If you need proof that the kids are alright and some balm for your exhausted nerves in these intensely politicized times, follow this link to schedule or attend a screening of the documentary, “Ratified.”

But be forewarned—the makers of the film chronicling Virginia’s decades-long slog to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) want to inspire you to raise a ruckus and finally get the ERA added to the United States Constitution.

You see, it’s not in the Constitution. The amendment has been ratified by the required 38 states, the 38th of which was the Commonwealth. Both houses of the Virginia General Assembly ratified the ERA in January of 2020, but there are still unresolved legal issues.

The last state ratification happened well after a Congressionally-imposed deadline, and five state ratifications have been rescinded. According to the website of the Brennan Center for Justice, what’s at issue is whether any ratification can be validly rescinded, and whether that deadline can be validly lifted.

Legal scholars including former Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring disagreed with an evaluation issued by the Department of Justice (DOJ) during the administration of former president Donald J. Trump. At the time, the DOJ essentially said that the amendment was dead on arrival and could not be added to the Constitution.

At a press conference denouncing this evaluation, Herring said that the Trump administration was trying “to nullify the will of millions of Americans,” and noted the passage of the 27th Amendment. That amendment, which addresses the pay for members of Congress, took more than 200 years to become law, and it did not have a deadline.

Early in “Ratified,” which focuses primarily on the effort to get Virginia to ratify the ERA, we see a little 11-year-old girl burst into tears as she tries to read a statement to the Powhatan County Board of Supervisors urging them to adopt a resolution supporting the ERA. “I can’t, I can’t do this,” she says, choking back tears as her mother steps up and helps her finish.

Today that little girl, Eastan Weber, has become a sophisticated 17-year-old able to speak to a crowd of least 500 gathered at the Byrd Theatre after a screening of the documentary. She says that it’s meant “everything” to dedicate her childhood to getting the ERA ratified, and that she has friends for whom the fight for equality is similarly important. She then motions to a friend in the audience, Zoe Hornung, who joins her. The two smile, flash thumbs up, and share a hug in front of the crowd.

Now a veteran of testifying before the Virginia General Assembly and U.S. Congress, Weber recalls her childhood moment in Powhatan: “I cried that night not so much because I was afraid, but I was not prepared for the anger in the room, or for hearing grown-ups telling lies and being so mean to one another.” She adds, “I’ve always been able to stand up for myself.” A senior at Richmond’s Open High School, she is president of her class and captain of the basketball and track and cross country teams at Thomas Jefferson High School.

“Eastan was born bold,” says her mother, Andrea Weber in a later interview. As proof of her daughter’s resilience, Weber proudly shares a photo she took of young Eastan interlocking arms with those of the “Fearless Girl” statue on Wall Street in New York City.

In a sense, Eastan Weber’s growth is symbolic of larger changes that have happened within the movement to get the ERA ratified and the current fight to add it to the Constitution.

Maggie Walker descendent takes the baton

Liza Mickens, the great-great granddaughter of Maggie Walker, acted as emcee after the screening and describes her experience working on the ratification and publication of the ERA as her “most fulfilling and rewarding work.”

She ticks off the names of various Black and women of color legislators, without whose dedicated work Virginia might never have ratified the ERA in 2020. She names and praises various white women on the frontline of the fight. “We all have had to unite and appreciate the importance of equality for all.”

Mickens, like the majority of those dedicated to this struggle, was not even born when Congress first approved the amendment in 1972. Judging from the faces in the documentary and in the gathered crowd, today’s young feminists are a decidedly multi-racial, intergenerational, economically and educationally diverse band of people of all gender identities.

Mickens’ mother, Faithe Norrell, in a later interview, says her daughter has always been undaunted by challenging authority in the pursuit of justice. “She was always a creative and stubborn child when it came to righting wrongs.”

Norrell notes that her family, long active in Civil Rights struggles and equal education, didn’t really focus on equal rights for women. “The image of the fight for the ERA was that it was primarily waged by middle-aged white women or bra-burning hippies,” she says, adding “we’ve all grown and now see that fight to include all — not just some.”

“We are fighting for this generation and all those to come,” notes Eileen Davis, who self-describes as an old-timer of the movement. Davis is the mother of U.S. Rep. Abigail Spanberger, D-Va., an announced candidate for Governor in 2025.

“True leadership involves trusting that the next generation is ready to carry on the fight,” Davis explains. That was her rationale in recruiting Katie Hornung, a workhorse and hero of getting Virginia’s historic passage of the ERA. Hornung, in turn, asked Mickens and Norrell to join the fight and help speak to an historical record that for far too long excluded women of color.

Viola O. Baskerville, a former Virginia Secretary of Administration and Delegate of the Virginia Assembly (1998-2005), recalls efforts to get the ERA to the floor of the General Assembly were stalled by opposition for years. Today she especially appreciates the credo of the new generation that “if you can’t get people to change their votes, you need to change the people who are sitting in the seats.”

Baskerville adds, “Making positive change often comes when the baton is passed to the next generation to continue the work. Wisely knowing when to pass the baton is the secret sauce.”

What happens if their efforts fail?

“We keep fighting,” says Mickens.