Mother Jones Birthday Party 2024 Sun, Apr 28 Irish American Heritage Center Apr 28, 2024, 3:00 PM – 5:00 PM CDT Irish American Heritage Center, 4626 N Knox Ave, Chicago, IL 60630, USA Apr 28, 2024, 3:00 PM – 5:00 PM CDT Irish American Heritage Center, 4626 N Knox Ave, Chicago, IL 60630, USA Featuring Sara Nelson, President, Association of Flight Attendants Meet the Selected artist for our Mother Jones Monument Project--This is an official feedback event for our new sculpture Other performers and features to be announced Huge Birthday Cake supplied by Bakers Local 1 +35 more RSVP Commemorate Fight against Child Labor Fri, Jul 07 Philadelphia Jul 07, 2023, 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM EDT Philadelphia, 1400 John F Kennedy Blvd, Philadelphia, PA 19107, USA Jul 07, 2023, 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM EDT Philadelphia, 1400 John F Kennedy Blvd, Philadelphia, PA 19107, USA We will gather at the site of the March of the Mill Children to recognize the long fight against child labor. We are still in that fight. Please join us. Details Dedication of Historic marker in Evansville, Indiana Wed, May 17 Evansville May 17, 2023, 2:00 PM – 3:00 PM CDT Evansville, 298 S 7th Ave, Evansville, IN 47708, USA May 17, 2023, 2:00 PM – 3:00 PM CDT Evansville, 298 S 7th Ave, Evansville, IN 47708, USA Join us to dedicate the first official historical marker to Mother Jones and the labor movement in Indiana Details Mother Jones May Day Birthday Party Sun, Apr 30 Irish American Heritage Center Apr 30, 2023, 3:00 PM – 5:00 PM Irish American Heritage Center, 4626 N Knox Ave, Chicago, IL 60630, USA Apr 30, 2023, 3:00 PM – 5:00 PM Irish American Heritage Center, 4626 N Knox Ave, Chicago, IL 60630, USA Featuring World Famous Irish Fiddler Liz Carroll Brendan and Siobhan McKinney Mother Jones performed by Brigid Duffy Karen White, NEA Deputy ex. director Others to be announced Huge Birthday Cake supplied by Bakers Local 1 +248 more Details A Table For Two at the Dill Pickle - A One-Act Play by Larry Kirwan Sun, Nov 13 Chicago Nov 13, 2022, 3:00 PM – 5:00 PM Chicago, 4626 N Knox Ave, Chicago, IL 60630, USA Nov 13, 2022, 3:00 PM – 5:00 PM Chicago, 4626 N Knox Ave, Chicago, IL 60630, USA This new play imagines a delightful and powerful conversation between two early twentieth century labor icons: Mary Harris "Mother" Jones, the "most dangerous woman in America" and Big Jim Larkin, the radical Irish exile. Directed by Kay Martinovich; Featuring Brigid Duffy & Will Casey +183 more Details Mother Jones at Labor Day Celebration Pullman National Park Mon, Sep 05 Chicago Sep 05, 2022, 12:00 PM – 4:00 PM Chicago, E 11th St, Chicago, IL 60605, USA Sep 05, 2022, 12:00 PM – 4:00 PM Chicago, E 11th St, Chicago, IL 60605, USA Mother Jones performs at 3:30. Don't miss it! See the full schedule at https://www.nps.gov/pull/labor-day-celebration.htm?fbclid=IwAR1jWyBbjjq8EkFq1B-PE4Q2-xQm_JvQyceKjcoVOeBFKlysqK7EQWpcf6I Details Chicago Labor Day Parad Sat, Sep 03 Chicago Sep 03, 2022, 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM Chicago, Chicago, IL 60617, USA Sep 03, 2022, 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM Chicago, Chicago, IL 60617, USA We kick off at the Chicago Labor Day Parade with Mother Jones in the Lead! Join us and see the fun events of the dayhere: https://www.chicagolaborparade.com/ Details Dangerous Women exhibit -St. Louis July 5, 2022-Jan 7, 2023 Tue, Jul 05 St. Louis Public Library Jul 05, 2022, 7:00 PM CDT – Jan 07, 2023, 7:00 PM CST St. Louis Public Library, 1301 Olive St, St. Louis, MO 63103, USA Jul 05, 2022, 7:00 PM CDT – Jan 07, 2023, 7:00 PM CST St. Louis Public Library, 1301 Olive St, St. Louis, MO 63103, USA They faced jail and death to challenge power on behalf of workers’ rights. Exhibit is open during St. Louis Pulbic library Carnegie Room hours-check slpl.org for hours before visiting. Details Mother Jones May Day Birthday Party May 1 2022 4-6 pm Chicago Sun, May 01 Chicago May 01, 2022, 4:00 PM – 6:00 PM CDT Chicago, 4626 N Knox Ave, Chicago, IL 60630, USA May 01, 2022, 4:00 PM – 6:00 PM CDT Chicago, 4626 N Knox Ave, Chicago, IL 60630, USA Join our live celebration at the Irish American Heritage Center 5th Province Pub 4626 North Knox Avenue, Chicago +229 more Details Communities of Ludlow --zoom Wed, Apr 20 register at ZOOM LINK; RSVP for reminder Apr 20, 2022, 7:00 PM – 8:30 PM CDT register at ZOOM LINK; RSVP for reminder Apr 20, 2022, 7:00 PM – 8:30 PM CDT register at ZOOM LINK; RSVP for reminder On the anniversary of the 1914 Ludlow Massacre, join a Panel of contributors to this exciting new book on the practices and activism of public history around Ludlow. Learn about the way that local activists and academics brought Ludlow to recognition and remembrance. +28 more Details Mother Jones: We Shall Rise #Blair100 conversation Thu, Aug 26 Mother Jones: We Shall Rise #Blair100 Aug 26, 2021, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM CDT Mother Jones: We Shall Rise #Blair100 Aug 26, 2021, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM CDT Mother Jones: We Shall Rise #Blair100 Details Mother Jones Chicago Statue-A Conversation and Request for Input Mon, Apr 12 Mother Jones Chicago Statue-A Conversation Apr 12, 2021, 6:00 PM – 7:30 PM Mother Jones Chicago Statue-A Conversation Apr 12, 2021, 6:00 PM – 7:30 PM Mother Jones Chicago Statue-A Conversation Click RSVP to access registration for zoom virtual event. Details Mother Jones We Shall Rise May Day Party Fri, May 01 Zoom meeting May 01, 2020, 4:30 PM – 5:30 PM CDT Zoom meeting May 01, 2020, 4:30 PM – 5:30 PM CDT Zoom meeting We couldn't celebrate her birthday this year, but we can meet in a zoom meeting Details Mother Jones In Heaven _ Irish American Heritage Center Fri, Nov 01 Irish American Heritage Center Nov 01, 2019, 7:00 PM – 11:00 PM CDT Irish American Heritage Center, 4626 N Knox Ave, Chicago, IL 60630, USA Nov 01, 2019, 7:00 PM – 11:00 PM CDT Irish American Heritage Center, 4626 N Knox Ave, Chicago, IL 60630, USA The musical’s playwright, Si Kahn, will be at this Chicago premier of his show about Mother Jones ! Get your tickets here https://irish-american.org/event/mother-jones-in-heaven-2/ Details Belleville Labor & Industry Museum Exhibit Opening Sat, Jun 01 123 N Church St Jun 01, 2019, 10:00 AM – 3:00 PM CDT 123 N Church St, 123 N Church St, Belleville, IL 62220, USA Jun 01, 2019, 10:00 AM – 3:00 PM CDT 123 N Church St, 123 N Church St, Belleville, IL 62220, USA Belleville, Illinois June 1, 2019 * Learn more about the special relationship between Belleville’s mining community & Mother Jones: A New permanent exhibit! Details Labor Day Art & Media Exhibition event Sat, May 11 Southern Illinois University May 11, 2019, 6:30 PM Southern Illinois University, 1263 Lincoln Dr, Carbondale, IL 62901, USA May 11, 2019, 6:30 PM Southern Illinois University, 1263 Lincoln Dr, Carbondale, IL 62901, USA Details Mother Jones Birthday Party Wed, May 01 4626 N Knox Ave May 01, 2019, 5:00 PM – 8:00 PM 4626 N Knox Ave, 4626 N Knox Ave, Chicago, IL 60630, USA May 01, 2019, 5:00 PM – 8:00 PM 4626 N Knox Ave, 4626 N Knox Ave, Chicago, IL 60630, USA Details St. Patrick's Day Parade Sat, Mar 16 North Columbus Drive Mar 16, 2019, 7:00 PM North Columbus Drive, N Columbus Dr, Chicago, IL, USA Mar 16, 2019, 7:00 PM North Columbus Drive, N Columbus Dr, Chicago, IL, USA Details Load More Upcoming and Past Events

Stand with Mother Jones Interactive Exhibit Sites & Stories / Exhibits / Stand with Mother Jones We know people connect Mother Jones' history to their projects, organizing, and history when they debate which quotation of hers to select. For years we have brought Mother Jones to picket lines, to festivals, to meetings, to educational events, to the Irish American Heritage Center, and more!

Mini Mother Jones Sites & Stories / Exhibits / Mini Mother Jones We have created a way for you to take a Mother Jones exhibit with you! Take Mother to your office, to your Zoom Meeting, to the protest. She is the grandmother of all agitators, after all! ​ Mini Mother Is available at our store, with a few dress up supplies, including some hats and picket signs for display. But you can get creative and make your own display. This concept, by Kate Klimut, was designed for our May Day celebration in 2018, and then we took her to Ireland that year (see below). If you send us your exhibit or how you used her, we might display it here on our website. Voyage to Ireland and Durham Miners Gala celebration, 2018 In 2018 we went to Ireland and Durham and brought Mini-Mother with us. To learn more about that trip, see our blog page from 2018.

The Mother Jones Marker in D.C. Sites & Stories / Stories / Mother Jones D.C. This marker to Mother Jones in Adelphi, Maryland was the result of efforts initiated by Saul Schniderman, then President of the Library of Congress Professional Guild, AFSCME Local 2910 (Council 26), who is on the board of the Mother Jones Heritage Project and lives in the D.C. area. He’s also on the board of the Labor Heritage Foundation. Saul made it his personal quest to find the location of the home where Jones was cared for at the end of her life, and in doing so discovered a compelling story of the devotion of a farm woman to the “grand old champion of labor” that was also worth reading. Read about it from Labor's Heritage. Saul's motto is "dig where you stand.".

Debs Museum Exhibit: Pullman, 1894 and lives in the struggle Sites & Stories / Exhibits / Debs Museum

A Memory Passed Down Sites & Stories / Stories / A Memory Passed Down By John Weber ​October 12, 2020 John Weber is a geologist who wrote to us when he saw that we were working on a Mother Jones statue campaign in Chicago. He tells how family memories led him to take his students to the Union Miners Cemetery. This cemetery has many stories to tell. We are happy to present this story on October 12, the date that Illinois miners took as a holiday in honor of the men who gave their lives for the union in 1898. My Mom grew up in Chicago and is of Slovene and Lithuanian heritage. My Dad, of Swiss, Czech, and German heritage, also grew up downstate in Illinois. Through my great aunt, I learned of how powerful the memories of immigrant struggles and of memories of Mother Jones can be. My Mom and Dad met through our extended family who, on both sides, live in neighboring small coal mining towns (Staunton and Livingston) in downstate Illinois near Mt. Olive, where Mother Jones is buried. My Great Aunt Helen Straub (nee Widmar) was born in 1921, the youngest of 8 siblings. She passed in 2017 at age 96. Aunt Helen told our family about the life of my Great-Grandfather John Andrew Widmar (1879-1959), an immigrant coal miner from the Zasavje region of Slovenia. Above: A small city on a Sava River tributary near where John Widmar's family had combined farming and mining to make a living. Below: a geological map of Slovenia where coal is mined from the Tertiary aged (Terciar) rocks shown in yellow. The Zasavje region centers on the big yellow stripe in the middle of the map. Above: John & Josepha Widmar ca 1907, in Yukon, Pa. With millions of other immigrants, they sought a better life and honored the memory of Mother Jones. Zasavje is a steep, hilly, rich and fertile region of subsistence farming. Coal (brown coal) was historically mined nearby in the Sava River valley at Trbovlje and Hrastnik. The men of John Widmar’s time combined farming and coal mining to survive. Many of our living Slovene relatives still do subsistence farming, traveling down from the Zasavje villages and hills to bigger towns in the region and to the capital city of Ljubljana to work non-farming jobs, attend schools and university, etc. ​ It’s likely that John Andrew Widmar, like many other men of his time and place in Austro-Hungarian central Europe, was recruited to come to the Western Pennsylvania coal area by an immigrant recruiter from an American coal company around 1900. ​ John Andrew Widmar came to Ellis Island, and then to Yukon, PA, USA circa 1905 to work in the western Pennsylvania bituminous coal fields. His wife, Josephine Marie Widmar (nee Povše), followed shortly afterward. ​ Ed: Mother Jones was renowned among immigrant miners in this region, the Irwin Field. They were reported to have pictures of her on their walls. Slovenians were demeaned by many. But Jones thought they would make good unionists, and encouraged the women of the coalfields to take part in their struggles. It’s possible John and Josepha knew of Mother Jones from their time in Pennsylvania. ​ John quickly saved his money in PA & bought a farm in Ladysmith, WI sight-unseen and moved the family there. It was too cold and rocky and difficult to get ahead. They sold that farm and moved to mine coal in Livingston, Illinois, which my grandmother & all her siblings called home. Great Aunt Helen's oldest brother, Jack (the second John Andrew) Widmar, who was born 1907 in Yukon, PA, worked with his Dad in the Livingston and Staunton, IL mines, probably starting at around age 10, before he moved to Chicago. A powerful memory for my Great Aunt Helen was when her father took her to Mother Jones’ funeral in 1930 at the Union Miners Cemetery, Mt. Olive, Illinois. Aunt Helen would have been 9 years old then. This event stuck with her well into her 90s, seeing the many people who made it one of the largest funerals in Illinois history. It must have been quite memorable! Many other immigrant miners and their families also attended the Mother Jones’ funeral to show their love and respect for her and her work. Above: A family photo taken in Springfield, Illinois, in the 1930s. On the left, Helen Widmar is just a young girl. But the memories of attending Mother Jones' funeral would last a lifetime. Above: Two photos show the enormous moment of Mother Jones' funeral in 1930. The top photo is from the American Miner, a dissenting publication of the coal miners lives. The bottom photo shows the thousands of people who lined the main street in Mt. Olive to pay their respects. Helen must certainly have learned first-hand about the working conditions in both the Pennsylvania and Illinois coal mines that Mother Jones fought to change. I believe this is why her attending the 1930 funeral was such a memorable event that she felt compelled to share. Thanks to opportunities that my Slovene coal-mining ancestors helped to create, I am a Geology Professor at a state university in the Midwest. I take many of my classes on annual spring field trips to study the geology of Illinois and Missouri. One of the most impactful stops that we make on these geo-pilgrimages is the Mother Jones monument and Union Miner’s Cemetery in Mt. Olive. Students are blown away that this seemingly mundane place has such a deep history, and that geology drives history and affects human lives and families in such a fundamental way. The Mt. Olive Union Miners Cemetery tombstones tell the history of families like mine, who came from all over Europe: Austro-Hungary (including later Yugoslavia, now Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, etc.), Italy, Germany, etc. to work in these mines. This region must have been a sort of “silicon valley” of its time, and an integral part of America moving itself forward through energy and technology. Above: A immigrant gravestone using the Russian Orthodox cross. Above: A Croatian immigrant gravestone in Union Miners Cemetery, Mt. Olive. Today a Mother Jones monument and gravesite exists together with Union Miners' tombstones at this historically fascinating site. Mother Jones fought hard for miners, children, and families like ours. Her monument honors their memories, hopes, and dreams, as well as her own life and work. (Ed: see more about the cemetery and take a virtual or actual tour here.)

Mother Jones Chicago Statue Campaign Donate to the Campaign See Donor List Artists Selection Honorary Chairs Why a Mother Jones Statue Our Team We Did It! Mother Jones Sculpture/Statue to be Located at Chicago's Iconic Water Tower Chicago's Water Tower is the most iconic old Chicago site in the city, and one of the most visited. Yet the park around it is small, intimate. It's taken us a long time to get here. We started fundraising with only a proposed location, and you had faith that we would come through. We accomplished this by organizing. The protests over statues and memorials in the city put new policies into place through the Chicago Monuments Project. We had to revise our tentative agreements with the city. One element was agreeing to a new vetting process for artists to submit proposals. The official name of the project is Mother Jones: "We Shall Rise". The completion of the project will be a joint effort of the MJHP and the Chicago Monuments Project. Why A Mother Jones Chicago Statue ​The government of Ireland seeded this project with $36,000 grant. We need to raise a total of $200,000. Please give generously Imagine, "Let's meet at the Mother Jones statue!" There are hardly any sculptures of women historical figures in the city of Chicago. Let's put this iconic Irish immigrant refugee and founder of the American labor movement--the Mother of the working class--on a statue in the city she called home. Make a Tax Deductible Donation to the Statue Campaign We are a 501-c-3, so your donation is charitable. Target amount: $200,000 Donation Form DONATE send checks to: Mother Jones Statue Fund, 630 Joanne Lane, Dekalb, Illinois 60115 Meet our Donors Complete Endorser and Donor List Artists Selection In Coordination with the City of Chicago, we issued a call for artists, and are down to 2 finalists. We are expecting an announcement late February 2024. Meet our Honorary Co-Chairs Geraldine Byrne Nason, Ireland's Ambassador to the United States Cecil Roberts, President of the United Mine Workers of America Sarah Nelson, President, Association of Flight Attendants-CWA ​ Learn More About the Statue Donate to the Statue Campaign Meet Donor Artists RFQ Honorary Co-Chis Meet our Statue Committee Members Meet our Team Checks: Mother Jones Statue Fund, Wintrust Bank, 4343 W. Peterson Avenue, Chicago IL 60646 ​ Checks with correspondence: send to Mother Jones Statue Fund, 630 Joanne Lane, DeKalb, Illinois, 60115.

Cork, Ireland Spirit of Mother Jones Festival Sites & Stories / Stories / Ireland Spirit of Mother Jones Since the inaugural festival in 2012, the Cork Festival for Mother Jones has connected past to the present. The past is prologue, with guests and speakers in the broadest spirit possible.

Coalfield Rest Area, I-55 Southbound Sites & Stories / Exhibits / Coalfield Rest Area We placed this major marker at the Coalfield Rest Area in December 2017. It profiles Mother Jones and the history of Illinois Miners. See the website/free app from Vamonde for more details. It includes performance, photos and documentary materials. Below that, check out the dedication photos .

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