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Mary Upshaw McClendon | |
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| Born | October 3, 1922 |
| Died | February 16, 2015 (aged 92) |
| Occupations | |
| Known for | Founding the Household Workers Organization |
Mary Upshaw McClendon (October 3, 1922[1][a] – February 16, 2015[3]) was an African American domestic worker and labor rights activist from Detroit.
Early life
editMcClendon was born on October 22, 1922 in Andalusia, Alabama, to a family with four other children. She began preforming domestic work with her mother at the age of 9, waking up at 5:00 AM daily, and making 75 cents a week ($17 in 2023 dollars).[4] She graduated from Covington County Training High School in 1944. She married her husband, Benjamin McClendon, in 1951,[5] and moved to Detroit in 1955 from her then-current residence of Red Level, Alabama with her husband and son to join her cousin, a doctor. Outside of the Jim Crow South, she was able to vote for the first time, which she described as "like a flash of freedom."[6][7] By 1969, McClendon was a single mother, as her husband had died.
Activism career
editBackground
edit- Detroit "Slave markets"
- Other movements?
With the Household Workers Organization
edit| Founded | 1969 |
|---|---|
| Location |
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In 1969, McClendon founded the Household Workers Organization (HWO), an affiliate of the National Committee on Household Employment, initially runing it from her house. The HWO's activities included running an employment service, distributing educational materials, training employees, and advocating on behalf on individual workers (such as filing against employers who did not make promised Social Security payments).
McClendon believed that domestic labor should be subject to a greater degree of professionalism. To this end, in 1971, she worked with the Grosse Pointe Human Relations Council to publish a pamphlet entitled You and Your Household Help. In it, she recommended that employers pay their domestic workers $15 a day (equivalent to $113 in 2023) and workers who lived in the employer's house $75 a week (equivalent to $564 in 2023), and that they provide them housing, food, three months' sick leave, paid holidays, regular breaks within the workday, and Social Security.[9] <--- need to cite archives The pamphlet also set language recommendations, with McClendon writing "The employee should be referred to as 'housekeeper', not 'maid', as a 'woman', not a 'girl', and should never be referred to as 'part of the family'. The master-servant attitude is out of date." McClendon also made a point of seperating out the various specialties that fell under the broad "household labor" label; in an HWO training manual, she delineated the areas of "General Housekeeping Technician, Kitchen Manager, Child Supervisor, Home Geriatric Aide, Party Aide, Party Supervisor, and Household Manager." Previously, she had opposed the characterization of domestic workers as "unskilled".[8]
| Year | # of members | Reference |
|---|---|---|
| 1970 | 120 | [8] |
| 1971 | 150 | [10] |
| 1977 | 210 | [11] |
- 1969: Began working full time witht the HWO (99-101)
- 1971: First HTA meeting (77-8)
- 1971-1973: Campaigning for FLSA extention (129-130)
- 1972: Began work with Dial-a-maid (120)
- 1972: Failed unionization attempt (120)
Later life and legacy
editIn 1977, McClendon signed a one year contract with the Detroit Neighborhood Services Department (NPD) as a home-care worker, having previously enrolled in a community college to be certified as one. At the time, she was living in Highland Park, an impoverished, majority-black enclave city within Detroit. Working for the NPD, she was intensely directed by her supervisors, with whom she had to check-in with daily, and who regulated her dress and manner of speech. Due to the physical demands of the job, she was afflicted with long-term health issues. In 1980, she sued the city of Detroit for workers' compensation on account of her chronic back pain, but lost, as she was ruled to be an independent contractor, not a city employee.[12] <--- need to cite lawsuit
In 1976, McClendon donated her personal papers to the Walter P. Reuther Library's Archives of Labor History and Urban Affairs, and did so two more times in 1981 and 1985.[13] In 1983, she founded the People's Convert, a nonprofit that provided food and clothes to the poor, and was still working for them as of 2004.[5]
Her name was included on the Silver Scroll which commemorated the 25th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.[2]
See also
editReferences
editNotes
editFootnotes
edit- ^ McClendon, Mary. "autobiography" [textual record]. Mary Upshaw McClendon Papers, Series: I, Box: 1, File: 1. Detroit: Walter P. Reuther Library, Wayne State University. Cited in Nadasen 2015, p. 209
- ^ a b Moon, Elain Latzman (December 1993). Untold Tales, Unsung Heroes. An Oral History of Detroit's African American Community, 1918-1967. Wayne State University Press. p. 300. ISBN 0-8143-2465-7.
- ^ @gardnerruby (February 23, 2015). "My beloved cousin, Mrs. Mary Upshaw McClendon, who, along with her dear son, Jasper Evans, went home to their eternal rest on February 16, 2015. Your presence in the earth will be sorely and sadly missed". Retrieved July 5, 2024 – via Instagram.
- ^ Spratling, Cassandra (August 8, 2011). "'The Help' shines light on domestic workers". Detroit Free Press. p. A1.
- ^ a b Spratling, Cassandra (February 1, 2004). "Words of Wisdom: Household worker campaigned for rights". p. 58.
- ^ Spratling, Cassandra (October 31, 2008). "Obama's run seen as sign of progess". Detroit Free Press. pp. 8A. Retrieved July 16, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ Nadasen 2015, pp. 98–99.
- ^ a b c Fogel, Helen (December 8, 1970). "Domestics Try to Upgrade Jobs". Detroit Free Press. p. 27 – via Newspapers.com.
{{cite news}}:|access-date=requires|url=(help) - ^ Nadasen 2015, p. 100.
- ^ Jeanette, Smith (July 20, 1971). "Household Workers Organiza For Improvements". The Greensboro Record. LA Times-Washington Post News Service. p. 8 – via Newspapers.com.
{{cite news}}:|access-date=requires|url=(help) - ^ Watson, Susan (April 3, 1977). "The Day Maid: 'The Richer They Are, the Cheaper They Are'". Detroit Free Press. p. 170 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ Nadasen 2015, pp. 153–154.
- ^ "The Mary Upshaw McClendon Papers, 1969-1981" (PDF). Walter P. Reuther Library.
Sources
edit- Nadasen, Premilla (August 25, 2015). Household Workers Unite: The Untold Story of African American Women Who Built a Movement. Boston: Beacon Press. ISBN 9780807014509.
External links
edit- Wayne state page
- Possibly interview?