Labor Activist Bea Lumpkin's 100th Birthday

 

by Helen Ramirez-Odell

 

 

Bea Shapiro Lumpkin celebrated her 100th birthday at the "Joy in the Struggle" party given by her friends and family at the Chicago Teachers Union Center on August 3, 2018. Alderwoman Susan Sadlowski Garza of the 10th Ward served as master of ceremony.

 

Jesus "Chuy" Garcia, Congressman-Elect of the US. 4th Congressional District, honored Bea for her work for social justice and empowering women.

 

Robert Reiter, President of the Chicago Federation of Labor (CFL), focused on the work she is doing today rather than her many past accomplishments. He presented the resolution adopted by the CFL celebrating her unwavering commitment to fight for worker s'rights and grow a strong labor movement which sets the example for generations to come.

 

Jesse Sharkey, Vice-President of Chicago Teachers Union, described Bea's participation in rallies and on picket lines now and in the past. She continues to be an active member of Chicago Teachers Union where she serves as a retiree delegate.

 

Katie Jordan, President of the Chicago Chapter of the Coalition of Labor Union Women (CLUW), recognized Bea as a founding member of CLUW in 1974 and spoke of her many years of work to pass the Equal Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution which was finally passed in Illinois this year.

 

Lakesia Collins, a young woman and co-founder with Bea of the INTERGEN Coalition, spoke of their work in uniting the young and the old to vote and to use their energy and wisdom to fight to save Medicare, obtain free college for all and the $15 minimum wage.

A brief video "INTERGEN" was shown. Bea serves on the executive board of the Illinois Alliance for Retired Americans which helped create INTERGEN.

 

Scott Marshall, District 7 Director of the Steelworkers Organization of Active Retirees (SOAR) recalled Bea's many years of work with her late husband Frank to hold Wisconsin Steel accountable when it closed in 1980 and the company stole millions of dollars in wages and pensions. She continues to serve on the board of the South Chicago chapter of SOAR.

 

U.S. Congressional Representative Jan Schakowsky presented her report celebrating

over 80 years of Bea Lumpkin fighting for justice and inspiring generations of activists. Her report was included in the 115th Congressional Record. She also gave Bea a letter from former President Barack Obama recognizing her years of struggle for social justice and wishing her a happy 100th birthday.

 

Two of Bea's children, Paul and John Lumpkin, sang a union song to their mother and were joined in the singing by the party guests.

 

Bea came to the stage and called for everyone to unite and to reach out to the young to continue to work in the women's movement, civil rights, labor rights, environmental rights and all the progressive movements that benefit the people. All who attended the party received a copy of her book "Joy in the Struggle" and she urged guests to dance and eat birthday cake.

 

Working Women's History Project recently interviewed Bea Lumpkin and we hope to have the video ready for you to see soon.

 

 

by Jackie Kirley

 

 

Ida B. Wells, after years of having been neglected by Chicago, is now receiving recognition in more than one venue: a street in Chicago's Loop renamed for her and a monument in Bronzeville. Both successes resulted from grassroots efforts by Chicagoans.  

 

THE STREET. The Chicago League of Women Voters proposed renaming a Chicago street in the Loop (which would be the first street in the Loop named for a woman or a person of color). WWHP, a Chicago nonprofit focusing on Chicago women, immediately supported that effort in its newsletter.

 

THE MONUMENT. Michelle Duster, great-grandchild of Ida B. Wells-Barnett, along with help from other family members and from the Chicago Women's History Center, worked on raising money for an abstract monument designed by Chicago sculptor Richard Hunt to stand in Bronzeville on the former site of the Ida B. Wells public housing development.

 

Plans for both are now firm and came to fruition -- not without glitches -- in July. When they did, praise was universal and smiles were broad.

 

THE STREET. From Buckingham Fountain in Grant Park through the Old Chicago Main Post Office to the Jane Byrne (Circle) Interchange, what city maps used to call Congress Parkway will now be known as Ida B. Wells Drive. Ald. Sophia King (4 th ward) and Ald. Brendan Reilly (42 nd ward) co-sponsored the ordinance effecting this change. On July 25 th they called a press conference to announce it. They spoke together with Majority Leader of the Illinois House of Representatives, Barbara Flynn Currie; County Board President, Tony Preckwinkle; State's Attorney, Kim Foxx, among other officials; members of Ida B Wells' family; and Claire Hartfield of the South Side League of Women Voters.

 

Glitch #1: Wrong street. The League's original proposal was to rename Balbo Drive as Ida B. Wells Drive. This would have accomplished two goals: 1. honoring a woman who had been born a slave, become a journalist, who risked her life in exposing the horrors of lynching, fought for suffrage, and worked for women's rights and civil rights for her entire life, half of which was lived in Chicago. 2. removing from a Loop street the name of an Italian fascist, Italo Balbo, who led a squadron of planes from Italy to Chicago for its 1933 Century of Progress World's Fair. However, Balbo's early and persistent support of Mussolini's fascism, raised questions about whether Chicago should honor someone who supported fascist values.

 

Balbo Drive forms a border between Ald. Sophia King's 4 th ward and Ald. Brendan Reilly's 42 nd ward. Both co-sponsored the ordinance to rename Balbo Drive, but as Chicago's ethnic politics would have it, some Italian Americans in Chicago resisted the name change, considering it a deprivation for their group.

 

Significant city political officials remained silent. For a period it seemed the effort had fallen through. But behind the scenes city officials went to work and selected Congress Parkway as a non-controversial alternative to honor one of its citizens whom the editorial board of the New York Times described as a "crusading hero who never got the recognition she deserved."

  

Ald. King said, "This moment today is a historical moment, a bittersweet moment because it also acknowledges there has never been a street downtown named after a woman and/or a person of color." King said. "It's long overdue." Ald. Reilly praised Wells, who fled Tennessee for Chicago, saying, "every place she went, every geography she moved to, she made a big impact." WWHP is grateful to both Ald. King and Ald. Reilly for taking the initiative to commemorate this important champion of social justice.

 

THE MONUMENT. The Duster family had been working for decades to get more public recognition of their famous relative. The housing project named for her fell into disrepair and was eventually torn down.

 

Glitch #2: Doldrums. A committee was formed to raise money to have Richard Hunt create a sculpture to honor her, but in six years it had less than 1/3 of the money needed. Then Michelle Duster approached local groups, and used social media. Now a sufficient amount of money has been raised for the sculpture. Read   Michelle Duster's own account of this epic and now successful effort. She credits grassroots support, much as what her great grandmother used.

 

These belated recognitions occur as Chicago prepares to celebrate the 100 th anniversary of the 19 th Amendment granting suffrage to women, a cause Wells fought for. Her role in the fight for partial suffrage for women in Illinois in 1913 is depicted in Radical Ideas! Women and the Vote! by Mary Bonnett and commissioned by WWHP in 2013.

 

"Don't Iron While the Strike is Hot!"

Remembering the strike that led to the creation of  

Women's Equality Day

 

by Jess Kozik

 

August 26th is Women's Equality Day. The bill establishing the day was introduced by Rep. Bella Abzug (D-NY) in 1971 and passed in 1973. August 26th is a day of great significance for the Women's Liberation Movement for a couple of reasons. One being that on August 26th, 1920, Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby signed the proclamation granting American women the constitutional right to vote. Although this was a groundbreaking step in the right direction, the solution for the inequality women faced could not be found merely with this newly obtained right. There was still work to be done. And that work came in the form of one of the first major protests of the Women's Liberation Movement. On August 26th, 1970, 50 years after the passage of the 19th Amendment, women went on strike.

 

Thousands of women marched throughout New York City. They walked out on their jobs. The laundry wasn't done. And dinner certainly wasn't ready on time. The strike, dubbed the Women's Strike for Equality, was organized by the National Organization for Women (NOW) and its president at the time, Betty Friedan. The protest and other forms of activism extended to other U.S. cities including Detroit, New Orleans, Washington, D.C. and even international cities like Paris and Amsterdam, where women marched at the U.S. embassy.

 

The goals of the march were in line with the overall mindset of second-wave feminism. While first-wave feminists worked to secure the right to vote, second-wavers worked towards more accessible childcare, free abortion, and equal opportunity in work and education. Success was found in some of these goals in the years following the march. Abortion was legalized in 1973, but the affordability of abortion still remains an issue today. Bills like title IX were passed, preventing women from being discriminated against in educational programs. But despite these wins, there are still plenty of goals that have yet to be accomplished to help achieve equality. Childcare in particular remains to be inaccessible to many women. So although it is important to have Women's Equality Day as a reminder of women and their hard work, may it also be used as fuel for the fire to keep us going until one day equality is truly achieved for all. It's a momentum we can't afford to lose.

SaveSCOTUS -- Day of Action (Unite to Protect Roe)  

 

Sunday, August 26th, from 1 to 2:30 P.M. at Federal Center and Plaza, 219 S. Dearborn