This book is the story of Mary Kay Green, J.D. (doctor of law), single mother of twin daughters Mary Kay and Elizabeth Marie, grandmother of Michael and Ms. Phelan, former elected Omaha City Council Member (l977-1981), the third woman ever elected, and life time civil rights attorney from l977 through 2015. From l982 through l988, Ms. Green, a single mother, represented twenty-one year old single pregnant arts and craft instructor Crystal Chambers in her sex, race and pregnancy discrimination case against her employer the Omaha Girls Club. After firing Crystal, the Club adopted a single pregnancy negative role modeling policy that along with commission of a felony was grounds for termination. The trial judge ignored the l978 Pregnancy Discrimination Act and held that the Girls Club could racially discriminate "because of the high rate of illegitimacy in the black community surrounding the Club. On appeal to the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeal, Chief Judge Donald P. Lay joined by Judge Gerald W. Heaney and Judge Theodore McMillian, the only black judge on the Court (who dissented at the three judge panel) wrote a dissenting opinion that the Club violated the 1978 Pregnancy Discrimination Act and that the single pregnancy role modeling policy was impermissible segregation. While losing in the court, Crystal Chambers case was one of the early cases used to ban the use of the business necessity defense in cases of intentional discrimination. This ban is contained in Section 105 (a)(2) of the l991 Civil Rights Act. At the trial court level, Ms. Green was joined by the late attorney Ed Diedrich from Illinois and Omaha attorney Edward Fogarty along with a full volunteer legal team including Ms. Green's fourteen year old daughters who were clerks. The case inspired over 100 law review articles, it was featured in NPR's All Things Considered twice, Newsweek, The New York Times and other publications, and Ms. Green and Ms. Chambers and others were featured on Donahue, the Phil Donahue national talk show. In 2003, Crystal Chambers and her case were featured on TheTom Joyner national radio talk show it its 30 minute feature: "Little Known Black Heros." The year 1988 was pivotal in the life of the author and the themes of that year are central to the rest of her life. In January, using part of her legal fee from the case of Rudy Avila v. The City of Omaha, Ms. Green spent two weeks in January at the Robert Redford Sundance Film Festival. Following the festival, Ms. Green settled a number of civil rights cases, successfully tried the case of Avis Linstrom v The City of Omaha in August, and in October took her late mother on a pilgrimage for two weeks to Medjugorje, in then Yugoslavia, where the Blessed Mother of Jesus has been appearing since June 24, l981. Ms. Green and her mother saw the Miracle of the Sun and the Miracle of the Black Sun, the chains of their rosaries turned to gold and they daily prayed the rosary, attended the American Mass and the International Mass which followed the apparition of the Blessed Mother to the visionary Ivan in the choir loft of St. James Church just prior to Mass. In September before leaving Ms. Green received her first inner locution or inner speaking from the Lord who told her he had work for her to do and all he asked was that she be celebate unless she marry. That inner locution was followed by: The Blessed Mother wants to come to Omaha, but she wants to be asked." Ms. Green obtained a plaque with the metal Key to the City of Omaha engraved: "To the Blessed Virgin Mary," and six smaller keys for the six visionaries, (she came with Ivan December 7th, l991). In November, Ms. Green was diagnosed bi-polar. She had periods of illness and periods of work after that and her inner locutions lasted six years. In 2004, living in Kansas City at the request of her grandson, Ms. Green's new psychiatrist put her on new medications which gave her normal moods. She now is a public advocate.
About the Author: Mary Kay Green grew up in a large Irish Catholic Democrat family of eight children, six girls all with the first name of Mary and two boys. As residents of Omaha, NE, her parents lawyer Jim and homemaker Betty Phelan Green stressed education, religion and participation in politics including the sacred right to vote. The family was totally involved in the Presidential campaigns of John F. Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy with father James F. Green the working co-chairman of the Kennedy brothers campaigns. The assasinations of the Kennedy brothers along with the sudden heart death of father Jim from grief eight days after the death of Robert Kennedy impacted the family. Ms. Green and four of her siblings, two women and two men, followed their father into the legal profession. As a single mother of twins, Ms. Green won a seat as the third woman ever elected to the Omaha City Council and became a lawyer, a civil rights lawyer, in l977. In 1988, Ms. Green used part of a legal fee to attend the Robert Redford Sundance Film Festival in January, then settled some civil rights cases, in August tried a successful civil rights lawsuit, in October took her mother Betty to Medjugorje in then Yugoslavia where the Blessed Mother has been appearing since June 24th, 1981 and where they saw all the miracles, and in November ended up in Cherokee State Mental Hospital in Cherokee, Iowa diagnosed bi-polar after a car-truck accident. In The month of September of l988, Ms. Green received her first inner locution or inner speaking from the Lord. He told her that he had work for her to do and that all he asked was that she be celebate unless she marry. In the years after that Ms. Green continued to receive inner locutions including some about future spiritual events in Omaha and Denver, CO regarding the apparitions of the Blessed Mother and Pope John Paul II's visit to Denver, CO. She also suffered with episodes of her bi-polar illness along with periods of being able to work followed by a new psychiatrist and new medications in 2004 after moving to the Kansas City, MO area to be near her twin daughters and two grandchildren. She continued the practice of law remotely mainly in the U.S. District Court of Nebraska at Omaha. This book is Ms. Green's second published book. The first, published in 2007 and based on the race, sex and pregnancy case, is titled: Women of Courage: The Rights of Single Mothers and Their Children Inspired by Crystal Chambers a New Rosa Parks.