Lucy Parsons: The life of a revolutionary

Lucy Parsons was a Black woman, a communist, a fighter for the working class and a valiant defender of political prisoners. Yet she is almost unkown here among U.S. progressives.

Lucy Parsons was a Black woman, a communist, a fighter for the working class and a valiant defender of political prisoners. Yet she is almost unkown here among U.S. progressives.

Parsons put herself at the center of many of the important people’s struggles in U.S. history. Born in Texas during the Civil War to parents who were likely slaves, she had Black, Mexican and American Indian roots. Lucy met former Confederate soldier Albert R. Parsons in 1870 and they were soon married, in violation of laws against “race-mixing.�

Like droves of Blacks fleeing the South after the Civil War, Lucy and Albert moved to Chicago where they both became active in the growing labor movement.

Albert, was one of the Haymarket martyrs, those labor and anarchist leaders fighting for an eight-hour day who were unfairly tried and hung for their role in police riots on May 3, 1886. Albert was not even present at the meeting where a mysterious bomb killed a police officer. May Day, International Workers Day, celebrated every May 1, commemorates the Haymarket martyrs and the struggle of all working people.

But Lucy was an organizer in her own right. With Albert and the other leaders in prison, Lucy helped lead the fight for their lives, touring the country to free the political prisoners. The corrupt judges and the ruling elite of Chicago ordered the execution of four of the eight defendants, including Albert. Later Lucy wrote The Life of Albert R. Parsons (1889), a book-length indictment of the Haymarket trials and vindication of her husband.

Lucy rededicated her life, to the fight for free speech, womens liberation, labor rights and freedom from political repression. Active in the early years of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), she led a march of tens of thousands against hunger in Chicago in 1915.

Lucy grew close to the young Communist Party USA by 1925 and worked with the International Labor Defense (ILD), a Party-affiliated legal defense organization for political prisoners. Lucy was active in the fight for the freedom of framed labor activist Tom Mooney and to stop the “official lynching� of the Scottsboro Boys.

In 1939, Lucy joined the CPUSA and remained active until her death in a house fire in 1942 at the age of 89. Lucy’s irreplaceable library was confiscated from the charred house by the Chicago police and the FBI. Her undying faith in the working class and humanity lives with us today. Lucy Parsons is an example of working class struggle to all.

“That first May Day. How can anyone forget when workers lay down their tools, come out into the streets. It was on Saturday, I remember well, and tens of thousands downed tools and marched into the streets. Giant Bohemians with axe and mallet over their shoulders went from factory to factory calling workers out. Woodworkers marched with shavings in their hats, brewers with their work aprons on, freight handlers, carpenters, tailors, bakers, barbers, lumbermen, even salesmen and clerks. Even my own seamstresses marched. Oh, it was spirited. Literally, for hours workers poured into the streets. No smoke curled from the tall chimneys of the factories and mills.

It was like Sunday –Albert and I were so happy. We watched for hours, hours. We had no suspicion of what was going to happen. We underestimated the viciousness of the ruling class–it was a mistake. Who would have thought in America.�

– Lucy Parsons