Guest Blogger Leanna Renee Hieber on Clara Lemlich
To commerate the 100th anniversary of The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire, Scandalous Women is pleased to welcome Guest blogger Leanna Renee Hieber to talk about Clara Lemlich. I had never heard of Clara until Leanna told me about her, and I'm so glad that she was able to take the time to stop by and share a little of her story with us. Born March 26, 1886 in Gorodok Ukraine to a Jewish family, Clara Lemlich was one of America’s most influential women of the Union movement in the early 1900s. Her family came to New York in 1903 after a pogrom (an anti-Jewish riot) in Kishinev. Clara quickly found work in the garment industry, which had intensified in hours and in danger with the advent of industrial sewing machines. In November 1909, her rousing speech at the Cooper Union (despite nursing broken ribs from rough treatment by the New York Police Department breaking up Union protesters) called for a general strike. She led the Uprising of the 20,000 in which 20,000 of New York C...