The life of Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Brut America

Fierce feminist, civil rights icon, and trailblazer for women's rights, Ruth Bader Ginsburg died one year ago on this day.   This is the story of the Notorious RBG.

Transcript

00:00The more women who are out there doing things,

00:04the more society will see what women can do,

00:07women will see what women can do,

00:10and we'll all be better off for it.

00:30You know what was copied for the Notorious RBG?

00:36It's the Notorious B.I.G.

00:39Yes.

00:39The famous rapper.

00:41Yes.

00:41I said, well, perfectly understandable.

00:45We have one thing in common.

00:46We were both born and bred in Brooklyn, New York.

00:49Who are my heroes?

01:02Well, growing up, I didn't have very many

01:04because the women weren't out there doing things.

01:08But now there's so many women out there doing everything

01:11in every field of human endeavor.

01:20So,

01:43Marty was the first boy I ever dated

01:47who cared that I had a brain.

02:05I got the idea that being a lawyer

02:08was a pretty nifty thing.

02:11I hoped that I could get a paying job

02:15but also spend my time trying to make things

02:22a little better in the communities in which I live.

02:44There I am in law school, graduating in 1959.

02:49Far from thinking about any judgeship,

02:52what I want is a job in the law, any job in the law.

02:58There was no Title VII, no anti-discrimination laws.

03:02People were up front about wanting no lady lawyers.

03:08First, I got that idea from my brother,

03:14the other day.

03:16I thought,

03:19this is what I want to do.

03:21I don't know if it's going to work out,

03:25but I will do my best.

03:27Who am I going to marry?

03:29I don't know.

03:31Every modern human rights document has a statement that men and women are equal

04:01before the law. Our Constitution doesn't. I would like to see for the sake of my

04:08daughter and my granddaughter and the daughters who all the daughters who come

04:13after that statement as part of our fundamental instrument of government.

04:21President Carter looked around and he said, I see these federal judges and they

04:33all look like me. At least they are all white, they are all male. But that is now

04:39how, not how, the great United States looks.

04:54Times are changing. The president made that clear by appointing me. Six of his

05:03total of 14 federal bench nominees thus far are women.

05:23But over the history of this country, this notion of who are we the people has

05:31become ever more embracive, become an ever more inclusive society.

06:01There she is, also known as the notorious RBG.

06:16We really should get back to the way it was when people were examining the

06:23qualifications of someone to be a judge rather than trying to guess how they

06:31would vote.

06:53She was our prophet, our North Star, our strength for so very long. Now she must

07:06be permitted to rest after toiling so hard for every single one of us.

07:16She might have been the one to be the first to begin, but she isn't the one to

07:23end it. And so it's on us to do that and it's on us to continue to lead in her

07:29legacy.

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