Laura X organized a 1969 International Women's Day march in Berkeley, California. The event helped revive public attention to a holiday that had largely faded from view in the United States.
The march took place on March 8, 1969, during the rise of second-wave feminism. Laura X, the name used by activist Laura Rand Orthwein Jr., had been building projects devoted to recovering and preserving women's history and used the event to connect historical memory with contemporary feminist activism.
The Berkeley march also helped lead to the Women's History Research Center, which became an important archive of the women's movement. Laura X argued that women deserved more than a single annual day of recognition and promoted the idea of a national Women's History Month. Berkeley is sometimes confused with other California cities because the event became part of a wider national revival, but the march itself was held there.