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Quick Facts
- NAME: Mother Jones
- OCCUPATION: Activist, Folk Hero
- BIRTH DATE: c. 1830
- DEATH DATE: November 30, 1930
- PLACE OF BIRTH: County Cork, Ireland
- Originally: Mary Harris Jones
Best Known For
Mary Harris Jones (aka "Mother Jones") was a union activist. She founded the Social Democratic Party, and helped establish the Industrial Workers of the World.
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Mother Jones - Labor Activist
Watch a short video about Mother Jones and learn what she accomplished in the fight for workers rights.
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Play NowMother Jones. (2013). The Biography Channel website. Retrieved 07:48, May 21, 2013, from http://www.biography.com/people/mother-jones-9357488.
Mother Jones. [Internet]. 2013. The Biography Channel website. Available from: http://www.biography.com/people/mother-jones-9357488 [Accessed 21 May 2013].
"Mother Jones." 2013. The Biography Channel website. May 21 2013, 07:48 http://www.biography.com/people/mother-jones-9357488.
"Mother Jones," The Biography Channel website, 2013, http://www.biography.com/people/mother-jones-9357488 [accessed May 21, 2013].
"Mother Jones," The Biography Channel website, http://www.biography.com/people/mother-jones-9357488 (accessed May 21, 2013).
Mother Jones [Internet]. The Biography Channel website; 2013 [cited 2013 May 21] Available from: http://www.biography.com/people/mother-jones-9357488.
Mother Jones, http://www.biography.com/people/mother-jones-9357488 (last visited May 21, 2013).
Mother Jones. The Biography Channel website. 2013. Available at: http://www.biography.com/people/mother-jones-9357488. Accessed May 21, 2013.
Synopsis
Mary Harris Jones was born in 1830 in County Cork, Ireland. She lost her family to a yellow fever outbreak and her home in the great Chicago fire. She became a labor activist and was given the nickname “Mother Jones.” She was a campaigner for the United Mine Workers Union, founded the Social Democratic Party and helped establish the Industrial Workers of the World. Jones died in 1930.
Contents
Early Life
Labor activist Mother Jones was born Mary Harris Jones in 1830 in County Cork, Ireland. Mother Jones started out as a teacher and dressmaker and became a tireless fighter for the working class. In early years, she lived in Toronto, Canada, Michigan and Chicago, Illinois.
Mother Jones experienced many great personal tragedies in the first part of her life. Jones lived in Memphis for a time, marrying George Jones, an iron worker and strong union supporter, in 1861. They had several children together, but an outbreak of yellow fever killed her husband and children in 1867. She returned to Chicago and found work as a dressmaker. But then she lost her home in the great Chicago fire of 1871.
Labor Activism
After this latest loss, Mother Jones began her work as a labor activist. She worked with the Knights of Labor, often giving speeches to inspire the workers during strikes. Around this time, she traveled to numerous strike sites, helping coal miners in Pennsylvania in 1873 and railroad workers in 1877. The way she cared for the workers inspired them to nickname her "Mother."
Known as the miner's angel, Mother Jones became an active campaigner for the United Mine Workers Union. A political progressive, she was a founder of the Social Democratic Party in 1898. Jones also helped establish the Industrial Workers of the World in 1905. For all of her social reform and labor activities, she was considered by the authorities to be one of the most dangerous women in America.
Nothing could dissuade Mother Jones from her work. At the age of 82, she was arrested for her part in a West Virginia strike that turned violent and was sentenced to 20 years. But her supporters rallied and convinced the governor to grant her a pardon. Jones, undeterred, returned to organizing workers.
Death and Legacy
In honor of her allegedly 100th birthday (there is some speculation as to her actual birth date), Mother Jones was celebrated across the country with special labor events in 1930. She died on November 30 of that year. With the workers to the end, she asked to be buried in the Miners Cemetery in Mt. Olive, Illinois.
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