Nellie Wilson: Wisconsin's Own Rosie the Riveter
On May 3, Juniorina finished her second year of National History Day participation, reaching the state level both years. Each year, students work on projects in support of an annual theme. They can present historical research in papers, performances, websites, exhibits and documentaries. This year, La Crosse Public Library hosted over 500 middle school students who came to the library for research visits in support of their projects. We were pleased to see that eight students from our region were state finalists, some of who will advance to the national event.
Juniorina, an 8th grader, wrote a heck of a paper, and missed nationals by one spot, placing with a 1st Honorable Mention. I'm going to publish her work here, not (just) because she's my kid, but because she wrote about a woman, largely unknown outside of Milwaukee, who had a signficant impact on her community. Mrs. Wilson also passed away shortly after Juniorina started her research. I'm pleased to shine a light on Mrs. Wilson's life and work.
Wisconsin's Own Rosie the Riveter: Nellie Wilson and Her Fight for Equality in the Workplace
by Claudia Elvidge, School of Technology and the Arts II, Grade 8
“Nellie Wilson had a dream, too. Wilson attended the 1963 March on Washington. She had a dream that she could support her two young girls. When Wilson finally landed a job worth working at, she hoped that joining the union would make a difference. Then she found herself making a difference in the union - and in the lives of countless other workers.”1
That was a quote from the obituary of Nellie Wilson who passed away January 23, 2008, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin at the age of 91, after a lifetime of fighting for the rights of women and people of color in the workplace. Nellie Wilson was one of the millions of women who went to work in factories during World War II at a time when, in the public eye, women were supposed to stay home or work in less demanding jobs. Even more remarkable was that she was an African American woman.
However, above being a woman entering the workforce in that time period, Nellie Wilson also became a crusader for improved conditions for workers like her. Like many women of that time, she embodied the characteristics of “Rosie the Riveter.” Rosie the Riveter was a fictional character created by the United States government and industry as a way to inspire women to take up factory work. Rosie was a representation of what the government wanted in women in the factories: big and brawny but still womanly.2 Nellie Wilson eventually became a Rosie in the sense of being a fit, but feminine, worker. She was different though because while the average Rosie lost her job after the war, Wilson not only kept hers but became a leader who stood up for herself and other workers throughout her work life, and even after she retired.
During WWII, many women went to work outside the home for the very first time. There was a military draft that took millions of men off to war, leaving a huge need for new workers to keep up the production of weapons and commodities for the war effort. Women took up their positions in factories and plants all across the country and worked just as hard as the men who they had replaced. There was such a growing need for weapons and other commodities of war that many factories stopped producing what they had before the war and started manufacturing planes, guns, ammunition and materials necessary to sustain the war effort.3 However, when men came back from the war, they wanted and expected to get their jobs back. Not surprisingly, many women were not willing to give up the jobs that they worked on for several years. Many enjoyed having an experience outside of the traditional roles of wife and mother, and felt good about helping to financially support their families.
Nellie Elizabeth Sweet was born November 28, 1916 in Lufkin, Texas. After her mother died of tuberculosis when she was three, Nellie was raised almost entirely by her grandparents, on their 100 acres of land in Alto, Texas, where they had formerly worked as slaves. Wilson worked hard on getting a good education and went to school every day that she could. When her grandparents died in 1928, her father took her in and moved her far away to Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It was rather difficult for her to fit it because her southern accent made her feel self-conscious, but she adapted and graduated from high school in 1934.4
While attending high school, Wilson went to a Career Counseling day for girls. There was a speaker for those interested in being Registered Nurses and right away, she said that any Negro girls were present were just wasting their time and should go back to class because no nursing facility would train them. Even though Wilson heard that, most likely on multiple occasions, she kept trying to get good jobs but was always turned down without even an interview.5
Wilson moved to Nashotah, Wisconsin and started working as a live-in maid as soon as she finished high school. The family she worked for only paid her $3.50 a week, and she was at their beck-and-call all day. After working for that family for a year, she decided to quit and look for more opportunities by moving back to Milwaukee. There, she married, and gave birth to two daughters. Shortly after the birth of her second daughter, Wilson and her husband divorced. Because Wilson wanted better lives for her daughters, she looked for different, higher paying work than cleaning. That was when she got her job at AO Smith.6
AO Smith was a company in Milwaukee that had made water heaters, but switched over to making things like airplane parts and bombs for the war.7 Though working there was a difficult job, it paid well and offered a training program.8 While in the training program, Wilson learned how to read blueprints and work the precision instruments required for her job.
During her years at AO Smith, Nellie Wilson worked as a precision inspector, assembly line worker, machine operator, and a shipping and receiving clerk. Like many other jobs that paid well in the thirties and forties, the work was difficult and took much strength to accomplish. Though the work was more physically demanding than anything Wilson had ever had to do before, she made $33.00 a week which was a fortune compared to what she had been previously making.9
Prior to World War II, most labor-based industries in America would not hire African Americans or women, but several things that happened around that time, made it easier for Wilson, a black woman, to get hired. First, there was a lack of male workers because of the war. It also helped that Wilson was looking for work after the Fair Employment Practices Commission was created.
Executive Order 8802—Prohibition of Discrimination in the Defense Industry was signed into law in 1941 by President Franklin Roosevelt. It prohibited discrimination based on race, creed, color, or national origin against prevents the hiring of people based on skin color, race, or country of origin. It was issued in response to threats from A. Philip Randolph, president of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, who told Roosevelt that 100,000 African Americans would march in Washington, DC in protest of discrimination.10
While many foremen of plants and factories looked down on women and African Americans, Wilson’s boss encouraged her to do her best and told her not to take insults from anybody.11 This quote shows how Wilson felt about coming to work at AO Smith:
"February 15, 1943, I was hired in a semi skilled occupation in a unionized defense factory. I'm certain demographics had some bearing on my being hired since the demand for healthy white male employees was far greater then the supply, but the truth is I was hired because of the labor union activity and the agitation of the Philip Randolph period…. Let me tell you that from beginning to end it was pure utopia- beginning with the plant guard who gave us new hires our in-plant orientation.
He told us not to take any crap from anybody, that we were just as good as anyone else, that we should holler louder if we even thought we were denied something of value because of our skin color, and that we should get our fair share of all handouts. I couldn't believe it. It was simple incredible. Here was this white man telling me about brotherhood, equality, and fraternity after I had suffered a lifetime of blatant, over discrimination."12
During her time at AO Smith, Wilson became a very accomplished worker. Despite the “pure utopia” she described, she was still paid less than most white or male workers. She met a male steward working at the plant who convinced her to join the union.13 Wilson finally had a place to work at where there would be at least one person who was willing to fight against discrimination. Back then, it was so rare to have something like that happen. White men did not regularly go out of their way to assist black people or women.
When the war ended, employers everywhere tried to force the women they had hired back out of the workforce because men, who were considered to be the breadwinners of the family, were coming back. Wilson, an exceptional and loyal worker, was fortunate enough to stay despite being black and a woman. She also started making as much money as the men. Wilson was also encouraged by her co-workers to run for the position of steward and was able to get the job because others believed in her integrity. When the company itself realized this, she was removed from the position. Still, it was a huge accomplishment for a black woman to be promoted, even for such a short time.
In 1963, Nellie Wilson went to the historic March on Washington where she heard Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech. The speech was about inspiring and supporting African Americans and helped the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.14 Wilson was inspired by how one man could rally so many people. She said it was, “the most breathtaking spectacle I’ve ever seen in my life.” Wilson came back to AO Smith ready for action and to make changes.15
One of Wilson’s most lasting and influential actions was to help a woman, Clara Streicher, win a grievance against AO Smith for not hiring her. The case was that Streicher had not been hired because she was a woman. With encouragement from Wilson, the union lawyers won the case and from then on, it was easier for women to be hired at AO Smith.16
Nellie Wilson retired from AO Smith in 1969, but continued to work for justice and equality. She worked for a year to train other union workers to work with the poor people in communities. After working with the Human Resource Development Institute for 11 years, Wilson decided to retire permanently.17
Though Wilson did accomplish much within her own area, the accomplishments of women in America as a whole were even greater. Before WWII, most women could only get work in “pink collar” jobs like nursing, education, or sales. Even in the jobs they could get, women were given low wages. It was also very difficult for married women to find work because most employers seemed to think one breadwinner was enough for a family and that women should be at home with children.18 Another problem was that when women did manage to get into high paying jobs with “men’s work”, they were sometimes mocked and harassed by male workers. These were some of the conflicts that people like Nellie Wilson fought against.
For a variety of reasons, the majority of women either left “voluntarily” or were laid off from their jobs. 19 Even though a number of women went back to being full time housewives and mothers, many women chose to stay in the workforce. Some were fortunate enough to keep the jobs they had obtained during the war. Even though more than three million women left the workforce by 1946, there were still more women working than had been before the war. 20Over the next few decades, though, women who had lost their jobs or never really had them went to work doing more and more jobs that were considered “men’s work” as well as continuing to work in more traditional work.
Even to this day, there are still many problems with discrimination against women in the workforce. There is a lot of conflict about equal rights. Just like when Nellie Wilson started working back in the 1930s, some women are still mocked for working in men’s jobs or they get lower wages for just being female. In 2004, for every dollar a man made, a woman only made seventy-seven cents.21 So even today, things are still not equal. Until everything from salaries to treatment of workers is equal, there’ll always be people like Nellie Wilson fighting for equality.
(note from RH: I couldn't get endnotes to display)
Bibliography
Primary
DeNavas-Walt, Carmen, Bernadette D. Proctor, and Cheryl Hill Lee. Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance in the United States: 2004. US Census Bureau (2004): 14. 14 Mar. 2008. < http://www.census.gov/prod
I looked at this to find the recent average of a woman’s salary compared to a man’s.
Roosevelt, Franklin D. "Executive Order 8802 - Prohibition of Discrimination in the Defense Industry." Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum. 10 Apr 2008. <http://www.fdrlibrary.marist
This is the executive order that put in place The Federal Employment Practices Commission which gave protection to people who had been discriminated against in the workplace. It was passed specifically to address the issues of the need for a lot of people to work in defense plants.
Silvers, Amy Rabideau. "Defense work led Wilson to calling as union activist." JS Online. 30 Jan 2008. 12 Feb 2008 <http://www.jsonline.com/story
This was Wilson’s obituary. It gave was an example of some of Wilson’s greatest accomplishments as well as information about her family.
Secondary
"A.O. Smith Corporation." Funding Universe. 15 Apr 2008
<http://www.fundinguniverse.com
Funding Universe is a website that gives fundraisers and grant writers background information about companies. It had a brief, but detailed history of the A. O. Smith company where Nellie Wilson worked.
Colman, Penny. Rosie the Riveter. New York: Crown Publishers, 1995.
This book was about US government icon,“Rosie the Riveter”; who she was, how she was created, and the stories of women who were Rosies themselves.
Fonow, Mary Margaret. Union Women: Forging Feminism in the United Steelworkers of America. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 2003.
This book had information on women entering the workforce. Even though I did not cite this source in my paper, it gave me background on women’s role in the union movement. It had a lot of information about specific Union chapters and their stories.
Holter, Darryl. Workers and Unions in Wisconsin. First. Menomonee Falls, WI: State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 1999.
This book was about unions and gave useful information about how the unions helped Wilson to keep her job. I specifically referred to an article in the book written by Nellie Wilson about her experiences.
"The Home Front." Wisconsin WWII Stories. 2002-2005. Wisconsin Public Television. 13 Apr 2008. <http://www.wisconsinstories
There was an interview from Nellie Wilson on this site in which she talked about why she chose to work at AO Smith
Jamakaya. Like Our Sisters Before Us: Women of Wisconsin Labor. Milwaukee: Wisconsin Labor History Society, 1998.
This was the best source for more specific information about Nellie Wilson like past jobs and her personal life. It was a collection of oral histories of women important to Wisconsin labor history.
King, Dr. Martin Luther, Jr. "The "I Have a Dream" Speech." US Constitution Online. 14 Jan 2008. 18 Mar 2008 <http://www.usconstitution.net
Some basic information about the “I Have a Dream Speech” as well as the speech itself.
Good work, Claudia! This is not only better than most high school work I've seen; it's a good bit better than many essays I saw when I was teaching college.
Congratulations, and thanks for writing up the life of a great American I'd never heard of!
Posted by: Laura | 2008.05.30 at 06:47 PM
Congrats to Claudia - well written and very inspiring.
Posted by: Jen Holman | 2008.05.30 at 10:25 AM
That's fantastic, Rochelle! I'm so impressed that an 8th grade student wrote that.
Posted by: joshua m. neff | 2008.05.30 at 08:26 AM