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Vol. 4, No. 10
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October 2017
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WWHP DONATES OVER 20 YEARS OF
ITS ARCHIVES TO UIC
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Alma holds
"Addie Wyatt: Life Can Be Better" a play she both wrote and starred in.
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It was a joyous occasion on October 2, 2017, when President Jackie Kirley along with vice presidents Helen Ramirez-Odell and Sue Straus, Secretary Amy Laiken, and board member, actor and playwright, Alma Washington delivered the WWHP archives to Peggy Glowacki, Special Collections Librarian, at the Richard J. Daley Library at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
The entire process took over two years, beginning with a committee of four drafting questions to ask when visiting archives, conducting the visits, assembling positives and negatives for each, and finally making a recommendation to the WWHP board. WWHP signed the deed of gift to the University Library at UIC in February, 2016.
Decision made, the collecting and sorting began. People found items they had forgotten they had. We had two or three group collections and at each memories were stirred and stories told.
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Learning About Labor Rights
and Strengthening Community
by Jess Kozik
 Education is the way we learn about the world we live in. We learn the rules of society and how we can work to better them. The School of Labor Employment and Relations at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is no exception. The school was established in 1945 at a time when the labor movement was pushing for more labor research and teachings about workers' rights.
School can often focus far too much on the individual's success instead of how one person can be a piece of something larger that can work to better conditions for society. Through the process of educating students about workers' rights and unions, community can be strengthened and there is the potential for change to be created to help society grow. Students can also be better members of the workforce when they understand the legalities of the environment that they find themselves in.
The School of Labor Employment and Relations works to educate students on theory, policy, and practice in employment relations. It currently offers a minor program for undergraduates, as well as Masters and PhD program. A wide range of labor subjects are addressed in the curriculum, including the history of the labor movement, collective activism, and the importance of community.
Emily Labarbera Twarog, an assistant professor at the school and Director of the Regina V. Polk Women's Labor Leadership Conference, recently wrote Politics of the Pantry: Housewives, Food, and Consumer Protest in Twentieth-Century America. The book details the history of consumer and housewife activism during the Twentieth Century. During an interview with Emily, she discussed the history of movement. Housewives wanted clearer expiration dates on the food they were buying because it often ended up being expired. Housewives starting protesting and harassing grocers. Their demands for better standards proved that change can happen all over, including in the marketplace.
The book proves the point that for there to be change in society we must focus on building our communities and educating individuals how to organize.
On November 18th, at Piper Hall, Loyola University is hosting an interview with Emily Twarog and some of her interviewees about the release of her book. WWHP is proud to be one of the sponsors of the event alongside Chicago Coalition for Labor Union Women, Chicago Women's History Network, Illinois Labor History Society, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Labor Education Program, Women and Leadership Archives at Loyola University Chicago.
To download the event flyer, click here.
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HB 40 Signed by Governor Bruce Rauner
On September 28th Governor Rauner signed into law HB 40. This bill removes "trigger" language in Illinois statutes that would criminalize abortion and many forms of birth control if Roe v Wade is overturned. HB 40 also overrides the "Hyde Amendment" requiring Medicaid and Illinois State Employee Health Insurance to cover abortion services by using state funds.
The vigorous campaign to pass this bill was inspired by the need to avoid more senseless tragedies like Rosie Jimenez's death by providing full access to abortion services.
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Rosaura "Rosie" Jiménez:
August 5, 1950 - October 3, 1977
 In 1977, Rosaura "Rosie" Jiménez was a single mother raising her young daughter, living in McAllen, Texas. A Mexican-American born to migrant farm workers, she was one of twelve siblings. Intent on pursuing higher education, she was a student at a local college. Rosie was also enrolled in the Medicaid program. Facing an unwanted pregnancy in the fall of 1977, she sought an abortion. However, during the summer of 1977, the Hyde Amendment had taken effect.
It was three years after the Supreme Court legalized abortion in its Roe v. Wade decision, that Congress passed the first "Hyde Amendment," named after the late Illinois Congressman, Henry J. Hyde, who introduced it. The Amendment, which was attached to the fiscal 1977 Medicaid appropriation, prohibited the use of federal Medicaid money for abortion unless the life of the woman would be endangered by carrying the pregnancy to term. (Exceptions to the prohibition were later added: if the pregnancy resulted from rape or incest.) Blocked by an injunction for nearly a year, the Hyde Amendment was finally allowed to take effect when the Supreme Court vacated the injunction in the summer of 1977.
Rosie was therefore prevented from using her Medicaid coverage for an abortion, and was unable to pay for a legal one on her own. She finally found her way to a woman in McAllen who would perform one for a price she could afford. Rosie had the abortion on September 25
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, but the next day began experiencing complications. Hemorrhaging and suffering from a bacterial infection, she was taken to McAllen General Hospital, where she underwent a tracheotomy and hysterectomy. However, the surgery did not prevent the infection from damaging her organs. On October 3, 1977, Rosie Jiménez died at age 27 from organ failure. Following her death, her daughter was sent to live with relatives.
It's often said that Rosie Jiménez was the first known victim of the Hyde Amendment. But what remains unclear is whether there were other women on Medicaid who underwent unsafe, illegal abortions during the same period who also suffered complications from the procedure, but were able to recover.
In November 2015, Rosie Jiménez's daughter, Monique, was interviewed by reporter Alexa García-Ditta for an article in
The Texas Star Observer.
Then 42, she was living in Houston and working in the mental health field. Speaking of her mother, Monique said, "She was going to college to have a better life, that was her goal. I know that she saw my grandparents struggle, and she wanted to provide me with a better life." Monique chose August 5
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, her mother's birthday, as her wedding date. Explaining her choice, she told the reporter, "It meant a lot to me to do it on that day," she says. "I always feel like when someone passes away, people forget about them. I don't want it to be like that." Those concerned with reproductive justice will long remember Rosie Jiménez, and how her life and death continue to inspire the fight to end the Hyde Amendment.
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Announcing Upcoming Events
Saturday, October 28th at 1:00 pm
IBAM! 2017--Irish Books and Music Festival
at the Irish American Heritage Center
4626 N Knox, Chicago
F
REE ADMISSION FREE PARKING!
Our own Brigid Duffy Gerace performs Mother Jones
with introduction by Margaret Fulkerson and talk by Rosemary Feuer
For the full schedule, click on the link below:
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Sunday, October 29th 1:00 - 4:00 pm
at Niles West High School Auditorium 5701 Oakton St., Skokie, IL 60077
Free Screening of "Equal Means Equal"
followed by panel discussion
Panelists: IL State Senator Heather Steans
IL State Representative Lou Lang
Valerie Krejcie from League of Women Voters Evanston
Michelle Fadeley from Illinois NOW
Voter registration will be provided by LWVE;
bring 2 pieces of ID, one with your current address
Tickets can be reserved online at:
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