On this day in Labor History the year was 1900.
That was the day that folk singer Malvina Reynolds was born to a Jewish family in San Francisco.
Her parents were socialists and operated a tailor shop.
Malvina learned the price of speaking out for what you believe in at a young age.
Her parents opposed US entry into World War I.
Because of this, Malvina’s High School would not issue her a diploma.
She was able to still go the college at Berkley, where she eventually earned her PhD.
She married carpenter and labor organizer William “Bud” Reynolds.
She became a prolific folk singer, playing around the Los Angeles area.
During the 1960s she wrote about songs supporting civil rights and labor rights.
Her song Free Enterprise offers the lyrics, “The air you breathe is poison, the food you eat is worse, the dollars in your pay check are pennies in your purse…There’s nothing free about it, you pay at every turn, Except the guys in Wall Street who have the stuff to burn, they had to make new brain machines to count their profits’ rise, but since there’s always room for more, they can still make their profits soar, a little war does wonders for free enterprise.”
Perhaps her most well-known song is “Little Boxes.”
The song was inspired by driving by hillside houses in Daly City, California.
It talks about the conformity of middle class suburbia.
April 29 - Allis-Chalmers and the Road to Taft-Hartley
April 28 - OSHA Goes Into Effect
April 27 - Disaster in West Virginia
April 26 - National Guard Ousts Montgomery Ward CEO
April 25 - UAW Mobilizes Against Taft-Hartley
April 24 - The California Spinach Riot
April 23 - Sitting Down for Dignity at Ford
April 22 - The Red Jacket Mine Explosion
April 21 - The Hated Taylor Law Takes Effect
April 20 - Deepwater Horizon Explosion Kills 11
April 19 -The Daughters of Mother Jones
April 18 - We Have Fed You All A thousand Years
April 17 - Fatal Explosion in West, Texas
April 16 - Jacob Coxey is Born
April 15 - Telephone Girls Cripple New England Bell
April 14 - A Job or Be Sterilized
April 13 - The Colfax Massacre
April 12 - The Wagner Act Stands
April 11 - Fed Up Transit Workers Walk Out
April 10 - Explosion at Eddystone
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