165. Mother Jones - Labor Leader Diaries

<p>Mother Jones, a north star for us all. Mary G. Harris was born August 1st, 1837 in Cork, Ireland. In 1847, the Irish faced starvation from a potato blight caused by a British feudal economic policy of monocropping. Her family immigrated to North America as part of one of the greatest mass exoduses from a single island in history.</p> <p>Upon arriving in Toronto, the Harris family faced discrimination due to their immigrant status as well as their Catholic faith and Irish heritage.</p> <p>At age 23 she found a teaching position at a convent in Monroe, Michigan.</p> <p>Dissatisfied with the work conditions, she moved to Chicago then to Memphis, where in 1861 she married George E. Jones, a member and organizer of the National Union of Iron Moulders.</p> <p>In 1867, a yellow fever epidemic in Memphis killed her husband and their four children in the matter of two months. She was 30 years old. After that tragedy, she returned to <a href='https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago'>Chicago</a> to begin a dressmaking business catering to the upper class.</p> <p>But four years later, the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 destroyed her home, shop, and possessions.</p> <p>The 1877 railroad strike further radicalized her and she joined the Knights of Labor where she helped organize workers in an era where protests and strikes could end with police shooting and killing of workers. </p> <p>The violence directed at workers helped grow the Knights to become the largest labor organization in the country with over a million members.</p> <p>As May 1st, 1886 approached, the Knights of Labor prepared for a general strike demanding an 8 hour work day. The Chicago Haymarket bombings created a reactionary tsunami leading to the demise of the Knights of Labor.</p> <p>As the Knights crumbled into oblivion, Mary Jones became an educator and organizer with the United Mine Workers, traveling throughout the United States.</p> <p>By age 60, she had assumed the persona of "Mother Jones" by claiming to be older than she was, wearing