Mary Kenney O'Sullivan - Boston, MA
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neoc1
N 42° 21.496 W 071° 03.794
19T E 330086 N 4691617
A monument honoring union organizer and woman's rights activist Mary Kenney O'Sullivan is located on the hallway wall outside Doric Hall in the Massachusetts State House at 24 Beacon Street, Boston, MA.
Waymark Code: WMWBGJ
Location: Massachusetts, United States
Date Posted: 08/08/2017
Views: 1
The State House Women’s Leadership Project has commemorated Mary Kenney O'Sullivan with a monument in the Massachusetts State House. She is one of six women, so honored, that have contributed to the government of the Commonwealth. A life size relief sculpture of Mary Kenney O'Sullivan is presented within a circular opening near the bottom of a rectangular slab of green marble.
The top of the slab has the inscription:
I WAS CONVINCED that the workers must
organize. Someone must go from shop to shop
and find out who the workers were that were
willing to work for better working conditions.
I must be that someone.
Unpublished Biography, 1936
Above her sculpture is inscribed:
I REFUSE TO DO A JOB
WITHOUT A MAN'S PAY
{Sculpture}
MARY KENNEY O'SULLIVAN
The lower side frame of the monument has the her date of birth and death: 1864-1943
Mary Kenny was born in Hannibal, MO to Irish immigrant parents on January 8, 1864. She left school after the 4th grade to help support her family as an apprentice dressmaker. In 1888 she moved to Chicago and worked as a bookbinder. In Chicago she was a member of the Jane Addams's settlement house movement and moved into Hull House.
In 1894 she married a labor editor and organizer John O'Sullivan and moved to Boston. She devoted her life to organized women. In the Jane Addams settlement house she held discussion groups for working women and focused on the need for solidarity. In 1903, she founder of the Women's Trade Union League.
Mary Kenney O'Sullivan not only was a union organization but also voting rights activist. In 1906 she spoke to a voting committee in the U.S. House of Representatives on the Constitutional amendment giving women the vote. She noted that women contributed positively to American society, and that every producer retains the right to vote. The Women's Trade Union League was considered the "industrial branch" of the suffrage movement.
The Massachusetts State House is open to the public Monday through Friday from 10 am to 4 pm. All visitors must enter through the General Hooker entrance.