Louise "Mamma" Harris

Louise "Mamma" Harris was an American labor organizer and tobacco worker. Harris became involved with the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) in Richmond, Virginia. In 1938, she led a successful strike against the tobacco factory where she worked.

For the Australian actress, see Louise Harris.

Biography

Harris was born in 1891[1] in Richmond, Virginia.[2] Harris started working at the I.N. Vaughan Export tobacco stemmery around 1932.[3] Harris worked as a tobacco stemmer, which was a labor-intensive job with low and variable pay.[3] Harris became angry with the poor working conditions and low wages.[3] When the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) began to organize in Richmond, Virginia, Harris took sixty fellow workers, all black women, with her to the first organization meeting.[4]

Harris started walkouts and which later turned into strikes at the tobacco company in 1938.[5] During the strikes, Harris was the picket captain.[4] The Clothing and Textile Workers Union supported Harris and the others, and white women of the textile union were marching with the tobacco strikers.[6] Harris and the others stayed on strike for 17 days, culminating in the factory owner sitting down with strikers to bargain for better conditions.[3] Harris and the others secured increased wages, an 8 hour day and the right to unionize.[3]

The success of the strike led to the CIO creating the Tobacco Workers Organizing Committee, which Harris was involved in.[3] Due to her leadership in the union, she became known as "Missus CIO in Richmond."[7]

Ted Poston profiled Harris and the successful strike in The New Republic in 1940.[8]

References
  1. "African American National Biography". Harvard University. Retrieved 14 February 2020.
  2. Eaton, Alice Knox (2013). "Harris, Louise "Mamma"". Oxford Index. doi:10.1093/acref/9780195301731.013.36468. ISBN 9780195301731. Retrieved 14 February 2020.
  3. "Black Women Raise Their Voices in the Tobacco Industry". American Postal Workers Union. 2019-05-28. Retrieved 2020-02-07.
  4. Trotter, Joe William (2001). The African American Experience. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. pp. 469. ISBN 0-395-75654-5. OCLC 49611398 – via Internet Archive.
  5. Feldstein, Ruth (1993). "Labor Movement". In Hine, Darlene Clark (ed.). Black Women in America: An Historical Encyclopedia. Brooklyn, New York: Carlson Publishing Inc. pp. 686. ISBN 0926019619. OCLC 1028865717 – via Internet Archive.
  6. Janiewski, Dolores (1987). "Seeking 'a New Day and a New Way': Black Workers and Unions in the Southern Tobacco Industry". In Groneman, Carol; Norton, Mary Beth (eds.). "To Toil the Livelong Day": America's Women at Work, 1780-1980. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. p. 173. ISBN 978-0-8014-9452-9.
  7. Giddings, Paula (1988). When and Where I Enter: The Impact of Black Women on Race and Sex in America. Toronto: Bantam. pp. 233. ISBN 0553342258. OCLC 1036964016 – via Internet Archive.
  8. Foner, Philip S.; Lewis, Ronald L., eds. (1983). The Black Worker from the Founding of the CIO to the AFL-CIO Merger 1936-1955. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. pp. 124–126. ISBN 0-87722-136-7. OCLC 3730662.
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