grad Coleman''' (1927–2004) was an American writer and women's rights activist. She was a founding member of the women's liberation organization Redstockings and helped to write the group's manifesto. She was also a member of New York Radical Women. She participated in the 1968 Miss America protest and the occupation of the offices of ''Ladies' Home Journal'' in 1970. She was a co-founder and editor of the literary magazine ''Feelings: A Journal of Women's Liberation''. As a freelance writer, her works were published in the ''Village Voice'' and ''The Brooklyn Phoenix''. Coleman graduated from New York University and taught English in New York public schools.

==Early life and education== Corrine Grad was born in The Bronx on June 30, 1927. She earned her bachelor's and master's degrees from New York University.<ref name="NYT"/>

==Career and activism== Coleman taught English in public schools in New York.<ref name="Love2006"/> According to Kathie Sarachild, Coleman's interest in feminism stemmed from reading Simone de Beauvoir's ''The Second Sex''.<ref name="VFA">{{cite web |title=VFA Obituaries |url=https://www.veteranfeministsofamerica.org/legacy/Obituaries.htm#CORRINE%20GRAD%20COLEMAN |publisher=Veteran Feminists of America |access-date=September 11, 2023 |archive-date=April 12, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230412075422/https://www.veteranfeministsofamerica.org/legacy/Obituaries.htm#CORRINE%20GRAD%20COLEMAN |url-status=live }}</ref> She was also a freelance writer and poet, with her works published in the ''Village Voice'' and ''The Brooklyn Phoenix''.<ref name="NYT"/>

In the late 1960s, Coleman was active in the women's liberation movement. She was a member of the second-wave radical feminist organization New York Radical Women, which had its beginnings in 1967.<ref name="NYT"/> In 1968, Coleman participated in a women's liberation protest organized by the New York Radical Women against that year's Miss America pageant.<ref name="Love2006">{{cite book |last1=Love |first1=Barbara J. |title=Feminists Who Changed America, 1963-1975 |date=2006 |publisher=University of Illinois Press |isbn=978-0-252-03189-2 |page=90 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kpNarH7t9CkC&dq=%22Corrine+Grad%22&pg=PA90 |language=en |access-date=September 11, 2023 |archive-date=September 12, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230912010509/https://books.google.com.ar/books?id=kpNarH7t9CkC&lpg=PA510&ots=WqAxscTHj8&dq=%22Corrine%20Grad%22&pg=PA90#v=onepage&q=%22Corrine%20Grad%22&f=false |url-status=live }}</ref> In November 1968, she attended the national Women's Liberation Conference in Lake Villa, Illinois and conducted a workshop on 'Alternatives to Marriage'.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Buchanan |first1=Paul D. |title=Radical Feminists: A Guide to an American Subculture |date=2011 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing USA |isbn=978-1-59884-357-6 |page=35 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NBXHEAAAQBAJ&dq=%22Corrine+Coleman%22+feminist&pg=PA35 |language=en |access-date=September 11, 2023 |archive-date=September 12, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230912010605/https://books.google.com.ar/books?id=NBXHEAAAQBAJ&lpg=PA35&ots=dCj6gn0QQW&dq=%22Corrine%20Coleman%22%20feminist&pg=PA35#v=onepage&q=%22Corrine%20Coleman%22%20feminist&f=false |url-status=live }}</ref>

Alongside Shulamith Firestone and Ellen Willis, she founded the radical women's liberation organization Redstockings, an offshoot of New York Radical Women.<ref>{{cite book |title=Dictionary of Women Worldwide: 25,000 Women Through the Ages |date=2007 |publisher=Gale |url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/women/dictionaries-thesauruses-pictures-and-press-releases/coleman-corrine-grad-1927-2004 |location=Detroit |isbn=978-0-7876-7585-1 |chapter=Coleman, Corrine Grad (1927–2004) |access-date=September 11, 2023 |archive-date=September 3, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230903190546/https://www.encyclopedia.com/women/dictionaries-thesauruses-pictures-and-press-releases/coleman-corrine-grad-1927-2004 |url-status=live }}</ref> She one of the editors of the ''Redstockings Manifesto'' of July 7, 1969. She was a leader of the hundred feminists who occupied the offices of the women's magazine ''Ladies' Home Journal'' for a day in 1970,<ref>{{cite news |title=Corrine Coleman, 77 |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-2004-07-11-0407110444-story.html |work=Chicago Tribune |date=July 11, 2004 |access-date=September 11, 2023 |archive-date=September 12, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230912010515/https://www.chicagotribune.com/ |url-status=live }}</ref> demanding that the magazine release an issue on women's liberation.<ref name="NYT"/> Coleman was a co-founder of the literary magazine ''Feelings: A Journal of Women's Liberation'' and served as its editor.<ref name="Love2006"/> Some of her poetry is included in the magazine.<ref name="VFA"/>

Coleman was married to Joseph K. Coleman and had four children.<ref name="NYT"/><ref name="Love2006"/> Anticipating her 1977 divorce from him, she devised guidelines for making the process of divorce equitable for women and wrote an article about divorce for the ''Ladies' Home Journal''.<ref name="Love2006"/>

At a memorial for Simone de Beauvoir in New York in 1986, Coleman was among the women who spoke and gave testimonies.<ref>{{cite web |title=Simone de Beauvoir Memorial Speakout May 1, 1986, Soho 20 Gallery, New York City |url=https://www.redstockings.org/index.php/simone-de-beauvoir-memorial-speakout-may-1-1986-soho-20-gallery-new-york-city |publisher=Redstockings |access-date=September 11, 2023 |archive-date=July 19, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230719094009/http://www.redstockings.org/index.php/simone-de-beauvoir-memorial-speakout-may-1-1986-soho-20-gallery-new-york-city |url-status=live }}</ref> She died of heart disease on July 4, 2004, in Manhattan.<ref name="NYT">{{cite news |last1=Koppel |first1=Lily |title=Corrine Grad Coleman, 77, Radical Feminist and Writer |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/11/nyregion/corrine-grad-coleman-77-radical-feminist-and-writer.html |work=The New York Times |date=July 11, 2004 |access-date=September 11, 2023 |archive-date=February 14, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210214153420/https://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/11/nyregion/corrine-grad-coleman-77-radical-feminist-and-writer.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

==References== {{reflist}}

==External links== *[https://archive.org/details/SimonedeBeauvoirMemorialSpeakoutRedstockingsNYC1986May1/Part+10+Simone+de+Beauvoir+Memorial+Speakout+Redstockings+NYC+1986+May+1.mp3 Audio of Coleman speaking at the Redstockings Memorial Speakout for Simone de Beauvoir]. Archive.org.

{{Authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Coleman, Corrine Grad}} Category:1927 births Category:2004 deaths Category:American women's rights activists Category:American feminist writers Category:20th-century American writers Category:New York Radical Women members Category:Redstockings members Category:Schoolteachers from New York (state) Category:Writers from the Bronx Category:New York University alumni