Mother Jones May Day Birthday Celebration

By Margaret Fulkerson

On May 1st, May Day, Working Women's History Project will join together with the Mother Jones Heritage Project, the Illinois Labor History Society and the Irish American Heritage Center to celebrate Mother Jones ' Birthday.

Mother Jones helped to keep May Day alive by taking that day as her birthday.

In her spirit we also celebrate Women's Activism, Radical Renewal, and Immigrant Rights as we fight for the survival of unions and humanity during these difficult times. Eighteen celebrations, both private and public will be held between 4/28 and 5/1 throughout the country.

 

Elliott J. Gorn, author of the biography, Mother Jones : The Most Dangerous Woman in America will speak about her relevance today.

 

Brigid Duffy will reenact Mother Jones through a reading from her work.

 

Sean Cleland will perform traditional Irish music.

 

Birthday cake will be served.

 

The event is free. Pub food will be available for purchase.

 

Tuesday, May 1st, 6 pm to 9 pm

Irish American Heritage Center, Fifth Province

4626 N Knox Ave.
Chicago, IL 60630

 

Equal Pay Day Chicago 2018: Eight is Enough

By Amy Laiken

 

An enthusiastic, spirited and largely red-clad audience, including some of Working Women's History Project's officers, turned out for the eighth annual Equal Pay Day Chicago on April 10th. In the United States, the April date is the day that a typical woman's earnings catch up with what the average man made during the 12 months of the previous year.

Barbara Yong, who founded Equal Pay Day, greeted the crowd, and was followed by emcee Danielle Robay, co-host of the morning TV show, The Jam, who introduced the speakers. Mona Noriega, Commissioner of the Chicago Commission of Human Relations, reported that Mayor Rahm Emanuel issued an executive order prohibiting city departments from inquiring about an applicant's salary history during the hiring process. Since many women have been underpaid in their previous jobs, they are adversely affected when new employers base their salary on their prior earnings, rather than pay the women what they are worth. Dorri McWhorter, Chief Executive Officer of the YWCA, added that it's important for employers in the private sector, as well as the public one, to be prevented from asking about an applicant's prior earnings. Several speakers mentioned a bill, HB 4163, currently pending in the Illinois legislature, that would prohibit an employer from screening job applicants based on their wage or salary history.

Anna Valencia, City Clerk of Chicago, called attention to the pay disparities that disadvantage all women, but especially women of color. While women typically earn about $.80 for each dollar a man makes, Valencia reported that Black women earn $.63, and Latinas, only $.48 for each dollar a white male earns. According to Valencia, Asian women fare slightly better at $.88.

At one point between speakers, an energized group of women holding ERA signs began chanting for the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment in Illinois. (Later that afternoon, the Illinois Senate passed the Equal Rights Amendment by a vote of 43 to 12). 
             

The keynote address was delivered by Alpana Singh, a master sommelier and former host of Check Please! She emphasized that equal pay is not merely a women's issue, but a family one as well. Speaking of the need to eliminate the pay gap, and of the eighth annual Equal Pay Day event to call attention to it, she said, "Could it be that time's up, and eight is enough?"

Sharmili Majmudar, director of Strategic Partnerships for Women Employed, said that one study showed that a woman one year out of college earns 7% less than a man with the same major, in the same occupation, and working the same number of hours.

Sheerine Alemzadeh, founder of Healing to Action, a non-profit that advances a worker-led movement against sexual violence, said that workers in the lower income brackets are up to 12 times more likely to experience sexual violence than their higher earning counterparts, and are often reluctant to report their experiences. Alemzadeh said, "A fairer paycheck protects these workers from impossible choices between their dignity and their survival."

Danielle Robay closed out the event, saying, "Let's all meet next year for a real celebration in honor of achieving equal pay."

A Peaceful Persistence: Celebrating Diane Nash 

by Jess Kozik

 

Photograph: Leigh Vogel, Getty Images

Civil rights activist Diane Nash will be celebrating her 80th birthday on May 15th. Nash played a key role in the nonviolent movement of the 1960s, and has worked throughout her life to protest social injustice.

 

She was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois. Initially attending college at Howard University in Washington, D.C., she later transferred to Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee. The move to Nashville raised her exposure to racial segregation, and the injustice awakened something inside her.

 

Through the guidance of workshops led by Rev. James Lawson, she became a part of the nonviolent movement and began participating in sit-ins at segregated lunch counters in Nashville. She was also a part of the founding meeting for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in 1960. She would go on to face several arrests for her involvement in peaceful protests and aligned herself with the philosophy of "jail without bail," believing that paying bail would mean recognizing the arrests as fair and just. Nash's moral compass was always strong, immovable, and the driving force of her work, work that proved itself essential to Nashville eventually becoming the first Southern city to desegregate lunch counters.

 

Nash didn't stop there, though. She was persistent in her fight for justice and participated in the Freedom Rides, which fought for the desegregation of interstate public transportation in the South. The work itself was quite dangerous, but Nash was not one to be ruled by fear.

 

She eventually dropped out of college to commit all of her time to her activism, and became an organizer for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), led by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

 

In 1961, Nash married fellow civil rights activist, James Bevel. Although they later divorced, the couple had two children.

 

Nash and Bevel both played a role in the march from Selma, Alabama to the state's capital, Montgomery. The march called for an end to the discriminatory acts that prevented black people from voting in the South. This event would eventually lead to the Voting Rights Act of 1965, again proving that nonviolent activism is effective.

 

The nonviolent philosophy never left her, and for the 50th anniversary celebration of the Selma march, Nash refused to participate when former president George W. Bush arrived. She felt that her pursuit of peace and fairness were in complete opposition with what she believes Bush to stand for--"violence and war and stolen elections, and for goodness sake, his administration had people tortured." She stands strongly by her beliefs, her morals never wavering.

 

She currently resides in Chicago, where she still participates in the movement for social justice, and encourages young people to do the same. Her advice to young individuals is to "become involved in the issue that moves you, because the fact that it moves you is no accident. The source of your feeling about the issue comes from the same source that created you and sustains your life."