Bea Lumpkin
alt text
A black-and-white photo of an older woman in glasses, slightly out of focus, seated and reading "Reflections on Socialism" (which is sharply in focus).
source: https://www.spiegel.de/fotostre...
I discovered yesterday that the Communist activist and labor organizer Beatrice Lumpkin passed away earlier this month at the age of 107. Her first labor activities were in *1933* at the age of *14* (not as a school project or something; it was the Depression and she was working in a radio tube factory); her mother had been a Triangle Shirtwaist Factory worker and she soon began working for the Laundry Workers Industrial Union and the CIO.
Having moved with her second husband, a steelworker and union organizer, to Gary, Indiana, in the 1950s, she had been a resident of Chicago for almost 65 years and was on the faculty at Chicago's Malcolm X College (where she was a longtime member of the Chicago Teacher's Union). Her autobiography, "Joy in the Struggle: My Life and Love", was published in 2012. A truly remarkable life. See https://medium.com/eldeadli... and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki....
Rest in power.
I discovered yesterday that the Communist activist and labor organizer Beatrice Lumpkin passed away earlier this month at the age of 107. Her first labor activities were in *1933* at the age of *14* (not as a school project or something; it was the Depression and she was working in a radio tube factory); her mother had been a Triangle Shirtwaist Factory worker and she soon began working for the Laundry Workers Industrial Union and the CIO.
Having moved with her second husband, a steelworker and union organizer, to Gary, Indiana, in the 1950s, she had been a resident of Chicago for almost 65 years and was on the faculty at Chicago's Malcolm X College (where she was a longtime member of the Chicago Teacher's Union). Her autobiography, "Joy in the Struggle: My Life and Love", was published in 2012. A truly remarkable life. See https://medium.com/eldeadli... and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki....
Rest in power.
