# Question about an "American Experience" episode that aired on PBS a while back **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 28, 2026, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-an-american-experience-episode-that-aired-on-pbs-a-while-back/1028095 "2026-02-28T23:44:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2026, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-an-american-experience-episode-that-aired-on-pbs-a-while-back/1028095/1 "2026-02-28T23:44:50Z")
I don’t remember the title, but it aired on my local PBS station in recent months and I DVR’ed it and watched it within the past few months. It was about mid-1960s and early 1970s civil rights and allowing blacks to vote on an equal basis with whites, and most of it was shot in B&W and cobbled together with voice-overs. The reason I’m asking about it is because I wrote down some of the names of the people in it, to see what happened to them later, and am posting it here because I think it’s the best spot for it. (Move it if the moderators think it’s appropriate.) Anyway, there was a woman who not only had been admitted to Yale Law School, quite a feat for a woman in the mid 1960s, but she was massively obese, probably \>400 pounds, which was unheard-of in that era. Her first name was Marge and I couldn’t quite make out her last name. I looked at the PBS website and couldn’t find anything there either. Before joining the civil rights movement, they said “she had lived in a nunnery”, although I don’t think she was actually ever a nun. Would anyone know who I’m talking about? ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2026, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-an-american-experience-episode-that-aired-on-pbs-a-while-back/1028095/2 "2026-03-01T00:55:49Z")
Marge Sklencar > **[The Movement and the “Madman” | American Experience | PBS](https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/movement-and-madman/)** > > Discover the story of the 1969 showdown between President Nixon and the antiwar movement. Told through firsthand accounts, the film reveals how movement leaders mobilized disparate groups to create two massive protests that changed history. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2026, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-an-american-experience-episode-that-aired-on-pbs-a-while-back/1028095/3 "2026-03-01T02:09:51Z")
I got a chuckle out of reading this, since back in Shakespearean times ‘nunnery’ was a euphemism for ‘house of joy,’ (although I suspect she was not familiar with that usage). ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2026, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-an-american-experience-episode-that-aired-on-pbs-a-while-back/1028095/4 "2026-03-01T02:23:10Z")
TYVM! I could not for the life of me remember the name of that documentary. I went to [Newspapers.com](http://Newspapers.com), and Ms. Sklencar’s trail goes absolutely cold after 1970. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2026, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-an-american-experience-episode-that-aired-on-pbs-a-while-back/1028095/5 "2026-03-01T02:30:28Z")
Glad to help ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2026, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-an-american-experience-episode-that-aired-on-pbs-a-while-back/1028095/6 "2026-03-01T02:31:45Z")
In the meantime, I found out that her name was actually Marguerite, 1946-1994. Thanks, everyone, for your help. I had never previously heard of the Vietnam Moratorium, and had I taken note of THAT, my search would have been easier. ---
**Author:** ![md-2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9d8465/32.png) [@md-2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md-2000)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2026, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-an-american-experience-episode-that-aired-on-pbs-a-while-back/1028095/7 "2026-03-02T02:54:34Z")
> [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](#): > > I got a chuckle out of reading this, since back in Shakespearean times ‘nunnery’ was a euphemism for ‘house of joy,’ (although I suspect she was not familiar with that usage). “Get thee to a nunnery…” -_Hamlet_ (to Ophelia) I guess I’ve never too old to learn something new. Thanks. I guess that was what passed for a double-entendre in Shakespeare’s day? Forsooth! ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2026, 9:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-an-american-experience-episode-that-aired-on-pbs-a-while-back/1028095/8 "2026-03-02T09:38:28Z")
Don’t forget"Do you think I meant country matters?" ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2026, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-an-american-experience-episode-that-aired-on-pbs-a-while-back/1028095/9 "2026-03-02T13:50:23Z")
Ha! A while back TCM was showing one of their interstitial montages about. . . something, and one of the clips in the montage was Olivier’s Hamlet in that scene, as he lays his head on Ophelia’s lap. Nicely played, montage compiler.