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Mary Harris Jones
Elizabeth Seibel Mary Harris Jones was born in Cork, Ireland, in 1837. She traveled to the United States in the 1840s and in 1867 opened a dressmaking shop in Chicago. In 1871 Mary lost her shop and all of her possessions in the Great Chicago Fire. That was when Mary discovered the Knights of Labor. One evening after the Great Chicago Fire, Mary was out walking when she met a man who used to work with her husband before he died. The man began to tell her about a meeting of the Knights of Labor. He was standing at the front door to guard it from any intruders who might try to crash the meeting. The man invited Mary to join them inside. She went in and sat in the back, listening to the members talk about how they could make their organization grow. At the end of the meeting Mary approached the chairman and told him she would like to join. He shook her hand and welcomed her to the Knights of Labor. Mary had never been a public speaker but in the following weeks she found she had quite a talent for it. When she spoke in public, people were moved by her words. After the fire, Mary returned to her work as a seamstress, using a sewing machine provided by the town. She still had time for the Knights of Labor, and it was soon clear that her real work was with them. She was attending meetings regularly and joined the picnics and retreats they held on weekends. Mary went from an unknown seamstress to a radical union organizer. It was not long before Mary helped to arrange the meetings. Mary traveled to different parts of Chicago and talked to workers who had not yet joined the Knights. She made speeches, enrolled new members, and helped strikers. She was one of the unionists who dared to work with coal miners, something that was not often done in those days. Many people began to call Mary "Mother Jones," which became her nickname for life. Mary said in her autobiography, "The Knights of Labor was the organization of those days." The Knights were idealists. They wanted every working person in the United States to be united in a single labor organization. The Knights also did not believe in strikes. They believed that the workers were not strong enough to win them. Many groups did think that strikes were the tactic to use, even though the Knights thought otherwise. The Knight's slogan was, "An injury to one is an injury to all." On Sunday, November 20, 1930, at 11:55 p.m., Mother Jones died quietly. Mother Jones had asked to be buried in the miner's cemetery at Mount Olive, Illinois. It was dedicated to those who died in the Virden Mine Massacre of 1898. At Mother Jones's funeral in Washington, D.C., the church was packed with many friends. The union leaders, politicians, and some strangers came to see this great union worker for the last time. A small group of unemployed workers sat in the back to watch. Mary was dressed in lavender, an unusual color for her, as many filed past taking one last look at Mother Jones. Mary Harris Jones had helped many union workers and others in their fight for equality and justice. Her last interview was just after her one-hundredth birthday. She said, "I haven't been very discreet in my language. You've got to talk a language people can understand. The public is the sleepiest damn bunch you ever saw. You've got to wake them up! Then you can get action." Mother Jones was a brave woman who helped establish one of our nation's first labor unions, the Knights of Labor.—[From Madelyn Horton, The Importance of Mother Jones; David R. Collins and Evelyn Witter, Illinois Women Born to Serve; Betsy H. Kraft, Mother Jones: One Woman's Fight for Labor; Linda Atkinson, Mother Jones: The Most Dangerous Woman in America; Judith P. Josephson, Mother Jones: Fierce Fighter for Workers' Rights.]
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