Barbara Bick
Template:TOCnestleft Barbara Bick ... (1925-2009) was a peace activist and early feminist. She was born in Washington DC to Samuel Lichtenstein and Lillian Lichtenstein.
Barbara Ruth Lichtenstein was a 1943 graduate of Woodrow Wilson High School, and in 2003, she received a bachelor's degree from Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio. She moved to Martha's Vineyard from Washington in 2008.
Barbara Bick married Leon Bick after WWII. They lived for a time in Northern California. They had three children together, and were divorced in 1966.
Bick is survived by her brother Larry her daughter Katherine Bick and sons David Bick and Robert Bick .[1]
Communist Party activism
In the 1940s, Mrs Bick was a youth columnist for a Communist Party USA paper[2] in Northern California.
Barbara Bick, was identified as a member of the Communist Party USA, in sworn testimony before the House Committee on Un-American Activities in 1951. She was a local leader of Women's Strike for Peace (WSP), which was almost completely controlled by Communist Party members and supporters. Another of her causes the Peoples Coalition for Peace and Justice (PCPJ), was cited[3]by the House Committee on Internal Security as being dominated by the Communist Party.
Women Strike for Peace
In the 1960s, Bick returned to Washington where she was a co-founder of Women Strike for Peace, and served as director of its Washington office as well as editor of its publication, The Memo.
Later activism
Bick was a fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies in the 1970s, and served on the board of Institute for Women's Policy Research for over a decade. In 1972 Bick and several other fellows left IPS to found a "more activist" think tank, the Public Policy Resource Center. Bick was also co-director of the National Conference of State and Local Public Policies, an organization of progressive elected officials from around the United States.
Mental health advocacy
In 1985, Bick was Founding President of Friends of St. Elizabeth's, the only Federal psychiatric hospital. She was appointed to the D.C. State Mental Health Planning Council by three different mayors.
She has been published in MS. Magazine and in theNew York Timesmagazine.
Afghan advocacy
Bick spent much of the 1990s working on behalf of the women of Afghanistan in association with NEGAR and other organizations. In 2001, she was visiting Afghanistan to report on the status of women in the territories held by the Northern Alliance when their leader, Ahmed Shah Massoud was murdered two days before 9/11. Bick chronicled this experience in her book "Walking The Precipice."