The Women Of Black History: Artists & Writers
Posted by: Annika Harris(here's one. click on the link for more)
Lucy Parsons was a legendary anarchist and activist for labor rights. Coming from a mixed heritage of Mexican, African, and Native American, this woman led people to fight for their rights, regardless of gender and race. She was considered by the Chicago police of the mid-to-late 1800s to be more virulent than a full-blown riot.
Parsons was born in 1853, most likely as a slave, in Texas. Twenty years later, she and her husband, Albert, moved to Chicago. She started writing pieces for The Socialist, and in 1883 helped found the International Working People’s Association. She and Albert started organizing workers to protest against cruel work conditions and to advocate for shorter work days.
In 1886, the two became involved in the infamous Haymarket Affair. Fellow anarchists and labor activists called a meeting in Haymarket Square. As the peaceful gathering was coming to a close, someone threw a bomb into the crowd, inciting a violent reaction by the police that resulted in seven police officer deaths and over 60 police injuries. Countless civilians were also injured and killed.
Albert, as well as seven others, was incarcerated for being anarchists. He was one of four who were hanged for their supposed crimes, despite Parsons’ tireless efforts to rally support for his release.
Parsons was also famous for pleading the case of the African-American and stated in various letters and articles that African-Americans were victimized for being poor. She believed that racism would end with the death of capitalism, and later joined the Communist Party. Her years of fighting for civil rights finally ended in 1942, when she perished in a fire in her home in Chicago.
[Reporting: Andrea Coventry]
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