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Lucy Parsons: American Revolutionary
Lucy Parsons’ life energy was directed toward freeing the working class from capitalism. She attributed the inferior position of women and minority racial groups in American society to class inequalities and argued, as Eugene Debs later did, that blacks were oppressed because they were poor, not because they were black. Lucy favored the availability of birth control information and contraceptive devices. She believed that under socialism women would have the right to divorce and remarry without economic, political and religious constraints; that women would have the right to limit the number of children they would have; and that women would have the right to prevent “legalized” rape in marriage.“Lucy Parsons’ life expressed the anger of the unemployed workers, women, and minorities against oppression and is exemplary of radicals’ efforts to organize the working class for social change.”—From the prefaceLucy Parsons, who the Chicago police considered “more dangerous than a thousand rioters,” was an early American radical who defied all the conventions of her turbulent era as an outspoken woman of color, writer, and labor organizer. Parsons’ life as activist spanned the era of the Robber Barons through the Great Depression, during which she actively campaigned and organized for the emancipation of the working class from wage slavery. Parsons courageously led the defense campaign for the “Haymarket martyrs,” including her husband Albert Parsons. Ashbaugh’s biography takes a giant leap toward reinterpreting the role of women in American history.
288 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 1976
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March 8, 2017Described by Tariq Khan as:
Today in history, March 7, 1942, one of my all-time personal heroes, Lucy Parsons, died in a fire in Chicago. She was one of the bravest and most defiant freedom fighters this country has ever seen. The Chicago police labeled her “more dangerous than a thousand rioters.” The newspapers referred to her as “a veritable Louise Michel,” a comparison intended to demonize her, but which she took as the highest compliment. She was a union organizer, a feminist, an anarchist, a mother, a worker, an anti-racist, an agitator, a writer, a book and newspaper editor, a revolutionist, and a sharp-witted intellectual.
She scoffed at respectability politics. She led the unemployed through the rich section of Chicago throwing rotten vegetables at the mansions of Chicago’s elite. She refused to allow “respectable” leftists to play the “good protestors vs. bad protestors” game, and supported the diversity of tactics. When someone commented what a shame it was that a person threw a bomb at the police at Haymarket Square, she sharply replied that the only shame is that all the workers didn’t likewise throw bombs at the police.
We know little about her childhood, though evidence suggests that she was born into slavery at the slave labor camp run by the wealthy Gathings brothers in Texas. The consensus among historians seems to be that she was of mixed Creek, Mexican, and African ancestry. We do not know what she personally experienced growing up, but we do know that she lived in Waco, Texas during a period in which white lynch mobs publicly murdered many Black people and publicly committed several heinous acts of sexual violence against Black women and girls. Her heart burned with deep hatred against lynch mobs. Knowing full well that the legal system offered no justice or defense to victims of lynching, she encouraged armed resistance against white lynch mobs. She and her white husband Albert had to flee Texas for their lives after being violently targeted by organized white-supremacist terrorist groups for the crime of “miscegenation” and for their work as radical Reconstructionists.
She was involved in the Great Railroad Uprising of 1877, she organized women garment workers and domestic laborers in Chicago, she pushed the Knights of Labor to include women, she was a founder of the anarchist International Working People’s Association and the Industrial Workers of the World. She wrote some of the most incendiary articles for the IWPA newspaper The Alarm. She was editor of the IWW newspaper The Liberator, consciously linking the labor movement to the earlier anti-slavery movement. Later in life she worked with the communist International Labor Defense on the Scottsboro Eight trial. She along with her close friend Lizzy Holmes led several rowdy marches through the streets of Chicago carrying the red and black flags of socialist and anarchist rebellion. She brought her children with her to marches and demonstrations. She was a dress maker who fought against white supremacy and capitalism in style.
She defied categorization and resented those who attempted to essentialize her into a single identity box.
The police still remember her and are still threatened by her memory. When Chicago named a park after Lucy Parsons in 2004, the police union fought unsuccessfully to squash the project.
Suggested readings to learn more about Lucy Parsons:
Carolyn Ashbaugh – Lucy Parsons: American Revolutionary
Paul Avrich – The Haymarket Tragedy
Gale Ahrens – Lucy Parsons: Freedom, Equality, & Solidarity
Lauren Basson – White Enough to be American?: Race Mixing, Indigenous People, and the Boundaries of State and Nation
Dave Roediger & Franklin Rosemont – Haymarket Scrapbook
Today in history, March 7, 1942, one of my all-time personal heroes, Lucy Parsons, died in a fire in Chicago. She was one of the bravest and most defiant freedom fighters this country has ever seen. The Chicago police labeled her “more dangerous than a thousand rioters.” The newspapers referred to her as “a veritable Louise Michel,” a comparison intended to demonize her, but which she took as the highest compliment. She was a union organizer, a feminist, an anarchist, a mother, a worker, an anti-racist, an agitator, a writer, a book and newspaper editor, a revolutionist, and a sharp-witted intellectual.
She scoffed at respectability politics. She led the unemployed through the rich section of Chicago throwing rotten vegetables at the mansions of Chicago’s elite. She refused to allow “respectable” leftists to play the “good protestors vs. bad protestors” game, and supported the diversity of tactics. When someone commented what a shame it was that a person threw a bomb at the police at Haymarket Square, she sharply replied that the only shame is that all the workers didn’t likewise throw bombs at the police.
We know little about her childhood, though evidence suggests that she was born into slavery at the slave labor camp run by the wealthy Gathings brothers in Texas. The consensus among historians seems to be that she was of mixed Creek, Mexican, and African ancestry. We do not know what she personally experienced growing up, but we do know that she lived in Waco, Texas during a period in which white lynch mobs publicly murdered many Black people and publicly committed several heinous acts of sexual violence against Black women and girls. Her heart burned with deep hatred against lynch mobs. Knowing full well that the legal system offered no justice or defense to victims of lynching, she encouraged armed resistance against white lynch mobs. She and her white husband Albert had to flee Texas for their lives after being violently targeted by organized white-supremacist terrorist groups for the crime of “miscegenation” and for their work as radical Reconstructionists.
She was involved in the Great Railroad Uprising of 1877, she organized women garment workers and domestic laborers in Chicago, she pushed the Knights of Labor to include women, she was a founder of the anarchist International Working People’s Association and the Industrial Workers of the World. She wrote some of the most incendiary articles for the IWPA newspaper The Alarm. She was editor of the IWW newspaper The Liberator, consciously linking the labor movement to the earlier anti-slavery movement. Later in life she worked with the communist International Labor Defense on the Scottsboro Eight trial. She along with her close friend Lizzy Holmes led several rowdy marches through the streets of Chicago carrying the red and black flags of socialist and anarchist rebellion. She brought her children with her to marches and demonstrations. She was a dress maker who fought against white supremacy and capitalism in style.
She defied categorization and resented those who attempted to essentialize her into a single identity box.
The police still remember her and are still threatened by her memory. When Chicago named a park after Lucy Parsons in 2004, the police union fought unsuccessfully to squash the project.
Suggested readings to learn more about Lucy Parsons:
Carolyn Ashbaugh – Lucy Parsons: American Revolutionary
Paul Avrich – The Haymarket Tragedy
Gale Ahrens – Lucy Parsons: Freedom, Equality, & Solidarity
Lauren Basson – White Enough to be American?: Race Mixing, Indigenous People, and the Boundaries of State and Nation
Dave Roediger & Franklin Rosemont – Haymarket Scrapbook
March 2, 2012
It took me a shamefully long time to finish this book. Lucy Parsons is a fascinating, inspiring individual, and through her life, Carolyn Ashbaugh gives us a glimpse of an amazing period in American history.
As a reader, it did read strangely at times - there were moments of novel-like detail, in describing Lucy Parson's voice and charisma, interspersed in a book that many times seemed to be more of a history of the Chicago labor movement than a biography of Lucy Parsons. But this seems to me less a fault of the writer and more a problem of the genre and the subject matter. Lucy Parsons left very little information about her life outside of her involvement with the anarchist, community, and labor movements.
I highly recommend this book to everyone who enjoys biographies and powerful women.
As a reader, it did read strangely at times - there were moments of novel-like detail, in describing Lucy Parson's voice and charisma, interspersed in a book that many times seemed to be more of a history of the Chicago labor movement than a biography of Lucy Parsons. But this seems to me less a fault of the writer and more a problem of the genre and the subject matter. Lucy Parsons left very little information about her life outside of her involvement with the anarchist, community, and labor movements.
I highly recommend this book to everyone who enjoys biographies and powerful women.
December 21, 2020
Lucy Parsons is a fascinating figure, and one worth knowing about. This passionate biography makes an eloquent case for Lucy’s importance, though I do think Ashbaugh made light of some of Parsons flaws. Other than the brief passage explaining how she had him committed to an insane asylum where he would spend the last half of his life, the narrative heavily implies that Lucy was an admirable and loving mother. It’s an extremely sour note that will linger with me for a long time.
But flaws and all, Lucy Parsons touched on over 50 years of left-wing struggle in America. Her history is America’s history, and it should be known.
But flaws and all, Lucy Parsons touched on over 50 years of left-wing struggle in America. Her history is America’s history, and it should be known.
January 29, 2022
This was a very memorable book for me. Growing up in the Chicago area in an upper middle class household, I was completely ignorant to this integral part of Chicago and labor history.
Lucy Parsons was simply a giant. She was labeled the most dangerous woman in the US for her singular devotion to the plight of the working class under industrial Revolution capitalism. She was a woman of color who put her life and livelihood on the line on a daily basis and not only stood up to, but antagonized, the thuggish Chicago PD in their service to the propertied class.
She was there and in the thick of the entire history of the US labor movement from the 1870s to 1930s. I think the author did a great job of pairing her personal story with that of US labor history, which led the reader to run through a crash course on revolutionary movement over a 60 year period. Perhaps that wasn’t too hard to do, given that she gave her entire life to said movement.
I gave the book 4/5 because the first 100 pages or so, I thought, were quite slow and the book didn’t grab me until closer to the Haymarket Tragedy. However, throughout the book and after I found myself marveling that this incredible woman who the establishment so quickly tried to throw into the dustbin of history. She certainly deserves so much more recognition.
Lucy Parsons was simply a giant. She was labeled the most dangerous woman in the US for her singular devotion to the plight of the working class under industrial Revolution capitalism. She was a woman of color who put her life and livelihood on the line on a daily basis and not only stood up to, but antagonized, the thuggish Chicago PD in their service to the propertied class.
She was there and in the thick of the entire history of the US labor movement from the 1870s to 1930s. I think the author did a great job of pairing her personal story with that of US labor history, which led the reader to run through a crash course on revolutionary movement over a 60 year period. Perhaps that wasn’t too hard to do, given that she gave her entire life to said movement.
I gave the book 4/5 because the first 100 pages or so, I thought, were quite slow and the book didn’t grab me until closer to the Haymarket Tragedy. However, throughout the book and after I found myself marveling that this incredible woman who the establishment so quickly tried to throw into the dustbin of history. She certainly deserves so much more recognition.
July 17, 2017
"To the slogan 'The land for the landless; the tools to the toilers; and the products to the producers,' Lucy Parsons added, 'For without this right to the free use of these things, the pursuit of happiness, the enjoyment of liberty and life itself are hollow mockeries. Hence the employment of any and all means are justifiable in obtaining them, even to a forceable violent revolution." Excellent book on the history of Lucy Parsons, anarchist, Wobbly, labor militant, free-speech defender, and Communist.
August 12, 2014
Essential reading to reconstruct Chicago in the years leading up to the Haymarket Affair. The factionalization. Violence in rhetoric and deed by capitalists and mostly just in rhetoric by the labor agitators. How any bit of threat from working people or any oppressed people creates an excuse for oppressors to crush a movement to which the public nods in fear of reprisal against them. Lucy is bitter, sharp, tireless, maligned.
July 26, 2021
This is the definitive biography of Lucy Parsons. Don't be tempted to read Jacqueline Jones' newer Goddess of Anarchy. It casts Lucy in a harsh light and does not acknowledge her humanity and significant contributions to our society.
March 14, 2012
My original homegirl.
September 8, 2024
Ashbaugh tries, somewhat dishonestly, to distance Lucy and the Haymarket martyrs from the anarchist tradition. Gale Ahrens' book remains the most faithful to Lucy's politics.
March 20, 2013
A good overview of Lucy Parsons' life.
It does an especially good job of covering her militancy as it relates to the Chicago anarchists and her later co-optation by the Communists.
It does an especially good job of covering her militancy as it relates to the Chicago anarchists and her later co-optation by the Communists.
November 1, 2007
The newpaper quotes are incredible.
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March 11, 2019https://carpelibrumonlinebookstore.co...
A woman ahead of her time, Lucy Parsons was an early American radical who defied all conventions of her turbulent era. An outspoken woman of color, radical writer, and labor organizer, Parsons led the defense campaign for the "Haymarket martyrs," including her husband Albert Parsons, and remained active in struggles of the oppressed throughout her life. This is her story.
A woman ahead of her time, Lucy Parsons was an early American radical who defied all conventions of her turbulent era. An outspoken woman of color, radical writer, and labor organizer, Parsons led the defense campaign for the "Haymarket martyrs," including her husband Albert Parsons, and remained active in struggles of the oppressed throughout her life. This is her story.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews