1840s
Today in Labor History September 14, 1843: Lola Rodríguez de Tió, Puerto Rican poet, abolitionist, and women’s rights activist was born. She and her husband became active in the movement against Spanish colonialism on the island. In 1889, the Spanish authorities banished them for their political activities. In exile in New York, she worked with Cuban revolutionary, Jose Marti, for Cuban independence from Spain. She wrote the lyrics for the anthem, La Boriquena. Many believe that the Puerto Rican flag came from her idea of having the same colors as the Cuban flag.
Margaret Sanger
Today in Labor History September 14, 1879: Margaret Sanger, American nurse and activist, was born. Sanger was famous for popularizing the term “birth control.” She opened the first birth control clinic in the United States. And she established organizations that evolved into Planned Parenthood. Her protests and civil disobedience efforts contributed to court cases that helped legalize contraception in the U.S. Many on the Christian right have targeted her for her role in supporting women’s reproductive rights. However, Sanger opposed abortions and, as a nurse, she refused to participate in them.
The Wobblies
In the early 1910s, Sanger joined the Women’s Committee of the New York Socialist party. She also participated in labor actions by the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), including the notable 1912 Lawrence textile strike and the 1913 Paterson silk strike. She also became close with many left-wing writers and activists, like John Reed, Upton Sinclair, Mabel Dodge and Emma Goldman. During this period, she saw the toll unwanted pregnancies and back-alley abortions took on poor, working class and immigrant women. And it was at this point that she shifted the focus of her activism toward promoting birth control as a way to prevent abortions and the economic strain of having unwanted pregnancies.
No Gods, No Masters
In 1914, she launched “The Woman Rebel,” a monthly newsletter with the anarchist slogan, “No Gods, No Masters.” It promoted contraception, with the goal of challenging the federal anti-obscenity laws. She opened the first birth control clinic in the U.S., in 1916, leading to her arrest. In 1921, she founded the American Birth Control League, which later became the Planned Parenthood Federation of America. She argued that women who are educated about birth control are the best judge of the time and conditions under which they should have children, and that it is their right to determine whether or not to bear children.
Eugenics
After World War I, Sanger increasingly appealed to the social necessity of limiting births among the poor. Sanger was a eugenicist who believed that it was necessary to reduce reproduction of those who were “unfit.” She defined “fitness” in terms of individual fitness, and not race, she supported restricting immigration, and she was known to “look the other way” when racists spoke in favor of eugenics. She even gave a presentation to the women’s auxiliary of the Ku Klux Klan. She also supported compulsory sterilization for the “profoundly retarded.”
1900s-1910s
Today in Labor History September 14, 1901: President McKinley died less than 2 weeks after being mortally wounded by anarchist Leon Czolgosz. Theodore Roosevelt became president. Czolgosz committed the attentat (propaganda by the deed) in the name of workers. However, many leading anarchists had repudiated him prior to the assassination, accusing him of being a spy or provocateur because of his reclusive and erratic behavior. The authorities executed him 7 weeks later.
Today in Labor History September 14, 1918: Labor leader and Socialist Eugene V. Debs was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison for opposing World War I. During his sentencing he said “. . . while there is a lower-class I am in it; while there is a criminal element, I am of it; while there is a soul in prison, I am not free . . .” While in prison, Debs became the first person to run for U.S. president while behind bars, winning nearly 1 million votes.
1930s-1950s
Today in Labor History September 14, 1930: More than 100 Mexican and Filipino farmworkers were arrested for union activities in the Imperial Valley, California.
Today in Labor History September 14, 1959: Congress passed the Landrum-Griffin Act, which strengthened the union-busting Taft-Hartley Act and further restricted union activity.