SPEAKER_03: Since the beginning, Mercedes-Benz has been a champion of women. After all, a young girl named Mercedes inspired the company's name, and it's been dedicated to the next generation ever since. From June to August, we shared bonus episodes that highlighted some of Mercedes-Benz's employees and ambassadors, who've been encouraged to pursue their dreams and have broken barriers while doing so. We also shared the I Am Mercedes campaign, which focused on young women across the country named Mercedes, who are making a difference in science, technology, social change, and in the creative arts. Thank you to the people at Mercedes-Benz for their sponsorship and for support of Womanica and Women Everywhere. To listen back to any of these bonus episodes, head to the show notes.
SPEAKER_04: Hi everyone. From WonderMedia Network, I'm Anamalika Tubbs, the author of The Three Mothers, How the Mothers of MLK Jr., Malcolm X, and James Baldwin Shaped a Nation. My work focuses on motherhood, through the lens of feminism, intersectionality, and inclusivity. And I'll be your guest host for this month of Womanica. This month, we're talking about mothers, women who ushered forth new generations and new futures through their care, work, and imagination. Today, we're talking about a woman who became a mother to thousands of coal miners and union workers because of her tireless commitment to the labor movement. Her crusade for safer conditions, shorter work days, and better pay paved the way for the worker protections millions of Americans enjoy today. Let's talk about Mother Jones. The woman who would become Mother Jones was born Mary Harris in Cork, Ireland. Historians aren't sure of her exact birth date, but we do know she was baptized on August 1st, 1837. Less than a decade later, the country's potato crops failed, marking the beginning of the devastating Irish Potato Famine. Roughly one million people died as a result, and another two million left Ireland to escape starvation and disease. Mary's family moved to Toronto, where her father worked in railway construction. Mary learned dressmaking and also trained to be a teacher. When she finished school, she accepted a teaching position at a convent school in Michigan. Later, she moved to Chicago and opened a dressmaking business. Mary wrote in her autobiography, Regardless, she eventually went back to teaching and accepted a job in Memphis, Tennessee. During this time, she married George Jones, a Union iron molder. They had four children together. In 1867, yellow fever swept through Memphis, killing hundreds of people. Mary's husband and children all lost their lives during the epidemic. Now a widow, Mary returned to Chicago and resumed her dressmaking business. She served many of the city's wealthy and elite. As she worked, Mary would often look through her windows to observe the people of Chicago who were poor and experiencing homelessness, shivering through the winter. She later wrote, The universe had more hardship in store for Mary. In 1871, the Great Chicago Fire destroyed her shop, and she lost her business. She was one of the roughly 100,000 people in the city to lose their homes in the fire. In the aftermath, Mary struggled to make ends meet. She began to attend meetings for the Knights of Labor, a group that advocated for the working class. The labor movement's message of a better future for working people energized Mary. She decided she needed to help. During the next several decades, Mary traveled all around the country to encourage and aid workers' strikes and protests wherever they spring up. She supported all kinds of causes, from bottle washers in breweries in Milwaukee to streetcar operators in El Paso. Mary helped workers around the country fight for better pay, shorter work days, safer conditions, and less reliance on company stores and housing. In 1897, Mary arrived in Pittsburgh to help the United Mine Workers implement a nationwide strike of coal miners. She was such an effective organizer that the union sent her to coal fields in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Colorado to persuade more miners to unionize. Mary soon gained a national reputation. By 1900, she had become known as Mother Jones. It was a moniker that symbolized the reverence and affection that so many workers held for her. She also had a recognizable profile, a woman with graying hair in an antique black dress with a white lace collar. Her image became inextricably linked with the labor movement. Mary was also known for her unique methods. She welcomed black workers to the cause. She whipped up groups of miners' wives into mop and broom brigades to guard mines against strike breakers sent in by frustrated owners. She led miners' children and child workers in marches to demand child labor laws. One time, she led about 100 children from Philadelphia all the way to President Theodore Roosevelt's home in Long Island, New York. Campaigns like these helped push the labor movement's cause to front page news. In retrospect, Mary seems like a clear example of a strong feminist. And she was in many ways. In an era when women were still expected to be homemakers above all else, she was out on the road, gaining the respect and allegiance of working men all over the country. But surprisingly, Mary didn't support women's suffrage. She believed that the fight for the vote was a distraction from the real evil of the era – worker exploitation. She still advocated for working women but ultimately thought women were better off working in the home. Class justice was her main focus, and she couldn't see how suffrage might have helped. Still, Mary was admired by many for her dedication to the cause. Upton Sinclair, the famous muckwracking journalist, called her work, quote, a veritable odyssey of revolt. Of course, she was not universally beloved. Because of her union efforts, she was banished from towns and held incommunicado in jails all over the United States. After years of having no real permanent address, when she was in her 80s, Mary settled near Washington, D.C. She participated in her last strike in 1924, supporting dressmakers in Chicago. Mary died on November 30, 1930. She was buried in the Union Miners Cemetery in Mount Olive, Illinois. Today, Mary is remembered as one of the most influential labor organizers in American history. Her name lives on in the work of the nonprofit investigative publication Mother Jones, which was founded in 1976. And every year in her birthplace of Cork, Ireland, the Spirit of Mother Jones Festival is held in her honor. During her lifetime, Mary became known as the most dangerous woman in America. Employers and factory owners feared her. She threatened their status as titans of industry. The labor message she spread to thousands of workers led to real, lasting change for the American worker. All month, we're talking about mothers. For more information, find us on Facebook and Instagram at Wamanica Podcast. Special thanks to co-creators Jenni and Liz Kaplan for having me as a guest host. Talk to you tomorrow.
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