Jacqui Ceballos, an activist since 1967, grew up in Louisiana, and moved to NYC in 1946, hoping to become an opera singer. In 1951 she married a Colombian, with whom she had four children. While living in Bogota, Colombia, Jacqui formed the country’s first opera company in 1964, causing the breakup of her marriage. Realizing that “male” society had to change, she returned to NYC to join the recently organized National Organization for Women. As New York NOW’s 1970 Women’s Strike Coordinator she led the “take over” of the Statue of the Liberty, published the NOW YORK TIMES, a newspaper written as though women ran the world, and helped bring over 50,000 women to march down Fifth Avenue that August 26. As president of NYNOW in 1971, she participated in the Town Bloody Hall debate with Norman Mailer and Germaine Greer.  In 1993 she founded Veteran Feminists Of America to reunite early activists.  VFA, which now includes later activists, has held 40 events around the country.  In 1967, Ceballos moved back to New York City with her four children where she attended her first National Organization for Women (NOW) meeting. She served on the boards of NOW at the national and local levels from 1967–1973 and formed a public relations committee and speakers bureau. She co-founded the New Feminist Theater. In 1971, Ceballos served as president of New York NOW. She appeared in the April 30, 1971 town hall debate entitled, A Dialogue on Women's Liberation with Norman Mailer, Germaine Greer, Diana Trilling, Jacqueline Ceballos, Jill Johnston. The debate was recorded and released as D. A. Pennebaker's 1979 documentary film Town Bloody Hall. During the debate, Ceballos made a case that women had the right and duty "to have a voice in changing the world that is changing them." Angry about the image of women in the media, Ceballos described the advertiser's portrayal as "She gets an orgasm when she gets the shiny floor!" Ceballos became NOW's Eastern Regional Director in 1971 and served as its representative at the 1972 Democratic National Convention. She co-founded the Women's Forum in 1974 and served as the organization's first executive director. She later worked as a representative at the United Nations International Women's Conference.

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