Mary Harris "Mother" Jones
Homestead, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
Labor leader, workers' advocate. Arrested and jailed in Homestead for speaking to striking steelworkers, 1919. When a judge asked who gave her a permit to speak publicly, she replied, "Patrick Henry. Thomas Jefferson. John Adams!"
Erected by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
The Story
By 1919 Mary Harris "Mother" Jones was already a legend of the American labor movement, a fearless organizer who called herself the miners' angel. Arrested and jailed in Homestead that year for addressing striking steelworkers, she met a judge's demand for her speaking permit with defiance, invoking Patrick Henry, Thomas Jefferson, and John Adams as the only authority she needed. Her wit turned a courtroom rebuke into a ringing claim that the right to speak was as old as the Republic itself.
Why it matters
Mother Jones fused the cause of industrial workers with the founding ideals of American liberty, making her one of the most iconic voices in the nation's long fight for labor rights.
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Related people
- ¡ Mary Harris "Mother" Jones
Related events
- ¡ 1919 Steel Strike
Themes & tags
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