WORKERS’ MEMORIAL DAY – APRIL 28TH

Unless you are a labor historian, you probably wouldn’t know who Mary “Mother” Jones was. But her legacy in the labor movement is immense. Mary Mother Jones was born Mary Harris in 1837 in Cork, Ireland. She moved to Toronto, Canada at ten years old due to the potato famine in Ireland. In her early adulthood she moved to the United States, married and had four children. In 1867 yellow fever struck her entire family leaving her a widow. She moved to Chicago where her small dressmaking shop eventually burned in the 1871 Chicago fire. In her later years, Mary Harris championed against deplorable working conditions, subsistence wages, twelve ...