Paula Jones. Lieutenant Kelly Flinn. Late-term abortion. A national dialogue on race. Same-sex marriage. The Promise Keepers. These are just a few of the headline issues the nation's largest group of feminist activists will take on at their annual national conference in Memphis, Tenn., over the July Fourth weekend.

"We'll be a study in contrasts," says NOW President Patricia Ireland. "We'll drive home our anger that in the early 1990s a Tennessee judge could still feel free to sexually assault women in his chambers. We'll also celebrate these women for standing up to him, with the backing of a U.S. attorney willing to use a civil rights law creatively."

Sandy Sanders and Patty Wallace will receive a "NOW Woman of Courage Award" on behalf of the eight women complainants who spearheaded the case against former judge David Lanier, which went all the way to the Supreme Court. "As we face an increasingly violent backlash toward all things feminist," Ireland said, "we're saluting and bringing together women - - particularly Southern women -- who brave that backlash every day."

For example, one conference workshop, "A River of Pollution Runs Through It," features Memphis women offering strategies for combating environmental racism, which is when governments allow toxic pollution in non-white neighborhoods. "Cultural diversity" at this conference will mean, in part, hearing from young Texas women who are organizing a NOW chapter in a town of 15,000. Another conference workshop may sound like an oxymoron -- it's on country music as the new feminist music.

Besides Ireland, the other keynote speakers are two of the most prominent African American feminists in Congress. Sen. Carol Moseley-Braun, D-Ill., championed funding for mammogram testing during a 2 a.m. budget reconciliation vote last week and previously shot down special protection for a Daughters of the Confederacy insignia that used the Confederate flag. Rep. Cynthia McKinney, D-Ga., won re-election in a white-majority district but may confront a third attempt to re-district her out of office.

Among the strategies before delegates at the conference:

• Victory 2000, a proposal for every NOW chapter to elect at least one member to posts ranging from Mosquito Control Board to U.S. Senate;
• NOW's Women Friendly Workplace Campaign, saluting as "Women of Courage" women standing up to workplace discrimination at Mitsubishi and Smith Barney;
• young feminist organizing, which drew 1,200 hyper-enthusiastic young women and men for a third national young feminist summit NOW Foundation held recently;
• and electing a team of four top officers to lead NOW into the 21st century.