Mother Jones
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Mary Harris Jones (August 1, 1837 – November 30, 1930), better known as Mother Jones, was a prominent American labor and community organizer, and Wobbly.
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[edit] Biography
She was born Mary Harris, the daughter of a Roman Catholic tenant farmer, near the city of Cork, Ireland. The Encyclopedia Britannica lists her birthday as August 1, 1837, although she claimed her birthdate to be May 1, 1830. Her claims to an earlier date were likely an appeal to her motherly image. The date of May 1st was chosen symbolically, representing the national labor holiday and anniversary of the Haymarket Affair.[citation needed]
[edit] Formative years
Two major turning points in her career were, first, the deaths of her husband and four children during a yellow fever epidemic in Tennessee in 1867, and secondly, the loss of her property in the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. Forced to support herself, she became involved in the labor movement and joined the Knights of Labor, a predecessor to the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW or "Wobblies"), which she helped found in 1905. Active as an organizer and educator in strikes throughout the country at the time, she was particularly involved with the United Mine Workers (UMW) and the Socialist Party of America. As a union organizer, she gained prominence for organizing the wives and children of striking workers in demonstrations on their behalf. In 1903 she organized children working in mills and mines in the "Children's Crusade", a march from Kensington, Pennsylvania to Oyster Bay, New York, the home of President Theodore Roosevelt with banners demanding "We want time to play!" and "We want to go to school!" Though the President refused to meet with the marchers, the incident brought the issue of child labor to the forefront of the public agenda. She became known as "the most dangerous woman in America", a phrase coined by a West Virginia District Attorney named Reese Blizzard in 1902, when she was arrested for ignoring an injunction banning meetings by striking miners. "There sits the most dangerous woman in America", announced Blizzard. "She crooks her finger—twenty thousand contented men lay down."
[edit] Later years
In 1913, during the Painwillt Creek-Cabin Creek strike in West Virginia, Mother Jones was charged and kept under house arrest in the nearby town of Pratt and subsequently convicted with other union organizers of conspiring to commit murder, after organizing another children's march. Her arrest raised an uproar and she was soon released when the attackers were identified as associates of a prominent local business person. After her release, the United States Senate ordered an investigation into the conditions in the local coal mines.
[edit] Books
- The Autobiography of Mother Jones, 1925, ISBN 0-486-43645-4
- Elliott J. Gorn, Mother Jones: The Most Dangerous Woman in America, 2001, ISBN 0-8090-7094-4
[edit] External links
- Mother Jones: biography by Sarah K. Horsley
- Industrial Workers of the World
- Free eBook of The Autobiography of Mother Jones
- Mother Jones at Find-A-Grave
Categories: Articles with unsourced statements since February 2007 | All articles with unsourced statements | Community organizers | Industrial Workers of the World | Industrial Workers of the World leaders | American labor leaders | Irish-Americans | Members of the Socialist Party of America | People from County Cork | People from West Virginia | Children's rights activists | 1837 births | 1930 deaths
