2008 Woodie Awards
Lecture showcases important women in SEK history
Sara Wade
Issue date: 3/27/08 Section: Front Page
Another prominent woman, Mary Jugg Molek, was among the first of immigrant children to graduate from college, which she did in 1928. She wrote "Immigrant Woman," a book on local history. Roberts says that it is one of the most depressing things a person can read.
A little-known story from the past is that of the Amazon Army, a group of women led by Mary Skubitz, who marched from coal mine to coal mine in Southeast Kansas in the early 1920s in opposition to the hiring of scabs, workers who refused to strike and refused to join the union.
Roberts says that as many as 5,000 women marched at one time. The state guard eventually drove them off by firing at them.
Roberts says that the mining era had many problems.
"People were out of work for so long, and the union could help them so little, that one of the German immigrants said that they had to eat bread soaked in lard," he said.
Other notables mentioned in the lecture are: Debbie Barnes Miles, Pittsburg, Miss America 1968; Shirley Christian, Pulitzer Prize winner in 1981 who earned a bachelor's degree in language and literature from Pittsburg State University in 1960; ZaSu Pitts from Parsons, who acted in about 300 films from 1917 until her death in 1963; Jane Grant from Girard, co-founder of the New Yorker, who kept her maiden name when she married Harold Ross; Louise Brooks from Cherryvale, an actress who helped to usher in the flapper era and danced with the Denishawn Dancers; Eva Jessye from Coffeyville, an African American performer whose choir performed on Broadway and who was an artist-in-residence at PSU from 1978-1981; Ella Buchanan, first librarian for Pittsburg and a sculptor; Nina Brown Baker from Galena, who wrote biographies of famous people; and Edith Hill Booker who became the second woman in the world to be ordained as a Baptist minister at the First Baptist Church in Pittsburg.
Daniele Cunningham, the Women's Studies Club treasurer, says that these women have left a legacy.
"We love to really bring attention to the history of women in this area because they're so powerful here," Cunningham said. "These people are local; it's not just everyone's history, it's our history."
Roberts says that women's history is woefully neglected.
"I get tired of the mainstream kind of history," Roberts said. "I find women more interesting than men. There are so many things they had to overcome and persevere and put up with that makes them worth studying."
A little-known story from the past is that of the Amazon Army, a group of women led by Mary Skubitz, who marched from coal mine to coal mine in Southeast Kansas in the early 1920s in opposition to the hiring of scabs, workers who refused to strike and refused to join the union.
Roberts says that as many as 5,000 women marched at one time. The state guard eventually drove them off by firing at them.
Roberts says that the mining era had many problems.
"People were out of work for so long, and the union could help them so little, that one of the German immigrants said that they had to eat bread soaked in lard," he said.
Other notables mentioned in the lecture are: Debbie Barnes Miles, Pittsburg, Miss America 1968; Shirley Christian, Pulitzer Prize winner in 1981 who earned a bachelor's degree in language and literature from Pittsburg State University in 1960; ZaSu Pitts from Parsons, who acted in about 300 films from 1917 until her death in 1963; Jane Grant from Girard, co-founder of the New Yorker, who kept her maiden name when she married Harold Ross; Louise Brooks from Cherryvale, an actress who helped to usher in the flapper era and danced with the Denishawn Dancers; Eva Jessye from Coffeyville, an African American performer whose choir performed on Broadway and who was an artist-in-residence at PSU from 1978-1981; Ella Buchanan, first librarian for Pittsburg and a sculptor; Nina Brown Baker from Galena, who wrote biographies of famous people; and Edith Hill Booker who became the second woman in the world to be ordained as a Baptist minister at the First Baptist Church in Pittsburg.
Daniele Cunningham, the Women's Studies Club treasurer, says that these women have left a legacy.
"We love to really bring attention to the history of women in this area because they're so powerful here," Cunningham said. "These people are local; it's not just everyone's history, it's our history."
Roberts says that women's history is woefully neglected.
"I get tired of the mainstream kind of history," Roberts said. "I find women more interesting than men. There are so many things they had to overcome and persevere and put up with that makes them worth studying."
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