"[1] After trying several locations in the resettlement program, the family settled into a farm on Blue Sky Road near Halifax, NC.
On Blue Sky Road, we had a cooperative system of working on crops like tobacco that were very labor intensive.
Farm work was extremely boring and repetitive, but the worst part was that we had to miss weeks of school in the fall to help with the harvesting.
[1] As a high schooler, Jean participated in Girls State at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.
[1]Around 1963, Jean became an aide to Congressman William Fitts Ryan on environmental issues, a very new political area at the time.
[1][2] As Jean explained the job:As organizing president I prepared the Chapter Kit, held Chapter meetings; answered mail, sent mailings all without benefit of office space, equipment, supplies or secretary.
Equipment and supplies were cadged where members worked; only stationery, stamps and paper were purchased.
I made appearances at hearings, did mailings to women's groups asking support for proposals.
[1][2] In 1967 she helped organize an action for Pauline Dziob, stewardess for Moore-McCormack Lines who had been denied job as yeoman (clerk-typist) due to her gender, despite having` done the job while the man was ill.[1][3] In 1968, Jean was alerted by Sonia Pressman from the EEOC that the Senate Finance Committee had included an amendment onto a soil conservation bill that would allow large companies to treat men and women differently in retirement policies, forcing women to retire earlier with fewer benefits.
Jean rallied support to object to this attack on the rights of working women.
[1] Due to her work with both Elizabeth Arden and NOW, Jean was called on by Betty Friedan to cover a black eye before a press conference in 1969.
[4][5] In 1970, Jean resigned from Congressman Ryan's office and her position running the NYC chapter of NOW due to poor health after contracting tuberculosis.