Strike

Robert Russa Moton High School

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Equality is the ideal we have yet to achieve. Jefferson wrote of equality in our Declaration of Independence. Our Constitution did not recognize it. Lincoln guided the country through a Civil War for equality, but then the country slid backwards again. But we must try.

W.E.B. Du Bois had supported and tracked inequality, progress and hope for schooling in the African American community of Prince Edward County in 1898. The state of Virginia revised their post Civil War Constitution in 1902 to permit racial segregation. In 1951, the inequality had long been unconscionable. While white students had cafeterias, gymnasiums, school busses and laboratories, black students needed warm clothes and umbrellas inside tar paper shacks.

Frustrated by the systemic racism that prevented adults—who faced retribution for asking for change—from fixing the problem, the students decided to act by themselves. 16 year old Barbara Johns addressed her fellow students, banging her shoe on the podium, and called a strike, asking for cooperation and saying “don’t be afraid”. The students all went on strike, and their minister said they should contact the NAACP. Barbara Johns called Richmond lawyer Oliver Hill to help.

Their case, which lost, became part of the Brown v. Board of Education appeal, but the Prince Edward County school district refused to follow the Supreme Court ruling. A new school was built, but rather than comply with integration, even after Little Rock, the Governor of Virginia closed schools for five years. Martin Luther King visited in 1962. JFK and RFK publicly excoriated Prince Edward County in 1963. Finally, the Supreme Court ruled again, saying “time… has run out”.

Every student should know this story, which began with a student walkout to demand a new school building. I was moved to tears listening to Barbara Johns’ recreated speech in the school auditorium and thinking about their courage in the face of terrible injustice. If you can visit, go and listen for yourself. This affiliate site in Virginia is a powerful part of our Civil Rights history.

Kate Mullany National Historic Site

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Happy Labor Day! The beautiful cast iron stove above was made in Troy, NY, near Albany at the eastern end of the Erie Canal, but the site recognizes a different type of iron work: ironing the popular detachable collars that were invented almost 200 years ago by a Troy housewife. The ladies who ironed the collars were mistreated and poorly paid, so, despite the Civil War, they went on strike. The ringleader was the 19 year old, irrepressible Irish American Kate Mullany, who quipped, “don’t iron while the strike is hot”. Successful, her groundbreaking all-female Collar Laundry Union persisted long after the strike, unlike earlier women’s labor organizing in Lowell. After leading that union, Mullany earned national recognition and responsibilities, breaking many other glass ceilings in the American Labor Movement.

Teacher, labor leader and executive director of the affiliated site, Paul Cole has similarly rallied the people to support his efforts to save this important historic home and legacy for the American people, who too often are taught neither their own labor history nor women’s history. He was kind enough to take time to give me a personal tour, including the restored 1860s era rooms on the top floor. I highly recommend folks who are interested in our rights as Americans contact the site to schedule a tour by appointment. Hopefully this important park will be elevated from NPS affiliate to a full park unit soon.

César E. Chávez National Monument

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I returned here today to see the exhibits, as they were closed when I visited last year. The black & white photos of the Delano grape strike and Chávez’s hunger strike remarks are particularly moving. Pesticides were not regulated at all then, and labor was denied rights by growers. Chávez’s national boycott of grapes helped change both.

Today, growers drain rivers, lakes, wetlands and water tables, even as the western half of the country suffers in drought. In Kern County, where the Monument is, the Kern River no longer flows to the Kern Lake, due to diversion for agriculture. In order to sell more produce, growers are ruining the environment for fish, animals and people. Climate change and some farming practices also exacerbate Valley Fever, a deadly fungal infection spreading in California & Arizona.

Agriculture is a trillion dollar industry in the US, with $150 billion in exports. But Big Ag prefers to blame Democrats, rather than face the fundamental challenge of the climate crisis. Big Ag needs to convert farm equipment to electric, and they need to stop using fossil fuel to ship their produce around the world. They also need to cooperate to restore wetlands to sequester carbon.

César Chávez devoted his life to raise awareness and lead civil disobedience to make change. He acknowledged that in the struggle against the rich and powerful, poor people only have their lives “and the justice of our cause” on their side. Today, we need more people to be just as devoted to stop the climate crisis.

Wisteria, photographed in my previous visit in 2021.

Click to see my photos of all national park units in California, or click to read an updated site visit here.