Lillie Barbour

Lillie Mary Clinedinst (née Barbour; March 3, 1885 – May 18, 1985) was an American suffragist and labor activist.[1]

Lillie Barbour
BornMarch 3, 1885
Rocky Mount, Virginia, U.S.
DiedMay 18, 1985(1985-05-18) (aged 100)
Roanoke, Virginia, U.S.
NationalityAmerican
Occupation(s)Suffragist, labor activist

Early life and family

Barbour was born on March 3, 1885, in Rocky Mount, Virginia, the daughter of James Randolph Barbour and Abigail Ferguson Barbour. Barbour lived and worked in Virginia until moving to Nevada around 1924.[2]

In 1925, Barbour married Joseph B. Clinedinst, who had previously served alongside her as a factory inspector for the Virginia Bureau of Labor, and who later served as the Nevada State Labor Commissioner.[3][4][5]

Activism

Barbour was a notable advocate for multiple causes including the labor movement, women's right to vote, and child protection.[6]

Labor organizer

In the early 1900s, Barbour began work as a seamstress and garment factory worker and was a member of the Local Union No. 48 of the United Garment Workers of America in Roanoke, Virginia.[7] She was elected as a board member of the union and served as its secretary. In 1910, she was a member of the strikes committee for the Virginia Federation of Labor, where she encouraged union members to only buy union-made clothes.[8]

From 1915 to 1916, Barbour was an active member of the legislative committee for the federation, successfully lobbying the Virginia General Assembly to enact legislation including increased protections for law enforcement, first responders, and firefighters.[9] She also advocated for equal hiring practices to encourage women to be police officers. Barbour was an elected delegate to the American Federation of Labor in 1917, 1919, and 1926.[10][11][12] In 1921, Barbour was elected as the state organizer for the federation.[13] In the role, Barbour traveled throughout Virginia and to other states to organize women workers, including in Louisiana in 1922.[14]

After moving to Reno, Nevada, around 1924, Barbour remained active in the labor movement and served as secretary-treasurer of the Nevada State Federation of Labor for over eight years.[15][16][17] In her role as secretary-treasurer, Barbour helped mobilize union volunteers and resources in support of Franklin D. Roosevelt in the 1932 United States presidential election.[18]

Suffrage

By around 1910, Barbour was circulating petitions calling for an amendment to the Constitution of Virginia to grant women the right to vote.[19] Barbour was an early member of the Equal Suffrage League of Virginia. She traveled throughout the state and spoke to various women's groups and labor unions about the importance of women's suffrage and how it related to the improvement of working conditions.[20]

In 1914, Barbour testified before the Virginia House of Delegates Committee on Privileges and Elections to advocate for women's suffrage.[21] While the effort was unsuccessful, Barbour continued her advocacy over the next several years, while also supporting efforts to found a women's college at the University of Virginia through the Co-Ordinate College League of Virginia.[6]

Barbour continued to encourage the broader labor movement to support the cause of women's suffrage, and in 1917 she played a key role in the Virginia Federation of Labor's formal endorsement of women's suffrage at its annual convention.[22][23]

After women earned the right to vote nationally after the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920, Barbour remained active in the cause of promoting women's voter registration and civic engagement. After moving to Nevada, she was an active member of the Nevada League of Women Voters and was elected as its state secretary.[24]

Public service

From 1910 until 1917, Barbour was appointed as a factory inspector for the Virginia Bureau of Labor. In the role, she traveled throughout the state and investigated violations of state workplace laws related to safety, sanitation, and child labor. She cited hundreds of factories and establishments for violations.[2]

In 1915, Governor of Virginia Henry Carter Stuart appointed Barbour as one of Virginia's delegates to the National Child Labor Convention. In April 1917, Governor Stuart appointed Barbour as the only woman to serve on the newly established Virginia Industrial Council of Safety, which was tasked with investigating conditions contributing to the Great Northward Migration of Virginia's African Americans and providing recommendations to the governor and legislature.[6]

Barbour was appointed as an inspector for the United States Children's Bureau in 1917.[25] She traveled throughout the United States to factories, canneries, shipyards, and various other industrial workspaces, where she worked to enforce compliance with the Keating-Owen Child Labor Act of 1916. Later, Barbour worked for the Internal Revenue Service as a tax inspector focusing on child labor issues.[2]

As a federal appointee, Barbour was a member of the Association of Governmental Labor Officials of the United States and Canada, where she chaired a session on child labor in 1922 and remarked that no state in the United States had "the proper facilities for enforcing every section of its law for the protection of children."[14]

Barbour opposed prohibition in the United States and was elected as a delegate to Nevada's convention to repeal the Eighteenth Amendment in 1933, serving as the convention's elected secretary.[26][27] During the 1930s, she also served as president of the Nevada Department of Education Auxiliary.[28]

During World War II, Barbour was the president of the Reno chapter of the American Legion Auxiliary, helping to lead home-front activities in support of the war effort. She later served as the auxiliary's National Committeewoman representing the State of Nevada.[29]

She later served as president of the Reno Women's Civic Club in the 1960s.[6]

Nevada State Assembly election

Barbour was a candidate for the Nevada State Assembly in 1944 as a Democrat. She was unsuccessful in the Democratic primary.[1]

Death

Barbour returned to Virginia to live in a Roanoke nursing home during her final years, and died from a heart attack on May 18, 1985, two months after her 100th birthday. She is buried in Mountain View Cemetery in Vinton, Virginia.[30]

References
  1. "Lillie Mary Barbour – Nevada Women's History Project". suffrage100nv.org. Retrieved 2022-11-18.
  2. Binheim, Max; Elvin, Charles A. (1928). Women of the West; a series of biographical sketches of living eminent women in the eleven western states of the United States of America. University of Connecticut Libraries. Los Angeles, Calif., Publishers Press. p. 139.
  3. "J. B. Clinedinst Papers". University of Nevada, Reno. Special Collections Department Repository. Retrieved 17 November 2022.
  4. Washoe County, Nevada, Marriage Register, Book H, 66, Washoe County Marriage Department, Reno, NV
  5. International Molders' Journal. International Molders' Union of North America. 1926. p. 680.
  6. "Dictionary of Virginia Biography - Lillie Mary Barbour Biography". www.lva.virginia.gov. Retrieved 2022-11-18.
  7. Hill's Roanoke, Va. City Directory. Hill Directory Company. 1913.
  8. The Garment Worker: Official Organ of the United Garment Workers of America. United Garment Workers of America. 1914.
  9. Labor, Virginia State Federation of (1913). Official Proceedings of the Annual Convention.
  10. Report of Proceedings of the ... Annual Convention of the American Federation of Labor. 1917.
  11. Labor, American Federation of (1919). Protokoll Der ... Jahres-convention Der American Federation of Labor.
  12. Labor, American Federation of (1926). Official Report of Proceedings of the ... Annual Convention of the American Federation of Labor.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
  13. Richmond Evening Dispatch, 6 Apr. 1921
  14. Reno Nevada State Journal, 16 July 1925; Proceedings of the Ninth Annual Convention of the Association of Governmental Labor Officials of the United States and Canada…1922 (1923), 27, 33
  15. Official Proceedings of Convention. Nevada State Federation of Labor. 1924.
  16. Brooklyn Daily Eagle Almanac. Brooklyn Daily Eagle. 1926. p. 462.
  17. The Catering Industry Employee. Hotel and Restaurant Employees and Beverage Dispensers International Alliance. 1932.
  18. America, International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Stablemen, and Helpers of (1932). Official Magazine. The Brotherhood. p. 26.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  19. Ladd-Taylor, Molly (1995). Mother-Work: Women, Child Welfare, and the State, 1890-1930. University of Illinois Press. ISBN 978-0-252-06482-1.
  20. "Richmond Times-Dispatch 31 December 1914 — Virginia Chronicle: Digital Newspaper Archive". virginiachronicle.com. Retrieved 2022-11-18.
  21. Harper, Ida Husted (1920). The History of Woman Suffrage. National American Woman Suffrage Association. p. 669.
  22. Batson, Brent Tarter, Marianne E. Julienne & Barbara C. (2020). Campaign for Woman Suffrage in Virginia, The. Arcadia Publishing. p. 35. ISBN 978-1-4671-4419-3.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  23. The Woman Citizen. Leslie Woman Suffrage Commission. 1917. p. 122.
  24. Irwin, Mrs Inez (Haynes); Gillmore, Inez Haynes (1933). Angels and Amazons: A Hundred Years of American Women. Doubleday, Doran, Incorporated. p. 313.
  25. Official U. S. Bulletin. United States Committee on Public Information. 1919.
  26. "This date in 1933: Nevada votes to repeal prohibition". Detroit Free Press. Retrieved 2022-11-18.
  27. Brown, Everett Somerville (2003). Ratification of the Twenty-First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States: State Convention Records and Laws. The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd. p. 274. ISBN 978-1-58477-278-1.
  28. Nevada Educational Bulletin. Nevada Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction. 1919. p. 8.
  29. National News. The Auxiliary. 1951. p. 20.
  30. Death Certificate (with birth date), Roanoke City, Bureau of Vital Statistics, Commonwealth of Virginia Department of Health, Record Group 36, LVA
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