Week 9

This week was a very hectic week with the shift to virtual classes. My internship location was not open this week;however, we had discussed the week prior what assignments we would need to work on in case of this situation. This week I dove further into the story of Agnes Nestor, labor leader. Agnes Nestor was involved in multiple labor unions and organizations. She spent her life trying to advocate for the working class, especially the female working class. I was able to narrow down some of the locations of where she would meet with certain groups. It is interesting to compare the news coverage that I was able to find on Agnes Nestor compared to African American suffrage leaders. African American suffrage leaders are generally only covered in African American newspapers and sources, while white suffrage leaders are written about in a more favorable light in large news sources, like the Chicago Tribune. This shows me that even when fighting an unpopular battle for the time, white suffragettes were still favored over African American suffragettes. Agnes Nestor has a very interesting story because even though she is an Irish immigrant in a city that does not look favorable upon Irish immigrants in the early 20th century, her opinion is still valued more than African American suffrage leaders. I want to relay this message through the blog piece I am writing about this subject. I don’t want to undermine the work of Agnes Nestor, but simply observe the differences and the meaning of them. I also continued to research the story of Ida B. Wells and the suffrage parade of 1913. This seems to be a story that was not heavily written on by many newspapers in Chicago, which is where I found my hidden gems before. I am going to need to dig a little deeper and try to collect the local story. These next couple of weeks are going to be a little rocky with me moving home and everything, but I look forward to uncovering the women’s voice and important contributions of these issues.