Ronnie Spector was the headliner at "All Love, All Woodtsock" in Woodstock earlier this summer. The concert was inspired by the fight of Mississippi teen Constance McMillen, who sued her school for the right to bring her girlfriend to her prom, a case that moved Spector.
Spector: "I'm so willing to support her, I'm glad, I really am, because it's the first thing I feel so strongly about.I know what it feels like to grow up as an outsider because I'm a half-breed. People would picket me, cut my hair off & everything. I could identify with her because when I grew up my mother was black, & my father was white. I got picked on so much because they didn't know what I was."
Spector could also empathize with McMillen's fighting spirit. Rather than roll over & accept her school's decision, McMillen battled the school with the help of the ACLU in a case that is still pending. Spector; "I'm so proud of her because I did the same thing. I spent 21 years in litigation because I refused to give up. That's the same with Constance.As a mother, I felt for Constance. We have to accept all kids for who they are & treat them with love & understanding. How could you not let a girl come to a prom? I just thought it was outrageous."
Veronica Yvette Bennett became Ronnie Spector as the lead singer of the 1960s girl group- The Ronettes who were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2007. She was the "original bad girl of rock and roll." Ronnie knows a thing or 2 about hardship & challenge, married for 6 years to that crazy ass producer - Phil Spector who kept her near-prisoner & limited her opportunities to pursue her musical ambitions. In her autobiography, she said that he would force her to watch the film Citizen Kane over & over to remind her she would be nothing without him. She turns 67 years old today. Love her. Love the voice. Love her spirit.
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