Mary Harris Jones was born in Cork, Ireland, emigrated to America, lost her husband and children to Yellow Fever, served as a nurse, owned her own dress shop, lost that shop to the great Chicago Fire, fought for the rights of workers and to end child labor, was jailed for her beliefs, was freed by the US Senate, stood with and against Presidents, and is one of the greatest heroins of U S History.
During the Yellow Fever Epidemic that took the lives of her husband and children, she served as a volunteer nurse
I read about Vanderbilt, Morgan, Carnegie, Rockefeller, and the other "Titans of industry" in school. How come I never read in school about Mother Jones, Cesar Chavez, Samuel Gompers, John L. Lewis, A. Philip Randolph, or Walter Reuther?
Many quotes are attributed to Mother Jones, one of my favorites is this:
"Our job is to comfort the afflicted,
and afflict the comfortable."
No comments:
Post a Comment