Annie Stein | |
|---|---|
 Annie Stein (August 1979) at memorial service for David Rein (co-counsel to the Coordinating Committee) | |
| Born | Annie Steckler March 3, 1913 |
| Died | May 13, 1981 (aged 68) |
| Nationality | American |
| Spouse | Arthur Stein (activist) |
| Children | Eleanor Raskin |
| Parent | Philip Steckler |
| Relatives | Thai Jones |
Annie Stein was a civil rights activist who focused on desegregating Washington, D.C. theaters, restaurants and department stores. [1] [2]
Annie Steckler was born in Brooklyn, New York. Her parents were Ukrainian immigrants; her father's name was Philip Steckler, born in (1875–1925) in Romny, Ukraine. She had two sisters, Frieda and Sylvia. [1] Annie Stein was no outsider to the hardships faced by the racially and economically oppressed. [3] Stein grew up in the midst of poverty, witnessing first hand her own parents' struggle to feed and support her. She earned a scholarship to Hunter College. In the mid-1930s, while attending Hunter, Stein left her studies for Washington to defend the Scottsboro Boys, nine African-American boys falsely accused of raping two white women. [4] The protest became the first in a long career of activism that made Stein a noteworthy historical figure. After finishing her studies, Stein returned to Washington and dedicate her life's work to fighting the injustices perpetuated by discrimination in employment, public spaces and schools.
Stein's work in Washington, D.C. began with a governmental position at the Works Progress Administration. [5] In the late 1930s, deciding that activism was more important, Stein left her career at the Administration to become the chair of the Women's Trade Union League. As chair, Stein devoted her time to labor organizing and protest. [2] After the United States joined World War II, Stein joined the Congress of Industrial Organizations at the Office of Price Administration to fight war time inflation. Her committee monitored grocery store and restaurant owners to make sure that they observed ceiling prices. In a culminating effort against inflation, Stein joined the Washington Committee for Consumer Protection (WCCP) and organized a citywide strike against the rising wartime prices of food and service. [6] During her protests with the WCCP, Stein used progressive tactics such as boycotting and picketing in front of the stores that increased their price on meat and milk. Stein's picket signs featured the slogan: "Don’t buy meat over six cents a pound". [6] Receiving over 40,000 signatures, Stein submitted a petition to legislators that stabilized the price of milk and meat for a few weeks. [6] Stein's career reached a major milestone when she met Mary Church Terrell in the battle against anti-discrimination in the nation's capital. [7]
In the mid-1940s, Stein and Terrell were both actively fighting the continued segregation in the District's restaurants, theaters, and shopping centers. Together they created the Coordinating Committee for the Enforcement of the D.C Anti-Discrimination Laws to formally address racial discrimination. In the Coordinating Committee, Stein served as secretary to Terrell who considered her, "the greatest secretary in the world". [6] The Coordinating Committee used the claims made by the D.C. Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild about the "lost laws" of 1872, to fuel their direct action protests against segregation. [8] The "lost laws" effectively eliminated segregation in the city, but had been dropped from the District code. The Guild argued that laws were still valid. [8]
One of Stein's most influential protests with the Coordinating Committee occurred on January 27, 1950. The committee sent an interracial party to Thompson's restaurant to seek service. [9] The owner rejected the party, stating: "We don’t serve colored" according to witness Marvin Caplan, the chairman of the Coordinating Committee's Publicity Committee. [9] The Coordinating Committee sought support from the D.C. corporation counsel to uphold the "lost laws" arguing that Thompson's had violated the District of Columbia's Criminal Code by refusing to serve an interracial party. [10]
According to the "lost laws", a business should serve "any respectable, well-behaved person without regard to race, color or previous condition of servitude". [11] The Coordinating Committee pursued legal action in the case of District of Columbia v. John R. Thompson Co., validate the "lost laws", but for more than two years, the courts refused to hear the case. The case was finally successfully reintroduced in 1953 with the support of President Dwight Eisenhower, a strong civil rights activist, and on June 8, 1953, the court unanimously made the anti-discrimination laws valid. These anti-discrimination laws, now known as the Civil Rights Act, formally put a legal end to discrimination in Washington, a major victory for the committee.
Stein was not always successful. The Trailway Bus Line's fountain counter incident demonstrated one of Stein's protests that did not result in a positive racial change. The management of a six-stooled bus station bus fountain counter refused to serve blacks, prompting demands from the Coordination Committee to integrate the counter. The committee cited the now enforceable "lost laws" in their case. Grudgingly the fountain counter managers began accepting black customers, however in response, the stools were removed so that "white and black alike stand up for their cokes." [12] Stein relates the ironic way in which "democracy was achieved" in a critique appearing in the Washington Post: "It seems to me that this incident is symbolic of the deprivations we whites endure to nourish our ugly prejudices." [12] The fountain counter exemplifies the difficulties that Stein faced. Despite leading a strong legal and social fight for equality, her work was often hindered by stubborn social conventions on race.
After leading a successful activist career in Washington for more than a decade, Stein returned to New York in the mid-1950s to reunite with family. In New York Stein continued her commitment to activism and protest for social justice.
After her triumph in legalizing the anti-discrimination laws with the Coordinating Committee, Stein veered her political activism towards schooling. In 1953, Stein moved to Brooklyn, New York and joined the Parents Teacher Association(PTA) where she fought for the inequality of schooling. Stein tried all political avenues to secure a better education for the inner city's predominantly black and Puerto Rican, low-income children. She encouraged the councilmen to allow open enrolment in schools and mass transfers, considering that any change would elevate the quality of education for poor children. [4] In 1964 Stein launched her biggest assault against the unyielding school system. Joining the community together, she called for a one-day boycott on the school system, and on Freedom Day, February 3, 1964 half a million children skipped school. [4] Although the boycott was more of a symbolic success then a policy changing one, the majority support that Stein achieved demonstrated the inner city community's firm intentions on achieving educational equality. Stein's efforts in pushing for integration and equality was opposed by conservative whites who refused to put their children in integrated schools and school boards that remained indifferent in raising the quality education for blacks and Hispanics.
Stein firmly believed that racism in schools reflected the larger failings of society stating:
If racism in the society at large becomes reflected in school policies", she said in one report, "remedy must be sought through continuing and extending the battle against racism in society as a whole and by protecting the child from this racism. School policies and attitudes cannot be permitted to continue to reflect society's racism." [13]
Stein continued to be an advocate for the disadvantaged until her death. In the 1970s Stein won a slot as the legislative aide to the Rev. Milton A. Galamison, vice chairman of the New York City Board of Education. [2] She used this position to continue her goal of decentralizing the city's school systems and advocating citywide school integration.
On August 12, 1933, Annie Steckler married Arthur Stein (activist). In 1942, they had a son, Philip Steckler Stein, and daughter, Eleanor Raskin. [1]
Annie Stein died age 68 on May 13, 1981, from cancer. [2]
Stein's strategy was "Negotiate, boycott, picket." She claimed that this three-part strategy worked to raise awareness about discriminatory institutions, and apply social pressure to effect policy change. [14] Her work with revolutionary and forward thinking activists Mary Church Terrell and Ella Baker, who further developed her philosophy on social justice. [15] Stein embraced radical politics and communism throughout her political career. [3] In her activism for racial and gender equality, she believed that "If fighting for lower tuition fees, for the rights of the Negro, for higher wages for student workers, for lower prices for the lunch room --- if that be a Red then let's be Reds". Her communist politics haunted her for the rest of her career especially during the Cold War under McCarthyism. [6] Stein's husband Arthur Stein was also an active member of the communist party and refused to collaborate with the House Un-American Activities Committee. [16] Stein's daughter Eleanor upheld her mother's tradition of resistance in the 1960s leading the Weather Underground, a radical Anti-Vietnam War movement. [15]
Mary Church Terrell was one of the first African-American women to earn a college degree, and became known as a national activist for civil rights and suffrage. She taught in the Latin Department at the M Street School —the first African American public high school in the nation—in Washington, DC. In 1895, she was the first African-American woman in the United States to be appointed to the school board of a major city, serving in the District of Columbia until 1906. Terrell was a charter member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (1909) and the Colored Women's League of Washington (1892). She helped found the National Association of Colored Women (1896) and served as its first national president, and she was a founding member of the National Association of College Women (1923).
Louise Alone Thompson Patterson was a prominent American social activist and college professor. Patterson's early experiences of isolation and persecution on the West Coast had a profound impact on her later activism. She recognized the ways in which racism and discrimination affected individuals and communities and dedicated her life to challenging these systems of oppression. Her involvement in the Harlem Renaissance, a period of intellectual and cultural awakening in African American communities, allowed her to connect with other artists and activists who were similarly committed to social justice. In addition to her notable contributions to civil rights activism, Thompson Patterson was also recognized as one of the pioneering Black women to be admitted to the University of California at Berkeley.
Gloria Richardson Dandridge was an American civil rights activist best known as the leader of the Cambridge movement, a civil rights action in the early 1960s in Cambridge, Maryland, on the Eastern Shore. Recognized as a major figure in the Civil Rights Movement, she was one of the signatories to "The Treaty of Cambridge", signed in July 1963 with Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, and state and local officials. It was an effort at reconciliation and commitment to change after a riot the month before.
Florynce Rae Kennedy was an American lawyer, radical feminist, civil rights advocate, lecturer, and activist.
Ruby Doris Smith-Robinson worked with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) from its earliest days in 1960 until her death in October 1967. She served the organization as an activist in the field and as an administrator in the Atlanta central office. She eventually succeeded James Forman as SNCC's executive secretary and was the only woman ever to serve in this capacity. She was well respected by her SNCC colleagues and others within the movement for her work ethic and dedication to those around her. SNCC Freedom Singer Matthew Jones recalled, "You could feel her power in SNCC on a daily basis". Jack Minnis, director of SNCC's opposition research unit, insisted that people could not fool her. Over the course of her life, she served 100 days in prison for the movement.
Lisa Fithian is an American political activist and protest consultant.
Eleanor E. Raskin was a member of the Weathermen. She is currently an adjunct instructor at Albany Law School. She was an administrative law judge at the New York State Public Service Commission.
The Durban Review Conference is the official name of the 2009 United Nations World Conference Against Racism (WCAR), also known as Durban II. The conference ran from Monday 20 April to Friday 24 April 2009, and took place at the United Nations Office in Geneva, Switzerland. The conference was called under the mandate of United Nations General Assembly resolution 61/149 with a mandate to review the implementation of The Durban Declaration and Programme of Action from the 2001 World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance which took place in Durban, South Africa.
Mae Mallory was an activist of the Civil Rights Movement and a Black Power movement leader active in the 1950s and 1960s. She is best known as an advocate of school desegregation and of black armed self-defense.
Annie Lee Wilkerson Cooper was an African-American civil rights activist. She is best known for a punching Dallas County, Alabama Sheriff Jim Clark in the face during the 1965 Selma to Montgomery marches.
Willa Beatrice Player was an American educator, college administrator, college president, civil rights activist, and federal appointee. Player was the first African-American woman to become president of a four-year, fully accredited liberal arts college when she took the position at Bennett College in Greensboro, North Carolina.
District of Columbia v. John R. Thompson Co. Inc., 346 U.S. 100 (1953), is a United States Supreme Court case which began on April 30, 1953 over the validity of the local Washington Acts of 1872 and 1873. The Acts prohibited segregation in public places within the District. With the court's support, the legal ramifications of the 1872 and 1873 Acts could once again be enforced. The case transpired during growing racial tension in the nation's capital. Throughout Washington, the black community had grown tired of unfair treatment regarding housing, businesses, and education. But, change came soon enough through the courts. On June 8, 1953, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that the segregating policies practiced by Thompson's Cafeteria were illegal, marking a huge victory for the national black community.
Asian American activism broadly refers to the political movements and social justice activities involving Asian Americans. Since the first wave of Asian immigration to the United States, Asians have actively been engaged in social and political organizing. The early Asian American activism was mainly organized in response to the anti-Asian racism and Asian exclusion laws in the late-nineteenth century, but during this period, there was no sense of collective Asian American identity. Different ethnic groups organized to address the discrimination and exclusion laws in their own ways. It was not until the civil rights movements of the 1960s that a collective identity was developed and different Asian ethnic groups started to come together to fight against anti-Asian racism as a whole.
Oretha Castle Haley was an American civil rights activist in New Orleans where she challenged the segregation of facilities and promoted voter registration. She came from a working-class background, yet was able to enroll in the Southern University of New Orleans, SUNO, then a center of student activism. She joined the protest marches and went on to become a prominent activist in the Civil Rights Movement.
Theodora Smiley Lacey is an American civil rights activist and educator. She helped organize the Montgomery bus boycott, fought for voting rights and fair housing, and helped lead the effort to integrate schools in New Jersey.
Arthur Stein was a union leader, co-founder of the United Federal Workers of America (UFWA), and some-time member of the Communist Party USA who led communist cells within the US federal government during the later 1930s and into the 1940s.
African American women played a variety of important roles in the civil rights movement. They served as leaders, demonstrators, organizers, fundraisers, theorists, formed abolition and self-help societies. They also created and published newspapers, poems, and stories about how they are treated and it paved the way for the modern civil rights movement. They were judged by the color of their skin, as well as being discriminated against society because they are women. African American women faced two struggles, both sexism and racism. Womanism fully encompasses the intersectionality between these two social barriers, thus encompassing African American female involvement in the civil rights movement. African American women led organizations and struggles for their suffrage, anti-lynching laws, full employment and especially against the Jim Crow Laws. They had to constantly fight for equality and needed to have a voice in what they can do in society. Black women served a special role as "bridge leaders," forming connections between those in formal positions of power and political constituents. They were the middle person going back and forth between the two groups and provided information to them. A major turning point was the Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955, which followed Rosa Park's bold move of not giving up her bus seat. Several notable African American female activists and organizations emerged from this movement, making essential gains in the civil rights agenda, despite restricted access to power and the Cold War atmosphere pushing for silence within the United States.
The New York City school boycott, also referred to as Freedom Day, was a large-scale boycott and protest against segregation in the New York City public school system which took place on February 3, 1964. Students and teachers walked out to highlight the deplorable conditions at public schools in the city, and demonstrators held rallies demanding school integration. It has been described as the largest civil rights protest of the 1960s, involving nearly half a million participants.
Assa Traoré is a French activist and leader of the Truth and Justice for Adama Committee. The committee is named after her half-brother, Adama Traoré, who died in police custody.
Anti-Palestinianism or anti-Palestinian racism refers to prejudice and discrimination against Palestinians by groups, individuals, or governments. It is sometimes referred to as a form of racism manifested in anti-Arab sentiment, though it may also be a political standpoint as well. The phenomenon is common in Israel, the United States, and Lebanon, among other countries.
