Mothers of the U. S. of America. Michigan Division. protest against war

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Description:

Large group of women, members of the Mothers of the U.S.A. stand in front of banner (which reads, "Mothers of the U.S.A., Michigan Division, Keep the embargo"), hanging from bus. "A city that possessed great potential for the women's isolationist movement was Detroit, a tinderbox of dissension that rhetoric could set ablaze, [Charles] Coughlin and [Gerald L.K.] Smith made their headquarters there and in 1943 the city experienced the worst race riot of the war era, the dominant mother's group in Detroit was the Mothers of the U.S.A., organized in 1939, Mary A Decker founded the organization after women wrote in response to her letter to the Detroit Free Press, in which she advocated that mothers join to avoid American involvement in a foreign war, membership was open to any woman who was a United States citizen, although those who joined were mainly mothers, wives and sisters of men who fought in World War I ... Decker's group would claim several thousand members in Detroit and attract an Avenuerage of three hundred women to its weekly meetings ... the first campaign of the Mothers of the U.S.A. was a fruitless effort to retain the embargo on weapons sales to belligerents, provided for in the Neutrality Act of 1939," from Women of the Far Right: The Mothers' Movement and World War II by Glen Jeansonne.

Notes:

Collection located at the Walter P. Reuther Library, Archives of Labor and Urban Affairs, Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan. To schedule an appointment to view the original image, order high resolution copies, or seek permission to use an image, contact the Walter P. Reuther Library Audiovisual Department at reutherreference@wayne.edu., Walter P. Reuther Library, Archives of Labor and Urban Affairs, Wayne State University, and This metadata was created by Wayne State University Library system based on original description by the Walter P. Reuther Library

Date Issued:

1939-01-01T00:00:00Z

Data Provider:

Wayne State University. Libraries and Walter P. Reuther Library

Collection:

Virtual Motor City

Place:

Michigan and Detroit

Subject Topic:

Women, Societies and clubs, Isolationism, Women, Banners, and Buses

Format:

photographs

Rights:

Copyright Walter P. Reuther Library, Archives of Labor and Urban Affairs, Wayne State University

URL:

http://digital.library.wayne.edu/item/wayne:vmc43877