Pop sensation Pat Boone, who had been nearly as big as Elvis in the 1950s, spoke at a rally in favor of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) at an event hosted by the Pepperdine chapter of Theta Sigma Phi, an honor society for women in communications.¹

The ERA was a proposed amendment to the Constitution that would guarantee equal rights for citizens regardless of sex. First proposed in 1923, the amendment was approved by the House of Representatives in October 1971 and would be approved by the US Senate in March 1972. The amendment was not ratified by the necessary two-thirds of states before its 1979 deadline and never came into force.

January 1972 was a busy month for women's lib at Pepperdine. The same week, a petition was presented to executive vice president Howard White asking to change the dress code so women could wear pants.¹

In May, president William Banowsky would come out in support of the Equal Rights amendment, twice taking time on his weekly KNBC program "The Sunday Show" to urge its passage.²

Pat Boone grew up in the Churches of Christ. His (rocky) affiliation with Pepperdine continued for decades. In 1970, after insisting he could speak in tongues, he was "disfellowshipped" by the Inglewood Church of Christ, the home church of many Pepperdine faculty and administrators.³ In 2008, Boone made a $3 million donation to fund Pepperdine's Boone Center for the Family, which had been founded by Sara Young Jackson.