Reverend Addie Wyatt : faith and the fight for labor, gender, and racial equality / Marcia Walker-McWilliams.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Walker-McWilliams, Marcia, 1984- author.

Series:

Women, gender, and sexuality in American history

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Wyatt, Addie L., 1924-2012--Political and social views.

Wyatt, Addie L.

Wyatt, Addie L., 1924-2012.

Women--United States--History.

Women.

Political and social views.

United States.

History.

United States--Race relations.

Race relations.

Civil rights--United States.

Civil rights.

Equality--United States.

Equality.

Physical Description:

ix, 266 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Urbana : University of Illinois Press, [2016]

Summary:

"Labor leader, civil rights activist, outspoken feminist, African American clergywoman--Reverend Addie Wyatt stood at the confluence of many rivers of change in twentieth century America. The first female president of a local chapter of the United Packinghouse Workers of America, Wyatt worked alongside Martin Luther King Jr. and Eleanor Roosevelt and appeared as one of Time magazine's Women of the Year in 1975. Marcia Walker-McWilliams tells the incredible story of Addie Wyatt and her times. What began for Wyatt as a journey to overcome poverty became a lifetime commitment to social justice and the collective struggle against economic, racial, and gender inequalities. Walker-McWilliams illuminates how Wyatt's own experiences with hardship and many forms of discrimination drove her work as an activist and leader. A parallel journey led her to develop an abiding spiritual faith, one that denied defeatism by refusing to accept such circumstances as immutable social forces"-- Provided by publisher.

"Reverend Addie Wyatt (1924-2012) was one of the most influential African American female labor leaders in the twentieth century. Wyatt lived in Chicago for most of her life and while there became a nationally known civil rights activist, ordained minister, and outspoken feminist. She was the first female president of a local chapter of the United Packinghouse Workers of America, worked alongside Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. in Alabama and during marches in Chicago, and Eleanor Roosevelt appointed her to the Protective Labor Legislation Committee of President Kennedy's Commission on the Status of Women. In this biography, Walker-McWilliams tells the story of the reverend's commitment to social justice, which fueled her activism and leadership in the American labor movement, while also setting her life story in the sociohistorical climate in which Wyatt emerged. Walker-McWilliams argues that what began for Wyatt as an individual journey to break away from poverty became a commitment to a collective struggle against economic, racial, and gender inequalities and a lifetime of organizing and activism. Based on oral histories, interviews conducted with Wyatt's colleagues and families, Wyatt's collection of personal papers, and extensive archival data, Walker-McWilliams illuminates the ways Wyatt grew into the roles of activist and leader as a result of personal experiences with poverty, racism, sexism, and discrimination, and developed a spiritual faith that refused to see these circumstances as immutable structural forces"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

1 A Child of the Great Migration 10

2 In Search of Work and Community 37

3 For the Union Makes Us Strong 66

4 Civil Rights and Women's Rights Unionism 89

5 Challenges in the House of Labor 114

6 A Black Christian Feminist 150

7 Unfinished Revolutions 175.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Other Format:

Online version: Walker-McWilliams, Marcia, 1984- author. Reverend Addie Wyatt

ISBN:

9780252040528

025204052X

9780252081996

0252081994

OCLC:

946905320