Mildred McAdory

Mildred McAdory
McAdory in 1968
Born(1915-06-23)June 23, 1915
Homewood, Alabama, US
DiedNovember 1988(1988-11-00) (aged 73)
Other namesMildred McAdory Edelman
OccupationsOrganizer, community leader, activist
Political partyCommunist Party USA
Other political
affiliations		People's

Mildred McAdory (sometimes Mildred McAdory Edelman; June 23, 1915 – November 1988) was an American organizer, community leader, and civil rights activist. Originally a domestic worker, she was a member of the Communist Party USA and the Southern Negro Youth Congress. In 1942, she received media attention after being arrested for refusing to rise from her bus seat to police. She later moved to New York City, where she worked as a reporter and organizer. She was later an unsuccessful candidate for the New York State Assembly and the United States Senate.

Early life

McAdory was born on June 23, 1915,[1] in Homewood, Alabama.[2] Of three siblings, her mother was Crittle "Critty" (or "Crittie"[3]) McAdory (died March 1943),[4] and her father was Irving McAdory (died 1936),[5] a market gardener and miner. Despite being the only black miner in his community, he was respected; he represented two fellow miners in court c. 1920, and also signed checks for the men, as they were illiterate. Being literate by age five, McAdory began attending school. Her mother lied, stating she was seven years old, for her to be allowed to attend. In an interview, she said that "the seed was born in [her] to begin to fight" after witnessing a white superintendent call a black teacher by her first name.[6] She attended a private high school, which her father funded the tuition of by mining. In high school, she played for the basketball and track and field teams. During the Great Depression, McAdory's family established a personal farm.[7]

Following high school, McAdory became a domestic worker, due to a lack of other jobs available. She later attended a private college in Alabama. On August 11, 1932, she married Samuel Steele; they had one child, Stephen (died May 1951).[8] They divorced in 1942.[5][9]

Career

Early career

McAdory was a member of the Communist Party USA (CPUSA), having joined as a young adult. In the early 1940s, she was placed under watch by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for her communist activities.[10] In 1937, she was recruited to the Southern Negro Youth Congress (SNYC) by Esther Cooper Jackson and Dorothy Burnham.[11] She first worked for the SNYC as a clerk, and in 1939, became a staffer and headed the SNYC's Fairfield Recreational Youth Center, a center which hosted classes and activities. As director, she helped increase its membership to 300 and its participance to 1,500. On August 10, 1940, she attempted to vote in an election. Despite passing the voter requirements, her vote was voided. On July 30, 1942, Arthur Shores filed a lawsuit on her behalf to the circuit court, seeking $5,000 in damages and an injunction.[12] The jury ruled against her.[13]

Arrest

On the night of December 12, 1942, McAdory, alongside three or five other SNYC members, boarded a bus travelling from Fairfield to Birmingham.[11][14] She had spent the workday organizing a scrap drive at the Fairfield Recreational Youth Center to support the war effort of World War II.[15] She sat in the full colored section, which was signified by both a removable wooden board and a line on the roof of the bus.[16] A second board stood, in the colored section, two rows behind the first one. Two men boarded the bus and sat in the row ahead of McAdory, sitting atop the wooden booard, which had been at some point removed;[17][18] they later moved it onto the floor.[16]

When the bus driver ordered the two men to move behind the board, they declined. The bus driver called the police, and when police asked who moved the board, the bus driver pointed at the four black people sat in front of the board: the two men, McAdory, and another man sat beside her.[17]

The four were ordered to exit the bus and enter the police car, which McAdory refused. Police threatened to beat her when she asked what she was being charged with. Instead of arresting her, police took another man – a standee – and left. Afterward, she and another black man willingly exited the bus, with her threatening to the bus driver to report them to the bus company. The bus driver encouraged her, then kicked her in the back as she was exiting and yelled to police to arrest her also.[17]

During questioning, McAdory claimed to not know who moved the board. While being processed, an officer – named Dean – kicked her in the back, slapped her in the face, punched her in the shoulder, and hit her on the hip with a baton.[2][17] After he composed himself, she was brought to a holding cell occupied by five other women. In an interview, she described the cell being swarmed with cockroaches, and her mattress being as "hard and dirty as the floor". She did not receive a phone call or bail. During her trial, the police officer and bus driver gave false testimonies. She later said she should have shown the bruises underneath her skirt, despite objection from her attorney, Arthur Shores. In March 1944, she was found guilty[19] and was fined $10.[20][21]

The story of McAdory's arrest was published in For Common Courtesy on Common Carriers, an SNYC pamphlet to the United States House of Representatives.[21] It also spawned the creation of the short-lived Citizens Committee for Equal Accommodations on Common Carriers, which advocated for racial equality on public transport.[22][23] She and James E. Jackson organized a boycott on Birmingham's buses for a short time.[11][21] She spoke about the incident at events across Alabama; at one, in 1943, at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, she met a young Martin Luther King Jr..[24]

Later career and death

In the third quarter of 1944, she moved to New York City to work as a switchboard operator for the Daily Worker, later becoming a reporter. She made the suggestion to simplify the wording of the paper's articles after learning some of its readers did not know the reasons as to the arrest of Benjamin J. Davis Jr., and was fired for making the suggestion. After departing from the paper, she became an organizer for the CPUSA and the United Furniture Workers of America, a trade union. She remained under watch by the FBI due to her organizing. She spoke at multiple CPUSA events, including its 1947 national convention.[4] For some time, she headed the United Harlem Tenants and Consumers Organization, a housing rights organization. In 1949, she worked as a switchboard operator for the headquarters of the New York County Communist Party.[25]

In 1960, she and Arnold Johnson ran for the New York State Assembly in the 13th district, McAdory on a dual ticket of the CPUSA and the People's Party.[26] During a campaign event on August 23, police attacked her husband, Joseph Edelman,[27] after he criticized hecklers. As they left the event, a group of 150 surrounded her vehicle to block attackers.[28] She and Johnson were later removed from the ballot due to not having filed as left-wing candidates, a violation of the McCarran Internal Security Act.[29] Their removal was challenged by four Democrats in a complaint to the New York State Board of Elections.[30]

In the late 1960s, she worked at the Benjamin J. Davis Bookstore and Center, named for Benjamin J. Davis Jr..[31]

In 1974, she unsuccessfully ran for the United States Senate with the CPUSA.[32]

McAdory was married to Joseph Edelman. She had a son, Stephen McAdory Steelman, who was a furniture maker. He died on May 4, 1951, aged 18, of illness.[33] She died in November 1988, aged 73.[32]

References

  1. ^ Winters 2018, p. 1
  2. ^ a b Gellman, Erik S. (February 1, 2012). Death Blow to Jim Crow: The National Negro Congress and the Rise of Militant Civil Rights. Univ of North Carolina Press. p. 192. ISBN 978-0-8078-6993-2.
  3. ^ Winters 2018, pp. 21
  4. ^ a b Winters 2018, pp. 41–43
  5. ^ a b Winters 2018, pp. 22
  6. ^ Winters 2018, pp. 8, 10
  7. ^ Winters 2018, pp. 17, 18
  8. ^ Winters 2018, p. 47
  9. ^ Winters 2018, p. 18
  10. ^ Winters 2018, pp. 13, 24
  11. ^ a b c Lieberman, R.; Lang, C. (April 27, 2009). Anticommunism and the African American Freedom Movement: Another Side of the Story. Springer. p. 86. ISBN 978-0-230-62074-2.
  12. ^ "Vote Suit Seeks $5,000 Damanges and Injunction". Jackson Advocate. August 29, 1942. p. 1.
  13. ^ Winters 2018, pp. 28–30
  14. ^ Hine, Darlene Clark (2005). Black Women in America. Oxford University Press. p. 240. ISBN 978-0-19-515677-5.
  15. ^ Mullenbach, Cheryl (2013). Double Victory: How African American Women Broke Race and Gender Barriers to Help Win World War II. Chicago Review Press. pp. 141, 142. ISBN 978-1-56976-808-2.
  16. ^ a b "Miss Mildred McAdory First Insulted by Bus Driver, Then Arrested". The Call. December 25, 1942. p. 20. Retrieved November 26, 2025.
  17. ^ a b c d "Youth Leader Jailed, Beaten in Alabama". Jackson Advocate. December 19, 1942. p. 6.
  18. ^ Mingo, AnneMarie (October 15, 2021). "Black and Blue: Black Women, 'Law and Order,' and the Church's Silence on Police Violence". Religions. 12 (10): 886. doi:10.3390/rel12100886. ISSN 2077-1444.
  19. ^ "Worker Loses Arrest Case By Jury Decision". Michigan Chronicle. March 25, 1944. p. 8. Retrieved November 26, 2025.
  20. ^ Winters 2018, pp. 34–38
  21. ^ a b c McWhorter, Diane (June 29, 2001). Carry Me Home: Birmingham, Alabama: The Climactic Battle of the Civil Rights Revolution. Simon and Schuster. p. 91. ISBN 978-0-7432-2648-6.
  22. ^ Kelley, Robin D. G. (June 1, 1996). Race Rebels: Culture, Politics, And The Black Working Class. Simon and Schuster. p. 109. ISBN 978-1-4391-0504-7.
  23. ^ Lewis, David Levering; Nash, Michael H.; Leab, Daniel J. (September 13, 2013). Red Activists and Black Freedom: James and Esther Jackson and the Long Civil Rights Revolution. Routledge. p. 21. ISBN 978-1-317-99059-8.
  24. ^ Winters 2018, pp. 38, 39
  25. ^ Winters 2018, pp. 44, 45
  26. ^ Judiciary, United States Congress Senate Committee on the (1961). Communist Infiltration in the Nuclear Test Ban Movement. U.S. Government Printing Office.
  27. ^ Seniors, Paula Marie (April 2024). Mae Mallory, the Monroe Defense Committee, and World Revolutions: African American Women Radical Activists. University of Georgia Press. p. 113. ISBN 978-0-8203-6644-9.
  28. ^ "Open Air Rally Weathers Hoodlums and Cops". Daily World. August 28, 1960. p. 3. Retrieved November 26, 2025.
  29. ^ Board, United States Subversive Activities Control (1966). Reports of the Subversive Activities Control Board. U.S. Government Printing Office. pp. 70, 73.
  30. ^ "People's Rights Slate Fights Ballot Trickery". Daily World. October 2, 1960. p. 12. Retrieved November 26, 2025.
  31. ^ Harris, Neil (February 18, 1968). "A Living Monument to Ben Davis". Daily World. p. 15. Retrieved November 26, 2025.
  32. ^ a b Winters 2018, pp. 48, 49
  33. ^ "Mildred McAdory's Son, Stephen, Dies". Daily World. May 6, 1951. p. 32. Retrieved November 26, 2025.

Sources

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.