By 1977, it was clear that those in favor of the Equal Rights Amendment were losing steam quickly. Phyllis Schlafly and her Stop ERA army were gaining more ground than ever. As Indiana became the thirty-fifth state to ratify ERA, women’s libbers concocted a plan to get the momentum they needed to push ERA the rest of the way to total ratification.

They lobbied for and received five million taxpayer dollars from Congress to host an “International Women’s Year" (IWY), which would include state conventions throughout the summer of 1977 and culminate in a national convention in Houston, Texas. And so the battle began for whose voice would speak for the women of America.

This weekend marks the 40th Anniversary of that Houston International Women's Year Convention. We'll be sending you a brief each day reliving part of the dramatic story behind this fateful time in American culture and the ensuing pro-life and pro-family victory over the disastrous Equal Rights Amendment.

Today we will begin this week's journey through history with a highlight event that continues to be covered up - The Pro-Family Rally for God, Family, and Country. This event held in Houston on November 19, 1977 stood in stark contrast to the IWY Convention a few blocks away. Not only did the television images of IWY reveal to the public just how out of touch the radical feminist agenda was with American values, but the crowd sizes spoke to the support of most Americans.

The taxpayer-funded feminists found themselves struggling to fill a 9,000-capacity hall, while the pro-family movement packed the Houston Astrodome with 20,000 pro-life, pro-family activists. This pro-family rally has been swept under the rug and even outright lied about by the mainstream media and the history revisionists for years.

Take a look at all exciting installments in this series: