Co-founder of nation’s first rape crisis center dies
Thursday, January 13, 2005
(01-13) 11:44 PST BERKELEY, Calif. (AP) —
Oleta “Lee” Kirk Abrams, who co-founded the nation’s first rape crisis center nearly 35 years ago, has died. She was 77.
Abrams died Saturday at Alta Bates Summit Medical Center after a short illness, according to her daughter, Rebecca.
In 1971, Abrams founded Bay Area Women Against Rape, which still serves hundreds of women each year from its Oakland offices.
“She was one of the significant movers and shakers in the very beginning of the rape crisis movement,” said Executive Director Marcia Blackstock. “She identified very early on the needs of rape survivors that were not being met in the system and found ways to create inroads to those systems.”
Abrams founded the nonprofit organization after her 15-year-old foster daughter was raped by a man in the stairwell of Berkeley High School and then treated like a criminal, Rebecca Abrams said.
The girl was not allowed to phone home and kept from her family at the police station, according to published news reports about the incident. At the hospital, the girl, whose name has always been kept private, was kept waiting for an hour before a doctor arrived. In the room, he made jokes, but never checked the girl for pregnancy or venereal disease, according to the reports.
“She was treated like a piece of meat, there was no compassion, nothing that helped deal with the emotion of the (rape),” said Rebecca Abrams of Hayward.
Infuriated, Abrams and two other women founded the organization, which now offers a 24-hour rape crisis hot line, counseling, educational programs and survivor advocacy services to women of all ages and backgrounds.
In addition to Rebecca Abrams, she is survived by sons Maxey McClintock of Berkeley and Simon Peter Kirk Abrams of Oakland; daughter Alexandra Chordas of Berkeley; and five grandchildren. Her husband Melvin Saul Abrams preceded her in death. Services are pending.