Wednesday, December 30, 2020

Google honors civil rights activist Elizabeth Peratrovich 
with new Doodle

Google is paying homage to civil rights activist Elizabeth Peratrovich with a new Doodle. Image courtesy of Google

Dec. 30 (UPI) -- Google is celebrating civil rights activist Elizabeth Peratrovich, who helped pass the first anti-discrimination law in the United States, with a new Doodle.

Guest artist Michaela Goade, of Sitka, Alaska, created Google's homepage artwork, which shows Peratrovich giving a speech while wearing wings.

On this day in 1941, Peratrovich set the anti-discrimination law into motion by writing a letter to Alaska's governor and gaining his support after she came across an inn door sign that said, "No Natives Allowed."

Peratrovich, an Alaskan Native, became the grand president of the Alaska Native Sisterhood, one of the oldest civil rights groups in the world. She and her husband, Roy Peratrovich, moved with their three children in 1941 to the Alaskan capital of Juneau where they faced discrimination.

The couple helped draft Alaska's first anti-discrimination bill which failed to pass in 1941. Peratrovich helped get a second bill in 1945 passed after delivering an impassioned speech that called for equal treatment for Indigenous peoples.

The Alaska State Legislature declared Feb. 16 as Elizabeth Peratrovich Day. Her likeness was added to a $1 gold coin by the United States Mint in 2020.

"Thank you, Elizabeth Peratrovich, for helping to build the foundation for a more equitable future," Google said.

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