November 25 in A.A. History

In 1940, Dave W., who would become one of the founding members of A.A. in Seattle, Washington, learned that the national secretary at the Alcoholic Foundation with whom he had been corresponding—R. Hock—was a woman! He decided to conceal this information from other men with whom he was working.

In 1947, Mrs. Marty M. spoke to the Economic Club of Detroit—and a radio audience—about the National Committee for Education on Alcoholism (NCEA) and about Alcoholics Anonymous. She began,

    I stand before you here today on behalf of two groups. One group is made of free people, free because they have knowledge. The other group is made up of prisoners, prisoners of their condition, held prisoners by ignorance and fear.
    The first group is that whom I officially represent, the National Committee for Education on Alcoholism, made up of men and women of science and medicine of the clergy and of the arts, of business and of public life who are aware of the nature of this problem and who are determined to do something about it.
    They have done me the honor of appointing me Executive Director of that group and have made me the spokesman for their program.
    The other group has not appointed me. The other group is not organized. It frequently does not know there is a group.
    These prisoners that I spoke of are the alcoholics of America, three million strong.
    Many of them are unaware of their own condition; are unaware of its nature; and are unaware that there is anything whatsoever to do about it.
    They did not need to appoint men; I belong to that group. I myself shared their condition of being a prisoner until the truth made me free.