Mekeisha Madden Toby
Detroit News Television Critic
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060325/ENT02/603250304/1034/ENT

Oral history of fight to gain equal rights is narrated by Lily Tomlin and will air on PBS tonight.

Marj Levin remembers a time when divorced women couldn't establish credit, battered women had very few places to go, if anywhere, and suitable child care was the unobtainable Holy Grail for many working mothers.

"It was the '60s, but it felt prehistoric," says Levin, one of the co-founders of the first Michigan chapter of National Organization for Women (NOW).

To ensure that younger women don't take services such as battered women shelters and freedom of choice rights for granted, Levin and other members of the Michigan Chapter of the Veteran Feminists of America raised funds to create the documentary "Passing the Torch."

"Passing the Torch" airs at 9 tonight on WTVS-TV (Channel 56), the local PBS affiliate.

Native Detroiter Lily Tomlin narrates the documentary, which includes an oral history of the women's rights movement in Michigan, told from various perspectives.

Those interviewed include the state's one-time first lady Helen Milliken, former Detroit City Councilwoman Erma Henderson and the late UAW executive Millie Jeffrey.

Gov. Jennifer Granholm and Sen. Debbie Stabenow are also featured discussing the significance of the women's movement in their lives.