About Me

Autumn Guillotte

email: aguillotte@my.uri.edu

Facebook: Autumn Elizabeth

Twitter: @autumnelissa

Instagram: @autmnelissa

I am an honors student at the University of Rhode Island, studying History, Philosophy and Labor. I am also the 2017 Truman Scholar from Rhode Island. This summer, thanks to the Michael P. Metcalf Memorial Fund and the Rhode Island Foundation, I was able to fund a 6 week stay in Chicago to study the life and work of Mary "Mother" Jones.

So why labor? Why Mother Jones?

I was introduced to Mother Jones in the seventh grade. It was National History Day and the theme was an individual in history. It seemed everyone was going to do a project on Eleanor Roosevelt, George Washington, Walt Disney, etc. I wanted to do something different, but I was stumped. Talking to my grandmother on the phone, I asked her who her favorite individual in history was. She said, as if it were obvious, ¨Mother Jones.¨ I had no idea who that was, but I decided to look her up.

That lead me to the winning the RI National History Day competition and an award from the Rhode Island Labor History Society presented by Dr. Scott Molloy. That was my first financial award for study of labor, $100! A great sum then (and now). I went on to represent RI at the National History Day competition in D.C. four more times with projects on labor. I was fortunate enough to perform Mother Jones two more times at the request of the RI Labor History Society. After which they made me a lifetime member. I now sit on the board of the RILHS, and with them I am working on projects which will educate students, K-12, on the history of labor and working people in Rhode Island.

I was 12 years old when I was first exposed to Mother's story. Now, as a 21 year old college student, I decided to revisit Mother Jones as a way to learn about American's cultural memory of her and the movement and how we can keep her story alive. In doing my initial research on Mother Jones, I found there was a pivotal point in her life when she's sitting knee deep in the cold waters of Lake Michigan as the city of Chicago burns in the great fire of 1871. She lost all of her belongings, business, and livelihood, and in that moment, she heard the great oratory of a labor organizer from the Knights of Labor. That moment became her life. She saw that labor was the only thing left to lift up the poor and the downtrodden. They gave her purpose and the fire inside to dedicate her life to being a labor agitator.

I want to find that moment. As a historian, I want to find that moment in the archives and on the page. As a future advocate for labor, I want to find that moment in the union hall, the courtroom, and the legislature. Getting back to my roots, as a admirer and historian of Mother Jones, and getting back to the roots of labor organizing, are one in the same to me. Understanding where we come from helps us see where we must go.