Educator Mary Harris “Mother” Jones dedicated her life to the improvement of the lives of others as a tireless union organizer. Photo Credit: Virginia Commonwealth University Libraries.

Many hardworking educators dedicate their lives to the improvement of the lives of others. One of these was Mary Harris “Mother” Jones, a teacher, dressmaker, and union organizer.

Perhaps because of her own struggles, all her life, Mary was passionate about the welfare of children and the underprivileged. Following her graduation from normal school at age seventeen, she became a schoolteacher, first at a convent in Monroe, Michigan, and later in Memphis, Tennessee. It was in Memphis that she met and married George E. Jones, an iron molder and union member. Tragically, the young schoolteacher lost her husband and all four of their children, all under the age of five, in the yellow fever epidemic of 1867. Next, Mary relocated to Chicago and established a dressmaking shop. Unfortunately, the workshop was destroyed in the Great Chicago Fire of 1871.

Following the demise of her business, Mary began working as an organizer for the Knights of Labor and the United Mine Workers Union. She helped coordinate several major strikes, and she also co-founded the Industrial Workers of the World. Because she referred to the union members as “her boys,” Mary was often referred to as “Mother” Jones. Mary gained fame for mobilizing the wives of striking coal miners to march with brooms and mops in an effort to block strikebreakers from crossing the picket lines.  In 1902, one American district attorney called her “the most dangerous woman in America” because of her success in organizing mine workers and their families against the mine owners.

In 1903, Mary was greatly disturbed by the inadequate enforcement of child labor laws in mines and silk mills in Pennsylvania, so she organized one hundred youngsters in a Children’s March from Kensington, Philadelphia, to the home of President Theodore Roosevelt in Oyster Bay, New York. In the procession, the children carried banners that proclaimed, “We want to go to school, and not the mines!”

Mary Harris Jones died in Adelphi, New York, on November 30, 1930, at the age of 93. She was buried in Union Miners Cemetery in Mount Olive, Illinois. In her honor, Mary Harris “Mother” Jones Elementary School in Adelphi was named after her. This amazing former schoolteacher will always be remembered as a Chalkboard Champion.