#5780p

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Happy Labor Day!

Happy Labor Day! Here, members of ILGWU Local 62 march in a Labor Day Parade.

Date unknown. Found in Collection #5780P ILGWU Photographs.

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To celebrate #ArchivesBlackEducation we wanted to highlight the work of organizer, educator, and international labor advocate Maida Springer Kemp of the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union. Kemp started working as a finisher with Local 22 of the Dressmakers’ Union in NYC and moved up in the union becoming executive board member, chairman of the education committee and shop representative. In 1942, Kemp was appointed as education director of Local 132, the Plastic Button and Novelty Workers’ Union focusing on educating new membership of mostly refugee, recently released prisoners, women and minority union members. Kemp became the first black woman to represent American labor abroad when the AFL sent her to England in 1945 and the first black business agent of Local 22 in 1947. Through her international work, she developed training programs for girls, designed leadership workshops for trade unionists, studied workers’ education in Sweden and Denmark, and secured funds for labor centers including the Solidarity House in Nairobi. Kemp received many awards and honors during her lifetime and was a member of numerous organizations including the NAACP, National Organization of Women (NOW), the Coalition of Labor Union Women (CLUW), the National Council of Negro Women, and the Urban League. Kemp speaking during a Dress Strike, 1958. Kemp studying production methods at the Cooperative Wholesale Society’s clothing factory in Bristol, England, undated. Kemp meeting with Japanese Trade Unionists, undated. Kemp meeting at the African American Labor Center highlighting their work with trade unions in thirty-five African countries. Manager William Ross of the Philadelphia Dress Joint Board hands Kemp a check for $10,000 to help finance a training school for garment workers. [#6199005p #5780P #5780102P #5780PN45 #ILGWU #UniteHere Photographs #KheelCenter, #ILR, #Cornell #ArchivesHashtagParty] #blackhistorymonth https://www.instagram.com/p/CK6l9RQJwIx/?igshid=1j202lw6wj1ab

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Happy #NationalRadioDay! This image depicts Jane Hoffman, Tobey Weinberg, Ruth Goodman, and Amelia Romano reading for a radio broadcast about the devastating Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire from 1911. To listen to a Works Progress Administration (WPA) dramatization of the fire in 1938 for the program "This Was News" click the link in our bio from our Triangle Fire Exhibit Site, courtesy of @WNYC Archives. . Federal Theater Radio Division of the Works Progress Administration, Program #8, March 20, 1938 . https://trianglefire.ilr.cornell.edu/primary/audio/index.html . [#5780p #ILGWU #Photographs #KheelCenter #ILRSchool #Cornell #CornellRAD] (at Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire) https://www.instagram.com/p/CEHWpXCJbjn/?igshid=d1ucf73zui2z

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"Triangle Factory Owners found Not Guilty" -- #OnThisDay December 27, 1911 after a 23-day trial, Isaac Harris and Max Blanck, "Shirtwaist Kings", who owned the Triangle Factory, are found not guilty of Murder in the death of 146 workers. The task of the jurors had been to determine whether the owners knew that the doors were locked at the time of the fire. Customarily, the only way out for workers at quitting time was through an opening on the Green Street side, where all pocketbooks were inspected to prevent stealing. Worker after worker testified to their inability to open the doors to their only viable escape route, the stairs to the Washington Place exit, because the Greene Street side stairs were completely engulfed by fire. More testimony supported this fact. Yet the brilliant defense attorney Max Steuer planted enough doubt in the jurors' minds to win a not-guilty verdict. Grieving families and much of the public felt that justice had not been done. "Justice!" they cried. "Where is justice?" Twenty-three individual civil suits were brought against the owners of the Asch building. On March 11, 1914, three years after the fire, Harris and Blanck settled. They paid 75 dollars per life lost. In August of 1913, Max Blanck was charged with locking one of the doors of his factory during working hours. Brought to court, he was fined twenty dollars, and the judge apologized to him for the imposition. In December of 1913, the interior of his factory was found to be littered with rubbish piled six feet high, with scraps kept in non-regulation, flammable wicker baskets. This time, instead of a court appearance and a fine, he was served a stern warning. The Triangle Waist Company was to cease operations in 1918, but the owners maintained throughout that their factory was a "model of cleanliness and sanitary conditions," and that it was "second to none in the country." Pictured: Max Blanck and Isaac Harris, Triangle Waist Company owners in a group portrait, possibly with Triangle factory workers and visitors. #5780P #ILGWU #Whoisguilty #TriangleFire #LaborHistory #CornellUniversity #ILR #CornellRAD #KheelCenter

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#Juneteenth commemorates the day the last enslaved people in Galveston, TX were legally freed in the United States. This mural by Mexican artist Diego Rivera (husband of Frida Khalo) was painted in 1933 and displayed at Unity House, a summer destination for union members of the ILGWU, depicting the horrors of slavery leading to the Civil War and the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation. As we celebrate the first Juneteenth as a national holiday, let’s honor and remember the millions of enslaved lives lost through a system of slavery in the US and recognize the harsh truths of our shared history. The full mural depicts a history of labor and class conflict in the country, while the panels shown here also include references to the Mexican War and the discovery of gold in California. Figures in the first panel include Henry David Thoreau, Zachary Taylor, Winfield Scott, John C. Calhoun, Nat Turner, John Brown, Frederick Douglas, and Harriet Beecher Stowe. Figures in the second panel include John Brown, Abraham Lincoln, and J.P. Morgan. These murals and much of Unity House were destroyed in a fire in 1969. The other panels in this mural can be found on our Flickr site here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/kheelcenter/albums/72157625517630667 #ILGWU #5780p #laborhistory #diegorivera #juneteenth #emancipation #juneteenth2021 #freedomday (at Unity House) https://www.instagram.com/p/CQTcbMTsuAK/?utm_medium=tumblr

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“Triangle Factory Owners found Not Guilty” #OnThisDay December 27, 1911 after a 23 day trial, Isaac Harris and Max Blanck “”Shirtwaist Kings”” who owned the Triangle Factory are found not guilty of Murder in the death of 146 workers. The task of the jurors had been to determine whether the owners knew that the doors were locked at the time of the fire. Customarily, the only way out for workers at quitting time was through an opening on the Green Street side, where all pocketbooks were inspected to prevent stealing. Worker after worker testified to their inability to open the doors to their only viable escape route, the stairs to the Washington Place exit, because the Greene Street side stairs were completely engulfed by fire. More testimony supported this fact. Yet the brilliant defense attorney Max Steuer planted enough doubt in the jurors’ minds to win a not-guilty verdict. Grieving families and much of the public felt that justice had not been done. “Justice!” they cried. “Where is justice?” Twenty-three individual civil suits were brought against the owners of the Asch building. On March 11, 1914, three years after the fire, Harris and Blanck settled. They paid 75 dollars per life lost. In August of 1913, Max Blanck was charged with locking one of the doors of his factory during working hours. Brought to court, he was fined twenty dollars, and the judge apologized to him for the imposition. In December of 1913, the interior of his factory was found to be littered with rubbish piled six feet high, with scraps kept in non-regulation, flammable wicker baskets. This time, instead of a court appearance and a fine, he was served a stern warning. The Triangle Waist Company was to cease operations in 1918, but the owners maintained throughout that their factory was a “model of cleanliness and sanitary conditions,” and that it was “second to none in the country.” #5780P #ILGWU #Whoisguilty #TriangleFire #laborhistory #Cornell #ILR #CornellRAD https://www.instagram.com/p/CJTjdEtJnm-/?igshid=1dgdb4uyjnyem

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#OnThisDay The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom occurred in Washington D.C. on August 28, 1963 where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave his infamous “I Have a Dream” speech to thousands of union members. Lost to history is the emphasis on the March for the fight for jobs that paid a living wage and the role of the labor movement in organizing this massive demonstration. These images depict members of the International Ladies’ Garment Worker Union (ILGWU) packing Pennsylvania Station in New York City, heading on buses to Washington D.C., and marching through the capital with ILGWU signs. . [#5780P #5780102p #ILGWU Photograph #KheelCenter, #ILR, #Cornell #CornellRAD] .   #AllLaborHasDignity #laborarchives #laborhistory #labor #unions #labormovement #fromthearchives #history #local1199 #hospitalworkers #mlk #reclaimmlk #mlk90 #mlkday #martinlutherking #martinlutherkingjr #corettascott #corettascottking #drking #civilrights #marchonwashington (at March On Washington) https://www.instagram.com/p/CEb09JKJaD_/?igshid=z7ajdu5qb4vm

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#OnThisDay 100 years ago, the #19thAmendment was ratified, granting women the right to vote. This image of suffragettes marching through fifth avenue in NYC along with 25,000 people in 1915 was found hidden in a miscellaneous folder in our garment worker photograph collection. The women are wearing sashes with the names of the states that had already given women the right to vote at that time including Washington, Arizona, California, Wyoming, and Montana. . [5780pb68af04, #5780p #ILGWU #Photograph Collection #KheelCenter, #ILRSchool, #Cornell, #CornellRAD] (at Fifth Avenue) https://www.instagram.com/p/CECN9_Qpets/?igshid=1t5gcfceydpau