RESOLUTION HONORING MARGARY HALEY
WHEREAS, Margaret Haley was a leader and influential force in the American labor movement and is largely left out of history books and historical recognition; and
WHEREAS, beginning her career as a teacher, she moved to Chicago in 1882 where she taught at Hendricks School in the Stockyards district of Chicago and taught on Chicago's Southside until 1900, when she began to rise in the rank of labor leadership; and
WHEREAS, she became one of the two most important figures, alongside Catherine Goggin, in the Chicago Teachers Federation and then the American Federation of Teachers; and
WHEREAS, Haley was the first elementary school teacher to speak before the National Education Association at the St. Louis convention, and presented what would go on to be a well-known speech, "Why Teachers Should Organize", advocating for greater numbers of women in leadership roles; and
WHEREAS, also influential and tireless in the advancement of other women, Haley was instrumental in the election of Ella Flagg Young as president of the National Education Association in 1910; and
WHEREAS, Haley supported the model of social justice unionism, which connects the concerns of the union with the public, a system and organizing model still widely used in the Chicago labor movement today; and
WHEREAS, her work extended to also include championing economic justice for all by exposing tax fraud by companies bribing collectors, advocating for just pay for workers during the 1930's, and holding banks accountable during the Great Depression; and
WHEREAS, Margaret Haley passed away in 1939 at Englewood Hospital on Chicago's Southside at age 77, and left behind no children or immediate family. Her influence and achievements to the community and the labor movement is still felt today and are deserving of official recognition by this body; now, therefore,
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that we, the Mayor and members ofthe City Council of Chicago, assembled this twent...
Click here for full text