Ross is survived by her son, Richard, and a grandson. In 1981, she and Mr. Hogarth split. In 1990, she married Art Kamell. Art Kamell died in 2010.
Her activism began in earnest during the Vietnam War, with her participation in groups like the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom and Women’s Strike for Peace. She was arrested for the first of more than 20 times during a demonstration in Washington — a “die-in” — in which protesters laid down in front of the White House to represent the Vietnamese who were dying each day.
She and Mr. Scheiner founded Wespac in 1973 as the war was coming to an end. They have supported many causes, including ending apartheid South Africa. Wespac, along with two Westchester County legislators helped convince the county to stop investing with banks that did business in South Africa.
Ms. Hogarth was called “The Conscience of White Plains” by The Daily News in 1979 and, in 1983, the “pre-eminent dissenter in Westchester,” by Suburbia Today, the Sunday supplement of Gannett’s Westchester Rockland Newspapers.
“Every issue that needed a home, that needed a place to hold meetings, happened at Wespac,” said Al Giordano, who joined the organization in the 1970s as a teenager. “When the small Black community in Westchester was organizing against landlords, or against police brutality, Connie opened the door to them.”
She retired as Wespac’s executive director in 1996 after 23 years. The Connie Hogarth Center for Social Action was established at Manhattanville College in Purchase, N.Y. Two years later. Here, she helped students become social activists. She was also involved with Climate Crisis Coalition and the New York Civil Liberties Union.
Nada Khader, the executive director of Wespac (now the Wespac Foundation) for the past 21 years, said in a phone interview that Ms. Hogarth had remained an important adviser to the organization, adding, “She showed me how to be a more impactful organizer for progressive social change while exuding a gentle, soft spirit.”
Source: NY Times
