Mason, Lucy Randolph

(July 26, 1882-May 6, 1959). Labor activist and suffragette. She was born in Clarens, Virginia, and grew up in Richmond, where her father was an Episcopal priest. In 1914 Mason was appointed industrial secretary of the Richmond YMCA where she worked to get protective labor legislation for women and children and for workmen's compensation. When her mother died in 1918, Mason resigned from her job to take care of her aging father. She continued, however, to volunteer as a member of the Union Label League. She served as president of both the Richmond Equal Suffrage League and the Richmond League of Women Voters. In 1923 her father died and from then until 1932 she was general secretary of the Richmond YMCA. In this capacity she worked for social and industrial reform in the African American community. From 1932 until 1937, she worked in New York City as executive secretary of the National Consumers' League. In 1937 John L. Lewis invited her to join the Textile Workers Organizing Committee, and she used this position to promote the need for unions in southern industry. She moved to Atlanta where she worked as Southeastern public relations officer for the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO). Called “Miss Lucy,” by the 1940s she was a legend in the labor movement. Mason retired in 1951. In 1952 she published her autobiography, To Win These Rights. Also in 1952 she received the Social Justice Award of the National Religion and Labor Foundation. She died in Atlanta.