100 years ago today, November 19, the State of Utah executed troubadour and radical union man Joe HIll after a troubled, questionable trial for murder. He was a member of the Industrial Workers of the World, a one-big-union organization outside mainstream trade unionism. Wobblies (IWW members) fought for free speech and better working conditions, and were assaulted, arrested, jailed, and sometimes killed for doing so. Joe Hill became a martyr for the cause. His music later influenced Woody Guthrie and Bob Dylan.

Marie Equi Received Hill's Ashes for Oregon
Joe Hill directed that his cremated remains should be spread in every state -- but not in Utah -- and worldwide. Dr. Marie Equi, a radical activist lesbian in Portland, was said to have received an envelope of Hill's ashes as a representative of Oregon. 

View a new graphic novel treatment of Joe Hill's life by Pat Bagley

MEGAN PRELINGER, cultural historian & archivist, co-founder of Prelinger Library in San Francisco, author of "Inside the Machine: Art and Invention In the Electronic Age" commented on my Amazon page:

Patricia Kullberg, historical fiction writer in Portland, on MARIE EQUI:

THANKS, Patricia.

Check out Patricia's new noir novel "Girl In The River" with classic mid-century Portlanders like Mayor Dottie "Do-Good" Lee and skilled abortionist Ruth Barnett.

A dearth of affordable housing, too few jobs and services for the unemployed, voting rights under attack, and gaping disparities between the wealthy few and everyone else. How would radical lesbian MARIE EQUI have voted on Election Day?
 
Equi had few opportunities at the ballot box. She lived in Oregon where woman suffrage was defeated five times before final passage in 1912. She was unable to vote in the momentous 1912 presidential election that ushered in Woodrow Wilson. But she registered as a Progressive and probably first voted in a 1913 municipal election.
 
Mostly Equi voted on her feet and in the streets with rallies, protests, pickets, and soapbox talks. Just over a hundred years ago, in 1913-1914, the nation slid into a recession. Business activity plummeted 26 percent. Laid-off workers slept in doorways, huddled in breadlines, and begged food for their children. In Oregon and Washington the timber industry closed 40 percent of its mills and laid off a third of its labor force. In the autumn of 1913, several thousand jobless men migrated to Portland, hoping to fend off the cold and wet of the rainy season. Portland leaders feared the city might become a magnet from the jobless throughout the West so they reserved jobs for local married men.
 
Equi Demanded Shelter for Homeless Men
Marie Equi urged unemployed men and women to demand the jobs, food, lodging, and services they needed. When the jobless paraded through Portland’s streets, Equi noted, “The sight of thousands of hungry, desperate men is not an inspiring one to the police.” As cold weather approached, she urged the city to open a public hall as free lodging for the homeless. After much delay, the Portland did just that, providing shelter for 900 men.
 
During a trip to Boston that winter, Equi was featured in the Boston Globe for her work with the jobless. The headline read: “Predicts Revolution Unless Aid Is Given to 5,000,000 Unemployed.” When a reporter remarked that she was noted for her work across the nation, Equi replied, “Noted in the country, perhaps, but notorious in Oregon.”
 
Equi mixed her direct action with strategies for immediate results. In December 1914, she organized a committee of women to rent a forty-seven unit rooming house in the North End of Portland to provide lodging for jobless men. Even after Marie Equi became radicalized by a police beating, she sometimes returned to the ballot box, often voting for the lesser of two evils. She continued until the federal government threw her into San Quentin prison in 1920.