Illinois State Society of Washington, DC

Illinois Hall of Fame: James C. Petrillo

By Mark Rhoads

Bing Crosby as Father O'Malley in "The Bells of St. Mary's" tells the mother of a student how he located the girl's father who was a pianist. "He's a musician, so he must be in the union. I went right to the top, Petrillo!"

In the middle of the 20th Century, the name "Petrillo" was well known in America. He was a labor leader who was often in the news because of so many battles he fought on behalf of his members in a rapidly changing world for musicians. Jimmy Petrillo was President of Local 10 of the Chicago Federation of Musicians for forty years from 1922 to 1962.  He also served as president of the American Federation of Musicians for 18 years from 1940 to 1958. The Petrillo Band Shell in Grant Park was named in his honor in 1976.

James Caesar Petrillo was born near the corner of DeKoven and Taylor Street in Chicago on March 16, 1892. He loved to play the trumpet but he concluded in his early twenties that he did not have enough talent to make his living as a trumpet player. So starting in 1919, James devoted his life to organizing musicians into effective union locals. Petrillo once said many years later, 'If I was a good trumpet player I wouldn’t be here. I got desperate. I hadda look for a job. I went into the union business."

Illinois Hall of Fame: Clarence Darrow

By Mark Rhoads

A century before the television celebrity lawyers of modern times, readers of newspapers in all parts of America and many overseas knew the name of the famous defense attorney, Clarence Seward Darrow of Chicago. 

He was born in Kinsman, Ohio on April 18, 1857.  In 1887 Clarence's brother Everett Darrow, was living in Chicago and he urged Clarence and his wife Jesse to move there.  Clarence followed his brother to the Windy City and he worked for a brief time as corporation counsel for the Chicago and Northwestern Railway but also took on outside legal work.  Among the unpopular defendants he represented were some of the anarchists accused of throwing bombs and killing police officers in the Haymarket Riots of 1886.  Darrow represented them on appeals to Gov. John Peter Altgeld for clemency and prevailed in a couple of cases.  His outside cases caused him conflicts of interest that made it necessary for him to leave the railway. He opposed George Pullman's rail car company in the defense of socialist and union leader Eugene V. Debs in a conspiracy case. He defended Debs in two trials.  Just after the close of the Columbian Exposition World's Fair of 1893, Darrow worked on the defense of the mentally deranged Eugene Predergast, the confessed assassin of Chicago Mayor Carter Harrison.  Darrow was a lifelong opponent of capital punishment.  Darrow was only 32 in 1889 when Mayor Dewitt Cregier appointed him as Corporation Counsel for the City of Chicago.

In 1907 Darrow won acquittal for mineworker union leader William D. Haywood and his co-defendants on the charge of murdering former Governor Frank Steunenberg of Idaho.  Darrow broke down the testimony of the government's star witness. But he offended many socialists when he entered a plea of guilty in his defense of the McNamara brothers in the Los Angeles Times dynamiting case (1911). Darrow was himself tried for allegedly bribing a juror in the trial, but he was acquitted. Darrow served two terms as a Democrat in the Illinois House of Representatives.

Ironically, the two cases Darrow is most remembered for today were cases he did not seek after he was mostly in retirement.  He was living in Hyde Park in 1924 when two rich college students who were neighbors brutally murdered another young neighbor by the name of Bobby Franks who was only 14.  The families of 17-year old Nathan Leopold and 18-year old Richard Loeb asked Darrow to come out of retirement to defend their sons.  Since Darrow had always opposed capital punishment and the evidence against the two was overwhelming, his objective was not to save the boys from prison but to save them from execution.  Darrow waived a jury, went for a bench trial, and entered a plea of guilty.  Hoping to sway the judge, an audience of one, Darrow called 14 psychiatrists and psycholgists as witnesses to say that Leopold and Loeb were mentally deficient lacking a true understanding of the horrible nature of their murder and that a merciful judge should send them to prison rather than to execution.  It was a defense similar to one he wanted to mount in 1893 for Eugene Predergast during his trial for the murder of Mayor Carter Harrison but the courts did not allow the defense at that time.  Leopold and Loeb got life in prison.  Loeb died at the hands of a fellow inmate at Stateville Prison near Joliet in 1936 during a knife fight. Nathan Leopold was eventually paroled in 1958 because he had been a model prisoner and he had volunteered to be a human guinea pig by exposing himself to malaria in order to test medicines.  Leopold lived out his few remaining years in Puerto Rico.

In 1925, still living in Hyde Park, Darrow came out of retirement again to defend John Scopes, a Tennessee school teacher who taught evolution to his class in spite of a state law that said only the creation story of the Bible could be taught.  In this famous "Scopes Monkey Trial" named for a popular notion of the Darwin theory of evolution that "monkeys" were ancestors of man, Darrow faced another great orator and attorney.  William Jennings Bryan who grew up in Salem, Illinois and attended Union College of Law in Chicago. In the picture ar right taken during the trial, Darrow is on the left holding his cigarette and Bryan is on the right holding his trademark fan to ward off the summer heat.  Bryan had been nominated three times for president by the Democratic Party in 1896 (when he made his famous "Cross of Gold" speech), in 1900, and in 1908.  The whole country followed the Monkey Trial on radio and in newspapers.  Eventually the Tennessee Supreme Court dismissed the charges against Scopes not on constitutional grounds of the state law but on the technicality that the judge in the lower court had no authority to impose a fine on Scopes.  Instead of returning the case to the lower court, the Tennesse Supreme Court "found no reason to continue the life of this case."  Clarence Darrow wrote several books and died in Chicago on March 13, 1938 just one month shy of what would have been his 81st birthday.

By Mark Rhoads

A century before the television celebrity lawyers of modern times, readers of newspapers in all parts of America and many overseas knew the name of the famous defense attorney, Clarence Seward Darrow of Chicago. 

He was born in Kinsman, Ohio on April 18, 1857.  In 1887 Clarence's brother Everett Darrow, was living in Chicago and he urged Clarence and his wife Jesse to move there.  Clarence followed his brother to the Windy City and he worked for a brief time as corporation counsel for the Chicago and Northwestern Railway but also took on outside legal work.  Among the unpopular defendants he represented were some of the anarchists accused of throwing bombs and killing police officers in the Haymarket Riots of 1886.  Darrow represented them on appeals to Gov. John Peter Altgeld for clemency and prevailed in a couple of cases.  His outside cases caused him conflicts of interest that made it necessary for him to leave the railway. He opposed George Pullman's rail car company in the defense of socialist and union leader Eugene V. Debs in a conspiracy case. He defended Debs in two trials.  Just after the close of the Columbian Exposition World's Fair of 1893, Darrow worked on the defense of the mentally deranged Eugene Predergast, the confessed assassin of Chicago Mayor Carter Harrison.  Darrow was a lifelong opponent of capital punishment.  Darrow was only 32 in 1889 when Mayor Dewitt Cregier appointed him as Corporation Counsel for the City of Chicago.

In 1907 Darrow won acquittal for mineworker union leader William D. Haywood and his co-defendants on the charge of murdering former Governor Frank Steunenberg of Idaho.  Darrow broke down the testimony of the government's star witness. But he offended many socialists when he entered a plea of guilty in his defense of the McNamara brothers in the Los Angeles Times dynamiting case (1911). Darrow was himself tried for allegedly bribing a juror in the trial, but he was acquitted. Darrow served two terms as a Democrat in the Illinois House of Representatives.

Ironically, the two cases Darrow is most remembered for today were cases he did not seek after he was mostly in retirement.  He was living in Hyde Park in 1924 when two rich college students who were neighbors brutally murdered another young neighbor by the name of Bobby Franks who was only 14.  The families of 17-year old Nathan Leopold and 18-year old Richard Loeb asked Darrow to come out of retirement to defend their sons.  Since Darrow had always opposed capital punishment and the evidence against the two was overwhelming, his objective was not to save the boys from prison but to save them from execution.  Darrow waived a jury, went for a bench trial, and entered a plea of guilty.  Hoping to sway the judge, an audience of one, Darrow called 14 psychiatrists and psycholgists as witnesses to say that Leopold and Loeb were mentally deficient lacking a true understanding of the horrible nature of their murder and that a merciful judge should send them to prison rather than to execution.  It was a defense similar to one he wanted to mount in 1893 for Eugene Predergast during his trial for the murder of Mayor Carter Harrison but the courts did not allow the defense at that time.  Leopold and Loeb got life in prison.  Loeb died at the hands of a fellow inmate at Stateville Prison near Joliet in 1936 during a knife fight. Nathan Leopold was eventually paroled in 1958 because he had been a model prisoner and he had volunteered to be a human guinea pig by exposing himself to malaria in order to test medicines.  Leopold lived out his few remaining years in Puerto Rico.

In 1925, still living in Hyde Park, Darrow came out of retirement again to defend John Scopes, a Tennessee school teacher who taught evolution to his class in spite of a state law that said only the creation story of the Bible could be taught.  In this famous "Scopes Monkey Trial" named for a popular notion of the Darwin theory of evolution that "monkeys" were ancestors of man, Darrow faced another great orator and attorney.  William Jennings Bryan who grew up in Salem, Illinois and attended Union College of Law in Chicago. In the picture ar right taken during the trial, Darrow is on the left holding his cigarette and Bryan is on the right holding his trademark fan to ward off the summer heat.  Bryan had been nominated three times for president by the Democratic Party in 1896 (when he made his famous "Cross of Gold" speech), in 1900, and in 1908.  The whole country followed the Monkey Trial on radio and in newspapers.  Eventually the Tennessee Supreme Court dismissed the charges against Scopes not on constitutional grounds of the state law but on the technicality that the judge in the lower court had no authority to impose a fine on Scopes.  Instead of returning the case to the lower court, the Tennesse Supreme Court "found no reason to continue the life of this case."  Clarence Darrow wrote several books and died in Chicago on March 13, 1938 just one month shy of what would have been his 81st birthday.

Illinois Hall of Fame: Arthur Goldberg

By Mark Rhoads

The life of Arthur J. Goldberg was a classic rags to riches story in the tradition of Horatio Alger.  He was born in 1908 on the west side of Chicago.  Arthur was the youngest of eight children of Russian Jewish immigrants.  His father was a peddler who delivered fresh produce in a horse-drawn wagon until his heart gave out in 1916.  After their father's death, the seven older children quit school to go to work in order to support the family.  But as the youngest at only 8, Arthur was encouraged to continue his education.  Starting at the age of 12 after school and on weekends he worked odd jobs wrapping fish, selling shoes, and selling coffee to Cub fans at Wrigley Field.

In 1924, Arthur was just 16.  All Chicago newspapers that year were intensely covering the trial of two wealthy University of Chicago students, 19-year old Nathan Leopold and 18-year old Richard Loeb for the cruel and sadistic murder of their 14-year old neighbor, Bobby Franks.  While the crime was premediated and grisly, the families of Leopold and Loeb got the help of legendary Chicago attorney Clarence Darrow who was able to persuade a judge to give them life imprisonment rather than the death penalty.  Arthur Goldberg became interested in the law because of reading about this famous trial.

In 1929, and the age of only 19, Arthur graduated from Northwestern University School of Law magna cum laude.  In 1930 he received a JSD (Juris Scientiae Doctor) degree also from Northwestern.  He was admitted to the Illinois Bar over some objections due to his youth since he was still only 20 years old.  Arthur became a labor law expert during the Great Depression and served as a Major in the U.S. Army in World War II.  In 1948 he became counsel to the United Steelworkers of America.  By 1955, he was a legal advisor to both the American Federation of Labor (AFL) and the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) just before the two labor organizations merged into the AFL-CIO. President John F. Kennedy appointed Goldberg as Secretary of Labor in January 1961. 

In 1963, President Kennedy nominated Goldberg to be Associate Justice of the Supreme Court where he served for three years.  In a very unusual move, Goldberg agreed to a request by President Johnson in 1965 to become Ambassador to the United Nations after the death of former Illinois Gov. Adlai Stevenson made that post vacant.  Goldberg resigned in 1968, practiced law in New York, and was nominated by the Democratic Party to run for governor of New York in 1970 against incumbent Republican Nelson Rockefeller.  Goldberg lost by a wide margin and eventually returned to Virginia to pracice law in a Washington, DC office and died in 1990 leaving his wife and two children as survivors.

Arthur Goldberg was a liberal most of the time but not always.  He later said he favored withdrawl from Viet Nam after 1965.  But he dissented from the idea that the wall of separation between church and state meant that religion had no place in the public square.  In a concurring opinion with Justice Harlan in Abington School District v. Schempp, 374 U.S. 203 (1963), Goldberg carefully parsed why he agreed that proscribed Bible reading at a public school in Pennsylvania was violative of the First Amendment, but also predicted that this type of ruling in a line of cases could lead to a more hostile official attitude toward religion in the future.  Justice Goldberg wrote:

"It is said, and I agree, that the attitude of government toward religion must be one of neutrality.  But untutored devotion to the concept of neutrality can lead to invocation or approval of results which partake not simply of that noninterference and noninvolvement with the religious which the Constitution commands, but of a brooding and pervasive devotion to the secular, and a passive, even active, hostility to the religious. Such results are not only not compelled by the Constitution, but, it seems to me, are prohibited by it."

By Mark Rhoads

The life of Arthur J. Goldberg was a classic rags to riches story in the tradition of Horatio Alger.  He was born in 1908 on the west side of Chicago.  Arthur was the youngest of eight children of Russian Jewish immigrants.  His father was a peddler who delivered fresh produce in a horse-drawn wagon until his heart gave out in 1916.  After their father's death, the seven older children quit school to go to work in order to support the family.  But as the youngest at only 8, Arthur was encouraged to continue his education.  Starting at the age of 12 after school and on weekends he worked odd jobs wrapping fish, selling shoes, and selling coffee to Cub fans at Wrigley Field.

In 1924, Arthur was just 16.  All Chicago newspapers that year were intensely covering the trial of two wealthy University of Chicago students, 19-year old Nathan Leopold and 18-year old Richard Loeb for the cruel and sadistic murder of their 14-year old neighbor, Bobby Franks.  While the crime was premediated and grisly, the families of Leopold and Loeb got the help of legendary Chicago attorney Clarence Darrow who was able to persuade a judge to give them life imprisonment rather than the death penalty.  Arthur Goldberg became interested in the law because of reading about this famous trial.

In 1929, and the age of only 19, Arthur graduated from Northwestern University School of Law magna cum laude.  In 1930 he received a JSD (Juris Scientiae Doctor) degree also from Northwestern.  He was admitted to the Illinois Bar over some objections due to his youth since he was still only 20 years old.  Arthur became a labor law expert during the Great Depression and served as a Major in the U.S. Army in World War II.  In 1948 he became counsel to the United Steelworkers of America.  By 1955, he was a legal advisor to both the American Federation of Labor (AFL) and the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) just before the two labor organizations merged into the AFL-CIO. President John F. Kennedy appointed Goldberg as Secretary of Labor in January 1961. 

In 1963, President Kennedy nominated Goldberg to be Associate Justice of the Supreme Court where he served for three years.  In a very unusual move, Goldberg agreed to a request by President Johnson in 1965 to become Ambassador to the United Nations after the death of former Illinois Gov. Adlai Stevenson made that post vacant.  Goldberg resigned in 1968, practiced law in New York, and was nominated by the Democratic Party to run for governor of New York in 1970 against incumbent Republican Nelson Rockefeller.  Goldberg lost by a wide margin and eventually returned to Virginia to pracice law in a Washington, DC office and died in 1990 leaving his wife and two children as survivors.

Arthur Goldberg was a liberal most of the time but not always.  He later said he favored withdrawl from Viet Nam after 1965.  But he dissented from the idea that the wall of separation between church and state meant that religion had no place in the public square.  In a concurring opinion with Justice Harlan in Abington School District v. Schempp, 374 U.S. 203 (1963), Goldberg carefully parsed why he agreed that proscribed Bible reading at a public school in Pennsylvania was violative of the First Amendment, but also predicted that this type of ruling in a line of cases could lead to a more hostile official attitude toward religion in the future.  Justice Goldberg wrote:

"It is said, and I agree, that the attitude of government toward religion must be one of neutrality.  But untutored devotion to the concept of neutrality can lead to invocation or approval of results which partake not simply of that noninterference and noninvolvement with the religious which the Constitution commands, but of a brooding and pervasive devotion to the secular, and a passive, even active, hostility to the religious. Such results are not only not compelled by the Constitution, but, it seems to me, are prohibited by it."

Illinois Hall of Fame: William A. Lee

By Mark Rhoads

Labor Day 2006 is the perfect day to remember a distinguished old-school gentleman who left his very important mark on the Illinois trade union movement, and the civic affairs of Chicago, for more than four decades.  He was a tough but dignified leader who spoke plainly and was honest and straightforward in his dealings.  He would look out for the interests of his union members, but also realized that a really successful negotiation was one that benefitted all concerned to the best degree possible over the long run.  He knew that give and take were essential and compromise was not a sign of weakness. William A. Lee was the last of a generation that did business on a handshake, and his word was his bond. 

Bill Lee was born April 11, 1895 in the old Irish neighborhood of Taylor and Racine on the West Side of Chicago.  He started working part-time in the shipping room of The Ward Bakery Company when he was only 15.  He graduated from St. Ignatius High School and went to work for the bakery full-time driving a horse-drawn wagon just as his father before him had done.  In 1915 at the age of 20, he joined Bakery Drivers Local 734.  After service in the US Army during World War I, Bill Lee worked in various offices for Local 734 until he was elected local president in 1929.  By 1946 at the age of 51, he was a vice president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT).  He became president of the Chicago Federation of Labor (CFL) in 1946 and served in that post almost 38 years until his death in June 1984 at age 89. 

Bill Lee took the leadership of the CFL in a new direction to more fully integrate union leaders in the complete range of civic and political affairs of the city.  Lee was willing to serve on many boards and commissions such at the Park Board at the request of Mayor Martin Kennelly (1947-1955), Mayor Richard J. Daley (1955-1976), and Mayor Mike Bilandic (1976-1979).  It was this extra effort to be part of the full civic life of the city that also gave Lee better leverage and intelligence in labor negotiations.  Bill was also a staunch supporter and organizer of the annual St. Patrick's Day Parade.

Bill Lee's working relationship with Mayor Richard J. Daley was a particularly effective partnership. Lee became known not for confrontation, but for the strikes he helped to either shorten or to avert all together among transit workers, teachers, fire fighters, and even musicians. The "handshake" deals that Lee negotiated with Daley and other officials gave trade union members working for government agencies the same hourly wages paid to construction workers in private industry.  In practical terms, this really meant a bonus of 15 to 30 percent to union members who were government workers because they got more benefits than their counterparts in the private sector and did not have to worry about seasonal layoffs.  Slots for electricians and plumbers for local government were the prize plumbs that went to Daley loyalists who often did double duty as officers in locals and that made the alliance stronger.

Daley got what he wanted, a handshake deal that kept Union members happy without a written multi-year contract.  That gave the city some flexibility to adjust city budgets for lean and good years.  Bill Lee also got what he wanted, better wages and benefits over time.  By serving on the Park Board, Lee was in a better position to keep watch on the welfare of union workers in various municipal agencies. In 1978, Bill Lee sold off radio station WCFL (Chicago Federation of Labor) to Mutual Broadcasting to free up cash for other investments.  WCFL had long been the only radio station in the country owned by an alliance of labor unions.

Unfortunately, the unstable intentions of the Jane Byrne administration from 1979 to 1983 led many unions to demand that everything must be in writing. Byrne at first wanted to end the old agreements and she did not reappoint Bill Lee to the Park Board.  Under Byrne, the phrase "handshake agreement" took on a negative meaning it never deserved and never had when Bill Lee and Mayor Richard J. Daley were working together.  The two men understood each other and both wanted what was best for the city.  Eventually Mayor Byrne realized she needed the goodwill of Bill Lee and he was back on the Park Board by the end of her one term in office.

In national union affairs, the American Federation of Labor (AFL) and the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) merged in 1955 into the AFL-CIO with the aid of Chicago labor law attorney and future Supreme Court Justice Arthur J. Goldberg (see previous post on Goldberg).  As a vice president of the IBT, Bill Lee and some allies courageously tried but failed to stop James R. Hoffa in 1957 from becoming the IBT president.  Even after the IBT was kicked out of the AFL-CIO, Lee always kept on good terms with IBT officers in Illinois and often included them in general consultations about the welfare of union workers in Illinois.  He gave the IBT local leaders the same respect he gave to full affiliates of the CFL. 

Bill Lee died on June 16, 1984 at the age of 89 while he was still president of the CFL.  He was listed in the Union Hall of Honor of the Illinois Labor History Society two years after his death in 1986.  Several years ago, the Chicago Federation of Labor named a scholarship program in honor of Bill Lee that is open to children of union members affiliated with the CFL.  Each William A. Lee Scholarship recipient is given $1,500 toward the cost of college expenses.  To see a list of the ten winners for 2006, see the Chicago Federation of Labor press release page.

By Mark Rhoads

Labor Day 2006 is the perfect day to remember a distinguished old-school gentleman who left his very important mark on the Illinois trade union movement, and the civic affairs of Chicago, for more than four decades.  He was a tough but dignified leader who spoke plainly and was honest and straightforward in his dealings.  He would look out for the interests of his union members, but also realized that a really successful negotiation was one that benefitted all concerned to the best degree possible over the long run.  He knew that give and take were essential and compromise was not a sign of weakness. William A. Lee was the last of a generation that did business on a handshake, and his word was his bond. 

Bill Lee was born April 11, 1895 in the old Irish neighborhood of Taylor and Racine on the West Side of Chicago.  He started working part-time in the shipping room of The Ward Bakery Company when he was only 15.  He graduated from St. Ignatius High School and went to work for the bakery full-time driving a horse-drawn wagon just as his father before him had done.  In 1915 at the age of 20, he joined Bakery Drivers Local 734.  After service in the US Army during World War I, Bill Lee worked in various offices for Local 734 until he was elected local president in 1929.  By 1946 at the age of 51, he was a vice president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT).  He became president of the Chicago Federation of Labor (CFL) in 1946 and served in that post almost 38 years until his death in June 1984 at age 89. 

Bill Lee took the leadership of the CFL in a new direction to more fully integrate union leaders in the complete range of civic and political affairs of the city.  Lee was willing to serve on many boards and commissions such at the Park Board at the request of Mayor Martin Kennelly (1947-1955), Mayor Richard J. Daley (1955-1976), and Mayor Mike Bilandic (1976-1979).  It was this extra effort to be part of the full civic life of the city that also gave Lee better leverage and intelligence in labor negotiations.  Bill was also a staunch supporter and organizer of the annual St. Patrick's Day Parade.

Bill Lee's working relationship with Mayor Richard J. Daley was a particularly effective partnership. Lee became known not for confrontation, but for the strikes he helped to either shorten or to avert all together among transit workers, teachers, fire fighters, and even musicians. The "handshake" deals that Lee negotiated with Daley and other officials gave trade union members working for government agencies the same hourly wages paid to construction workers in private industry.  In practical terms, this really meant a bonus of 15 to 30 percent to union members who were government workers because they got more benefits than their counterparts in the private sector and did not have to worry about seasonal layoffs.  Slots for electricians and plumbers for local government were the prize plumbs that went to Daley loyalists who often did double duty as officers in locals and that made the alliance stronger.

Daley got what he wanted, a handshake deal that kept Union members happy without a written multi-year contract.  That gave the city some flexibility to adjust city budgets for lean and good years.  Bill Lee also got what he wanted, better wages and benefits over time.  By serving on the Park Board, Lee was in a better position to keep watch on the welfare of union workers in various municipal agencies. In 1978, Bill Lee sold off radio station WCFL (Chicago Federation of Labor) to Mutual Broadcasting to free up cash for other investments.  WCFL had long been the only radio station in the country owned by an alliance of labor unions.

Unfortunately, the unstable intentions of the Jane Byrne administration from 1979 to 1983 led many unions to demand that everything must be in writing. Byrne at first wanted to end the old agreements and she did not reappoint Bill Lee to the Park Board.  Under Byrne, the phrase "handshake agreement" took on a negative meaning it never deserved and never had when Bill Lee and Mayor Richard J. Daley were working together.  The two men understood each other and both wanted what was best for the city.  Eventually Mayor Byrne realized she needed the goodwill of Bill Lee and he was back on the Park Board by the end of her one term in office.

In national union affairs, the American Federation of Labor (AFL) and the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) merged in 1955 into the AFL-CIO with the aid of Chicago labor law attorney and future Supreme Court Justice Arthur J. Goldberg (see previous post on Goldberg).  As a vice president of the IBT, Bill Lee and some allies courageously tried but failed to stop James R. Hoffa in 1957 from becoming the IBT president.  Even after the IBT was kicked out of the AFL-CIO, Lee always kept on good terms with IBT officers in Illinois and often included them in general consultations about the welfare of union workers in Illinois.  He gave the IBT local leaders the same respect he gave to full affiliates of the CFL. 

Bill Lee died on June 16, 1984 at the age of 89 while he was still president of the CFL.  He was listed in the Union Hall of Honor of the Illinois Labor History Society two years after his death in 1986.  Several years ago, the Chicago Federation of Labor named a scholarship program in honor of Bill Lee that is open to children of union members affiliated with the CFL.  Each William A. Lee Scholarship recipient is given $1,500 toward the cost of college expenses.  To see a list of the ten winners for 2006, see the Chicago Federation of Labor press release page.

Illinois Hall of Fame: Mother Jones

By Mark Rhoads

"I am not a humanitarian, I'm a hell-raiser." -- Mary Harris Jones

American labor organizer Mary Harris Jones was a colorful advocate for radical union activism in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries.  Mary was also known as "Mother Jones" and sometimes as "The Miners' Angel."  The first moniker has become more famous in the last thirty years since the publishers of a magazine called Mother Jones took her name, life, and work as inspiration for their mission when the publication was launched in 1976.  Mary had strong admirers and critics in her own lifetime.  While a West Virginia district attorney once branded Mary as "the most dangerous woman in America," Chicago defense attorney Clarence Darrow called Mary "one of the most forceful and picturesque figures of the American labor movement."

Mary Harris was born in County Cork, Ireland, either in 1830 or perhaps as late as 1837.  Some researchers think she might have claimed to be a few years older than she really was late in her life and that could be the source of some confusion about her age.  Most sources accept Mary's statements and list 1830 as her year of birth and as being seven months past her 100th birthday at the time of her death in late 1930.  Her family emigrated to North America when she was young and she grew up in Toronto, Ontario where she graduated from normal school.  Her father worked as a railroad construction laborer. Mary worked as a teacher in Monroe, Michigan and later got a job as a dressmaker in Chicago.

In 1861 at the start of the Civil War, Mary was teaching in Memphis, Tennessee when she met and married George E. Jones who was an active member of the Iron Molders Union. Mary learned a lot about the trade union movement from her husband.  Tragedy struck her hard in 1867 when Mary lost her husband and all four of her children in just one week to a yellow fever epidemic.  As a widow, Mary moved back to Chicago and worked at dressmaking again in her own shop that catered to wealthy Chicago socialites. Tragedy struck her a second time only four years later in October 1871 when the great Chicago fire destroyed her home, her dressmaking business, and everything she owned.

But Mary survived and remained in Chicago as a seamstress and making dresses for a few more years after the fire.  Her wealthy customers also needed to replace clothes destroyed by the fire.  But later in that decade, Mary became active in the Knights of Labor and went to Pittsburg to help railroad strikers in 1877.  From that year forward, Mary devoted most of her life to working as a union organizer with miners.  But she was also at various times an advocate for child laborers, textile workers, streetcar workers, steelworkers, and others. She remained active in labor affairs into her nineties.  From 1867 to her death in 1830, Mary spent most of her life both in the railroad hub of Chicago and near the coal fields of southern Illinois.  She lived whereever there was a hot spot for striking workers around the country.  But Illinois was her base of operations.  She often fought with other labor leaders accusing them of too much compromise with employers or of internal union corruption.  Mary at different times joined or helped to organize but then later rejected various socialist organizations as she got into factional fights over personalities, principles, and tactics.  She twice worked as a professional organizer for the United Mine Workers and was the special "Miners' Angel" to her friends in the coal mines of southern Illinois.

As late as 1924, Mary was back with her roots helping to organize dressmakers in Chicago.  Mary died on Nov. 30, 1930.  She was either 100 or age 93 depending on which scholar is correct about the actual year of her birth.  She is buried in the Union Miners Cemetery at Mount Olive, Illinois near the coalfields of Macoupin County.  Her grave site is also not far from Virden, Illinois where many of her friends and victims of the Virden mine riot of 1898 are buried. On October 12, 1936, a Monument to Mother Jones was dedicated at the Union Miners Cemetery by Union Local 35 of the Progressive Mine Workers of America (AFL) and its Women's Auxiliary. To learn more about Mary Harris Jones, readers might want to visit her page on the web site of the Illinois Labor History Society.

By Mark Rhoads

"I am not a humanitarian, I'm a hell-raiser." -- Mary Harris Jones

American labor organizer Mary Harris Jones was a colorful advocate for radical union activism in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries.  Mary was also known as "Mother Jones" and sometimes as "The Miners' Angel."  The first moniker has become more famous in the last thirty years since the publishers of a magazine called Mother Jones took her name, life, and work as inspiration for their mission when the publication was launched in 1976.  Mary had strong admirers and critics in her own lifetime.  While a West Virginia district attorney once branded Mary as "the most dangerous woman in America," Chicago defense attorney Clarence Darrow called Mary "one of the most forceful and picturesque figures of the American labor movement."

Mary Harris was born in County Cork, Ireland, either in 1830 or perhaps as late as 1837.  Some researchers think she might have claimed to be a few years older than she really was late in her life and that could be the source of some confusion about her age.  Most sources accept Mary's statements and list 1830 as her year of birth and as being seven months past her 100th birthday at the time of her death in late 1930.  Her family emigrated to North America when she was young and she grew up in Toronto, Ontario where she graduated from normal school.  Her father worked as a railroad construction laborer. Mary worked as a teacher in Monroe, Michigan and later got a job as a dressmaker in Chicago.

In 1861 at the start of the Civil War, Mary was teaching in Memphis, Tennessee when she met and married George E. Jones who was an active member of the Iron Molders Union. Mary learned a lot about the trade union movement from her husband.  Tragedy struck her hard in 1867 when Mary lost her husband and all four of her children in just one week to a yellow fever epidemic.  As a widow, Mary moved back to Chicago and worked at dressmaking again in her own shop that catered to wealthy Chicago socialites. Tragedy struck her a second time only four years later in October 1871 when the great Chicago fire destroyed her home, her dressmaking business, and everything she owned.

But Mary survived and remained in Chicago as a seamstress and making dresses for a few more years after the fire.  Her wealthy customers also needed to replace clothes destroyed by the fire.  But later in that decade, Mary became active in the Knights of Labor and went to Pittsburg to help railroad strikers in 1877.  From that year forward, Mary devoted most of her life to working as a union organizer with miners.  But she was also at various times an advocate for child laborers, textile workers, streetcar workers, steelworkers, and others. She remained active in labor affairs into her nineties.  From 1867 to her death in 1830, Mary spent most of her life both in the railroad hub of Chicago and near the coal fields of southern Illinois.  She lived whereever there was a hot spot for striking workers around the country.  But Illinois was her base of operations.  She often fought with other labor leaders accusing them of too much compromise with employers or of internal union corruption.  Mary at different times joined or helped to organize but then later rejected various socialist organizations as she got into factional fights over personalities, principles, and tactics.  She twice worked as a professional organizer for the United Mine Workers and was the special "Miners' Angel" to her friends in the coal mines of southern Illinois.

As late as 1924, Mary was back with her roots helping to organize dressmakers in Chicago.  Mary died on Nov. 30, 1930.  She was either 100 or age 93 depending on which scholar is correct about the actual year of her birth.  She is buried in the Union Miners Cemetery at Mount Olive, Illinois near the coalfields of Macoupin County.  Her grave site is also not far from Virden, Illinois where many of her friends and victims of the Virden mine riot of 1898 are buried. On October 12, 1936, a Monument to Mother Jones was dedicated at the Union Miners Cemetery by Union Local 35 of the Progressive Mine Workers of America (AFL) and its Women's Auxiliary. To learn more about Mary Harris Jones, readers might want to visit her page on the web site of the Illinois Labor History Society.