Mother’s Day

The radical Communist Party is not famous for their stance on mother’s rights, but during the Great Depression, when children starved and milk was poured in drains to control inflation, mothers joined forces with the Communist Party to fight for their children.

The most famous instance of Depression-era mother-oriented Party activism was the Scottsboro Mothers, who traveled the country (and, for Ada Wright, the world!) to fight for their sons who were falsely imprisoned. Today, the term “Scottsboro Boys” is associated with racial injustice, but the term “Scottsboro Mothers” is unheralded. Though others have written about the Scottsboro Boys, there has yet to be a book dedicated to the brave women who refused to let their sons die in prison. Denise Lynn has a great article highlighting some of their activism. (See also e James A. Miller, Susan Pennybacker, and Eve Rosenhaft, “Mother Ada Wright and the International Campaign to Free the Scottsboro Boys, 1931-1934,” (2001) and Lashawn Harris, “Running with the Reds: African American Women and the Communist Party during the Great Depression (2009))

Some images from the Labor Defender, 1932 and 1934 depicting the women:

But the CPUSA’s depiction of the Scottsboro Mother was problematic. Also these women were courageous, outspoken, opinionated, and had their own views, they are often represented as weary, sympathetic, and resigned. I write more about it in a paper I presented at the American Studies Association here.

Lastly (But really not, because there’s much more to be said), white women were engaged at the top level of the Party to advocate for mothers’ rights. Grace Hutchins wrote the Party pamphlet, “Women Who Work,” “What Every Working Woman Wants,” and advocated for “A Mother’s Bill of Rights.” Among the demands: free birth control clinics, free day care, health insurance, unemployment insurance, and maternity insurance, demands we are unfortunately still fighting for today. (For more, see NYC LGTB Historic Sites page on Hutchins and her partner Anna Rochester and Julia Allen’s Passionate Commitments: The Lives of Anna Rochester and Grace Hutchins).

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