Martha Wren Gaines Research Fellowship collection

Martha Wren Gaines (1939-1987), a Georgia native from Thomason, dedicated her life, personally and professionally, to promoting civil and women's rights in Georgia. Both as a student at the University of Georgia and as a resident of Atlanta, Ms. Gaines led several civil rights and women's rights causes. As a compliance officer for MARTA, Martha was responsible for ensuring that contractors abided by policies, laws, and regulations which guaranteed equality of opportunity. As an individual, she was a former president of the Georgia affiliation of the American Civil Liberties Union. She was also a co-founder and former president of the Atlanta chapter of the National Organization for Women (NOW); former Southern Regional Director for NOW; and a former president of the Georgia chapter of the Abortion Rights Action League. Ms. Gaines lectured on equal employment opportunities for clients such as the U.S. Civil Service Commission, U. S. Forestry Commission, U.S. Department of Education, and the University of Georgia Center for Continuing Education. In addition, she was actively involved in the Girl Scouts Northwest Georgia Council, the YWCA of Greater Atlanta, ERA Georgia, and the DeKalb County NAACP. She also served as president of the Colony Square Business and Professional Women's Club.

The Special Collections Department of Georgia State University Library and the Women's Studies Institute in conjunction with the Georgia Women's Movement Project established the Martha Wren Gaines Research Fellowship in honor of Atlantan Martha Wren Gaines, a recognized, long-term advocate for women's and civil rights in Georgia.

As part of the Georgia Women's Movement Project, an annual Gaines Research Fellowship is annually awarded to Georgia State University faculty and students who are actively pursuing research that requires or will benefit from use of the primary source materials in the Donna Novak Coles Georgia Women's Movement Archives and/or the primary and secondary source materials in the Lucy Hargrett Draper U.S. Equal Rights Amendment (1921-1982) Research Collections , which are components of the Georgia Women's Movement Project and the Women's Collections in the University Library Special Collections Department at Georgia State University.