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Kipp Dawson

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Kipp Dawson (born 1945) is an American social justice activist who has worked on the Civil Rights Movement, the Vietnam anti-war movement, the women’s movement, the gay liberation movement, the labor movement, and the education justice movement. Over the span of her career. she has worked as a coal minor, teacher, and ran for Senate in 1970.

Early life

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Kipp Dawson was born in Hollywood, CA and grew up in Codornices Village in Albany, CA. She attended Berkeley High School.[1] where she founded the Civil Rights club in solidarity with SNCC.[2] She was arrested six times while protesting racial discrimination in the Bay Area.[3]

While studying at San Francisco State University, Dawson was a co-organizer the Free Speech Movement and was arrested and served 29 days in jail in 1966 for participating in large-scale sit-ins bringing an end to all-white employment practices in San Francisco. She started the Vietnam Day Committee at San Francisco State and co-organized many anti-war activities in the 1960s.[2][4] She opened for the 1967 Anti-Vietnam War rally of 65,000 people with Coretta Scott King, Judy Collins, and others.[5]

New York

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Dawson moved to New York in 1967. While in NYC (1967-1977), Dawson participated in the women's movement[6] and organized marches for abortion rights.[3] She also continued as an anti-Vietnam war activist.[7] Dawson ran for Senate from New York on the Socialist Workers Party ticket in 1970.[8] Dawson came out as a lesbian in 1970 and separated from her husband, fellow activist Leslie Evans.[3]

Coal mining

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Dawson became a coal miner and moved to Pennsylvania in 1979, a position she held for 13 years.[9] She was part of the first Coal Employment Project Women Miners Support Team which inspired her to become an activist and organizer for United Mine Workers of America Local 1197.[10] A leader in Local 1197, Dawson prioritized workers' safety in union mines.[11] In 1984 Dawson traveled to England to support the British miners' strikes.[12][13]

Dawson's union involvement during the mining strikes of the 1980s led to global solidarity between miners in Wales and El Salvador.[14]

Educator

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Dawson received a degree in teaching in 1994 and went on to earn a Masters of Library and Information Science from the University of Pittsburgh in 2003. Dawson taught in Pittsburgh Public Schools for 23 years.[2] She applied her socialist activism to her new career as a union activist and student advocate in Pennsylvania public schools.[15]

Bibliography

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  • Gay Liberation: A Socialist perspective (1975)
  • Women miners and the UMWA: 1973-1983 (1992)
  • Kate Millett’s Sexual Politics: a Marxist Appreciation (1971)

References

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  1. ^ Wilkerson, Jessica; Ramey, Jessie B.; Golcheski, Amelia; Evans, Catherine; Bairnsfather, Lauren. "Kipp Dawson: The Struggle is the Victory". Emory Center for Digital Scholarship. Retrieved 19 September 2023.
  2. ^ a b c "Guide to the Kipp M. Dawson Papers, 1951-2021, AIS.2022.10". ULS Digital Collections. University of Pittsburgh. Retrieved 14 September 2023.
  3. ^ a b c Ramey, Jessie B.; Evans, Catherine A. (2024). "'We Came Together and We Fought': Kipp Dawson and Resistance to State Violence in US Social Movements since the 1950s". Radical History Review (148): 181–192. doi:10.1215/01636545-10846922. S2CID 267427013. Retrieved 22 February 2024.
  4. ^ "VDC claims opposition to Viet war increasing" (PDF). The Daily Gater. San Francisco State College. 28 September 1966. Retrieved 14 September 2023.
  5. ^ "April 15, 1967: Massive Anti-Vietnam War Demonstrations". Zinn Education Project. Retrieved 14 September 2023.
  6. ^ "THE VFA PIONEER HISTORIES PROJECT". Veteran Feminists of America. Retrieved 19 September 2023.
  7. ^ "The Power of Women United". Against the Current. 134 (May/June 2008). 30 November 2001.
  8. ^ "Socialist Workers Nominee". Star-Gazette. January 23, 1970. p. 2. Archived from the original on June 3, 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. ^ "Labor Movement". Kipp Dawson: The Struggle is the Victory. Emory Center for Digital Scholarship. 17 July 2023. Retrieved 14 September 2023.
  10. ^ Gildea, Robert (2023). Backbone of the Nation: Mining Communities and the Great Strike of 1984-85. Yale University Press. pp. 283–300. ISBN 9780300266580.
  11. ^ Jones, Mike (9 September 2021). "Local miners attend Battle of Blair Mountain centennial event in W.Va". Observer Reporter. Retrieved 19 September 2023.
  12. ^ "Power Beyond Extraction: a Buried history". The Natural History Museum. Retrieved 14 September 2023.
  13. ^ Moore, Marat (1996). Women in the mines : stories of life and work. New York: Twayne Publishers. ISBN 9780805778342.
  14. ^ Hood, Lonnie Lee (6 September 2021). "Women Miners Work to Record a More Complete History of 1980s Labor Strikes - A spirit of collaboration—across oceans, among women, between miners and queer allies—marked the miners' strikes of the 1980s. But these partnerships don't always make it into the greater Labor Movement narrative". The Daily Yonder. Retrieved 19 September 2023.
  15. ^ "Education Justice Movement". Kipp Dawson: The Struggle is the Victory. Emory Center for Digital Scholarship. 17 July 2023. Retrieved 14 September 2023.
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