"No matter what the fight, don't be ladylike! God Almighty made women and the Rockefeller gang of thieves made the ladies."
As we prepare to honor our mothers this week, our minds go back to all of the sweet nurturing times, talks at the kitchen table and hugs that could heal all of the hurts we collected along the paths of childhood. These are the things that make for great Mothers' Day memories. However, we should also honor those mothers whose destiny took them on a path of activism, compassion for other people's children and a life that ever stands for the dignity, safety and protection of working class families all over the world. One such mother is Mary Mother Jones. When she tragically lost everything she had, she turned to the only thing left - an enduring passion for oppressed workers and their families.
Mary Harris was born in Cork County, Ireland during a time that saw British troops in the streets of simple villages and men killed mercilessly in front of their families. Her grandfather was hanged for being an Irish freedom fighter and her father, rather than suffering the same fate took his family and fled to the shores of America in 1835. She was raised and educated in Canada and later moved back to the U.S. in order to find work as a child care worker and seamstress. In 1861, she met and married George E. Jones, an iron worker in Memphis, Tennessee. The 1800s in America were also a time when working class families suffered tremendous hardships due to poverty, a lack of health care and incredibly harsh working conditions. The life expectancy of most people was far lower than it is today. Mary was no stranger to these hardships and despite her schooling, was extremely dedicated to her husband and the children born to her marriage.
"Sit down and read. Educate yourself for the coming conflicts."
However, a few short years and four children later, tragedy struck Mary's life again. In 1867, just two short years after the end of the Civil War, yellow fever struck the bustling community she and her family lived in. Within one weeks' time, Mary lost her husband and all four children to the epidemic. Heartbroken and distraught, she moved to Chicago to start a new life. Mary worked as a seamstress in the homes of wealthy Chicago industrialists and businessmen living on Lake Shore Drive and got a first hand look at how indifferent many well-to-do families were to the plight of the poor, hungry and unemployed. She worked hard, managed to maintain a household and eventually saved enough to start up a seamstress shop and work for herself. Life seemed to be picking up for Mary but she never forgot the injustices she saw and often thought about the family she lost due to the conditions she felt helpless to change.
On the night of October 8, 1871, popular myth has it that Mrs. O'Leary's cow kicked over a lantern, the hay and small stable were engulfed in flames and the Great Chicago Fire blazed uncontrollably. While the cow story was later proved to be a reporter's hoax, four square miles of the city burned and hundreds of people lost their lives in one of America's greatest urban disasters on record. In a cruel twist of fate, Mary Jones lost everything she owned. With her shop, home and possessions gone, Mary turned to the only thing she had left - the flames of passion in her heart for the working and living conditions of all of the people that she ever cared about. Mary determined that if she could make a difference in the working conditions of common people, lives would be saved and families could live out their dreams and aspirations. She joined the newly formed Knights of Labor in the burned out shell of a building and embarked on a lifetime of activism and the defense of workers' rights.
"Pray for the dead and fight like Hell for the living."
Mary would spend the next 60 years of her life waging battles for the less fortunate working class. She participated in the Pittsburgh Railway Strike in 1877, helped organize the United Mine Workers in the 1890s and helped found the Social Democratic Party in 1898. In one of her most famous endeavors, she led a children's march during the Paint Creek and Cabin Creek Strikes in Charleston, West Virginia. Authorities arrested her, tried her on charges of conspiracy to commit murder and sentenced her to 20 years in prison. Well advanced in age, her case generated national attention. A year into her sentence, she was pardoned by incoming Gov. Hatfield. However, Mary was not done yet.
"I asked a man in prison once how he happened to be there and he said he had stolen a pair of shoes. I told him if he had stolen a railroad, he would be a United States Senator."
Mary made headlines again after mine owners used machine guns to brutally suppress an uprising by mine workers and their families in Ludlow, Colorado. So incensed by the carnage, Mary (now known widely as Mother Jones) went on a national campaign telling the story of the Ludlow massacre to everyone who would listen. Apparently her message got through. President Woodrow Wilson met with the House Mines and Mining Committee in Congress and urged owners to agree to a truce and to create a grievance committee at each mine. Mary worked tirelessly all her life for the rights of others, earning the wrath of wealthy senators who respected her abilities but labeled her the "grandmother of all agitators". She responded to the unofficial moniker by saying she hoped to live long enough to be the "great-grandmother of all agitators".
Mary Mother Jones made her last known address on her 100th birthday in 1930. She delivered a fiery speech in front of what was referred to as "the motion picture camera". For a woman who suffered so much loss during her lifetime, she gave so much in an effort to improve the lives of people she didn't know but understood very well. This Mothers' Day, remember Mary Mother Jones, a woman who refused to be silent, refused to allow injustice to stand and did more during her retirement years than most of us accomplish in our entire lifetimes. Mary Mother Jones, the miner's angel.
"My address is like my shoes. It travels with me. I abide where there is a fight against wrong."
(All quotes used in this article are those of Mary Mother Jones.)
Copyright (c) Joseph Collins 2007 |
