Though you wouldn't be able to tell from the mix of NYU co-eds and European tourists who crowd McSorley's Ale House every night of the week, it's well known that the 161-year-old bar has a soberingly sexist backstory. And any woman who's enjoyed a few mugs of ale at the NYC institution owes her ability to even set foot in the door to Faith Seidenberg, a civil rights attorney who passed away on Friday at 91.
The Times obituary begins her tale in 1969, when a female presence in the bar would have been met with hollering and a swift escort to the exit. Seidenberg and a woman named Karen DeCrow boldly crossed the battle lines, only to be shown out, of course—but they didn't take it lying down. The women sued, leading to an August 10th, 1970 decision by a federal judge that culminated in legislation "barring discrimination in public places on the basis of sex." That very same day, McSorley's admitted its first female patron, though Seidenberg never went back.
Though best known for the McSorley's case, Seidenberg was a champion for women and other "unpopular causes and clients," including a Vietnam protestor who destroyed his draft card and a group of female hockey players at Colgate who made an official varsity team because of her work. "She had many, many cases that changed the law," explained daughter Lisa. "But she knew she would be remembered for liberating a seedy bar." And for that, we raise our mugs to you, Faith.
