The Life of Elaine Black Yoneda, In Her Own Words

The concept for Women’s History Month was born in California, beginning as a local, week-long celebration in Santa Rosa in 1978. The idea quickly spread across the country as other communities adopted their own versions of the celebration, and in 1980 President Jimmy Carter issued a proclamation instituting a nationwide “Women’s History Week.” This eventually evolved to encompass an entire month, observed annually, and designated each year by Presidential proclamation. Every March, we take the opportunity to recognize the achievements, struggles, and experiences of women by telling their stories and exploring individual contributions to history as well as contemporary life.

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Examining the past can allow us to understand and appreciate the people, places, and events that have made up our history, inform our present, and inevitably shape our future. Studying what came before can help route the course for a world that is more inclusive and equitable. It’s common to learn the stories behind well-known names, the key players in text books, interpretations of the past that are well-loved and often repeated. These stories are important, yes, and their reappearance in our lives in no way diminishes their significance, but what about the other, less talked about stories?

Recently I made a trip downstairs to visit CHS’s North Baker Research Library, feeling a bit overwhelmed by my task of identifying a source around which to compose a Women’s History Month blog. There are a lot of women of gumption ingrained into the story of our state…so where to begin? Luckily, my colleague, Lynda Letona, had recently stumbled upon the oral history of Elaine Black Yoneda, a gem in our collection because of the figure behind the name but also unique because the history is oral and publicly available online.

A complete typed transcript of Yoneda’s oral history is stored in our vaults as well, so Lynda hauled the thick volume up for me to peruse. Within a few minutes I was entranced by this woman and elbows deep in her life. Across 7 days and 14 hours in the late 1970’s, at Elaine’s apartment in the Outer Mission District of San Francisco, the interviewer proceeds with a purpose to “obtain Yoneda’s background, schooling, early life, marriages, and involvement in the left wing movement of the thirties. Then to develop her activities and motivations as an official of the International Labor Defense, and as a member of the Communist Party, particularly her thinking and opinions as a woman leader during that period.” 

Transcript of  Elaine Black Yoneda's oral history, 1978

The thing I love about Elaine’s oral history is that it’s told from her first person perspective and speaks to her political activism, but also includes descriptions of her personal life, things she experienced as a woman, daughter, sister, and mother, as well as how those experiences affected and were affected by her public life and work. It is compelling because so much of it is relatable and provides insight into the little things that make up a life, the things that make us human and connect us across time and diversity of experience. Her work was radical for her era, especially as a woman, and echoes battles still being waged across the nation and world today.

Elaine Black Yoneda was born in 1906 in New York City to Russian Jewish immigrant parents. Her family moved to California in the 1920's and Elaine’s political awareness emerged after she experienced police brutality at a mass unemployment demonstration in Los Angeles. From there she quickly became a civil rights leader with the International Labor Defense (ILD), an organization for the defense of political and trade union prisoners, including deportees. She earned the nicknames “Red Angel” during the 1934 waterfront strike and General Strike in San Francisco, and “Tiger Girl” in Salinas during an agricultural strike. She was arrested many times, and used the courtroom as a forum to bring to light civil rights violations, including the right of free speech and the right to assemble.

Like many good stories, this one includes love and drama. Yoneda’s oral history outlines both of her marriages, including her second marriage to a Japanese American activist named Karl “Hama” Yoneda, whom she met when she bailed him out of jail as part of her duties working for the ILD. (He changed his name in honor of Karl Marx). They married in Seattle, as anti-miscgenation laws still in place at the time made it illegal for them to marry in California. As Japanese Americans, Karl and their son Tommy were sent to Manzanar Interment Camp following the attack on Pearl Harbor. Elaine insisted on joining them. 

The Yoneda family at Manzanar Internment Camp in 1942, credit: TradingCardsNPS 

Throughout her oral history one can garner a sense of Elaine’s passion for the labor movement, her convictions about civil liberties, tenderness towards her children and family, and snippets of wisdom gleaned from 70 years of life experience. She discusses her childhood as a second generation American with revolutionary parents, her hopes for her daughter, and her participation in the Salinas Lettuce Strike, National Scottsboro Week, and the Spanish Civil War relief. She discusses being the only woman on the steering committee of the 1934 San Francisco Strike, her unsuccessful campaign for a seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1939, and examples of male chauvinism within the Communist Party in the 1930’s. It’s engaging, informative, inspiring. 

Elaine Black Yoneda with “Free the Scottsboro Boys” Activists, 1934

California Historical Society

Elaine Black Yoneda died on May 29, 1988, one day after attending a longshoreman’s rally in support of Reverend Jesse Jackson’s presidential campaign. She leaves us with some wisdom to be passed on to future political activists:

“Sometimes some of them have a tendency (perhaps I did at that age) to think that the revolution should have happened yesterday. There may be many tomorrows. You have to work with the people, and you have to discuss their needs, not just your own needs, and see it from a wider perspective than just a narrow path. Things do not happen overnight. It takes a long period of working for an objective and if it’s the right one, eventually you’ll get it.” … “ I think for a while they tended to disregard everything that is so-called history. 'We don’t need history, that’s ancient.' But more and more, are beginning to see the need to at least know that history so that they don’t commit some of the same errors that others committed.”

Listen to the full oral history of Elaine Black Yoneda here or visit our North BakerResearch Library to read a transcript of the interview.

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by Katie Peeler, Marketing Associate at California Historical Society

Celebrating Women's Stories During National Hispanic Heritage Month

Each year, starting on September 15 and continuing for 30 days, the history, culture, and contributions of those whose ancestors came from Spain, Mexico, the Caribbean, and Central and South America is celebrated during National Hispanic Heritage Month. The date of September 15 is significant because it marks the anniversary of independence for Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua. Mexico and Chile celebrate independence on September 16 and 18, respectively.

In honor of this important month, we dug into our archives to explore some of the incredible stories and individuals that enliven our state’s history. One of these characters is Hipolita Orendain de Medina (c.1847-c.1922), a Mexican-born San Franciscan socialite and author, whose portraits, correspondence, and miscellaneous materials are part of the CHS collection.

Early in her life, Hipolita moved to San Francisco with her her sister, Virginia, and their widowed mother, Francisca Tejada de Orendain. According to family tradition, Francisca inherited a fortune from her late husband, Jesus Orendain, who owned a Mexican silver mine. She invested her wealth in Oakland waterfront property, married Virginia native Humphrey Marshall, and provided financial support to a company of men fighting to liberate Mexico from French rule. Marshall died in the American Civil War, and the Orendain family lost much of their fortune. To help support the family, Hipolita and her sister Virginia worked as dressmakers in San Francisco.

In October 1869, Hipolita married Emilio (or Emigdio) Medina, a professional musician, diplomat, and editor of the Spanish-language newspaper La Republica. Emilio was sent by the President of Mexico to Europe, South America, and beyond to help forge a closer relationship between the United States and Spanish speaking countries. Together, Hipolita and Emilio had four daughters, Josefina, Virginia, Zarina, and Mercedes. In 1880, the couple separated, and later Hipolita referred to herself as a widow. She died circa 1922, and was buried in Los Angeles.

Francisca Tejada de Orendain and daughters, Hipolita and Virginia, Portraits from the Hipolita Orendain de Medina correspondence and miscellany, MSP 1441

The Hipolita Orendain de Medina collection offers a glimpse into the domestic, cultural, and political life of a cosmopolitan, multilingual community of native Californios and Latino immigrants in San Francisco in the second half of the nineteenth century. The personal notebooks, letters, poems, sheet music, cards, photographs, and other remembrances are full of delightful tidbits that provide an intimate glimpse into the life of a woman who was clearly revered and respected by the many with whom she came into contact. In our collection, we see many loving letters and photographs from visitors addressing her as friend.

The following journal entries are from Hipolita’s personal notebook:

[Notebook, undated]; Hipolita Orendain de Medina correspondence and miscellany, MS 1441; Box 1, folder 4; California Historical Society.

English translation:

I will be severe with myself

Duty is a moral monster; every time one does not fulfill one’s moral duty, one does not fulfill the others either

[Notebook, undated]; Hipolita Orendain de Medina correspondence and miscellany, MS 1441; Box 1, folder 4; California Historical Society.

English translation:

Neither all the sorrows nor all the happiness on earth can tear us apart; perhaps it is a defect (…), because (...) you will offer your soul and will pursue between the space left by pain and they will always be there (...)

Perfect happiness derives only from virtue

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The collection also gives insight into the political and historical forces that were influential at the time – references to the Franco-Mexican War and Mexican and Latin American nationalism abound.

Below is an excerpt from a hymn titled “Hymn to Zaragoza” written by Hipolita’s husband, Emilio Medina. Below the image of the original newspaper clipping of the hymn in Spanish are two stanzas translated in English.

Himno a Zaragoza, May 4, 1879; Hipolita Orendain de Medina correspondence and miscellany, MS 1441; Box 1, folder 3; California Historical Society.

Himno a Zaragoza – Hymn to Zaragoza

Of Hidalgo the beloved homeland

Admiringly contemplates your footprints,

And history in its beautiful pages

There inscribed you with eternal burin


Because you are the comet that shines

In the pure sapphire of sky

You, the flower that perfumes the ground

You, the brave and gentle warrior


Your memory is the sacred fire

That lifts the sons of Mexico

And in darkest hour of torment

Your invoked name is heard:


Its influence reanimates them,

Your name kindles their chests

And your clean fame is written

In the sky, in the air, and the sea.

--Translated by Lynda Letona

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While their writings express different preoccupations, there is a poetic quality to them that invoke a force greater than ourselves and a sense of duty as a rigorous journey that elevates the human spirit.

Citations:

Notebook, undated; Hipolita Orendain de Medina correspondence and miscellany, MS 1441; Box 1, folder 4; California Historical Society.

Himno a Zaragoza, May 4, 1879; Hipolita Orendain de Medina correspondence and miscellany, MS 1441; Box 1, folder 3; California Historical Society.

National Women’s History Month

Women of the Strike Delegation, International Longshoremen and Warehouse Unions, Local 6, 1948

California Historical Society

As Californians, we are proud to know that National Women’s Month was “born” in California. On March 12, 1987, a petition originated by the National Women’s History Project (NWHP) in Santa Rosa, Sonoma County, resulted in Congress’s passage of Public Law 100-9, designating March as National History Month. From 1988 on, presidential proclamations have formalized this designation. Each year, the NWHP selects a new theme.

Today CHS joins the nation as we celebrate the contributions to the Golden State in this year’s celebration of “Trailblazing Women in Labor and Business.” Recognizing all women who fight for equality in the work force, we present a few examples from the CHS Collections.

The following photo essay was inspired by and adapted from “Labor Collections at the California Historical Society,” a presentation by CHS archivist Marie Silva. 

Louise Todd Lambert

Louise Todd Lambert, 1930

California Historical Society

The California Historical Society is home to a wonderful collection of oral histories, recorded in the 1970s, documenting the lives and activism of women labor activists and radicals in California. One of the most fascinating of these interviews was conducted with Louise Todd Lambert, state organizational secretary for the Communist Party in California in the 1930s and 1940s.

Lambert’s oral history is an extraordinary document: the record of a courageous, self-reflective life, it provides moving insight into the essential role women played in the radical movements of the thirties and forties—and of the personal sacrifices they made, including imprisonment, childlessness, and exile, in the service of a collective vision.

Lambert herself served thirteen months at the Tehachapi Correctional Institute for Women on trumped-up charges of perjury after participating in successful efforts to get the Party on the state ballot for the first time in 1934. She went underground in the 1950s as the only woman member of the Party’s underground reserve leadership.

Helene Powell

Helene Powell and ILWU Local 6 Officials, 1943

California Historical Society

Helene Powell was an African American graduate of UC Berkeley who, like other women activists of the 1940s, addressed issues of gender discrimination in the workplace in addition to wages and work conditions. She believed that the influx of women into the workplace during World War II changed their expectations about gender equality at work and in the labor movement.

In 1943 Powell became ILWU’s international representative to Los Angeles, where she also registered African American and Mexican American women warehouse workers and was active in housing reform for minorities. A few years later she became an organizer and shop steward for ILWU, Local 6, in San Francisco, becoming active in the Legislative Committee. As a committee member, Powell was active in Local 6’s involvement in the war effort and in gender discrimination, rent control, and housing reform.

This photograph is part of the Helene Powell Oral History in the CHS Collections. If her oral history had not been recorded for CHS, her story would likely have been forgotten.

Filipina and Latina Grape Strikers of the 1960s and 1970s

Striking Grape Pickers Marching from Delano to Sacramento, 1969

California Historical Society

Most people know about Dolores Huerta, cofounder of the United Farm Workers and director of the national boycott during the Delano grape strike in 1965. Huerta was joined by other women leaders—Helen Chavez, Jessica Govea, Linda Legrete, and Esther Uranday. As a Huffington Post blog noted: “Few are aware that the union’s effort would have been fruitless had it not been for a group of women heroes who not only were among the first strikers, facing arrest and jail, but also conducted the behind the scenes work necessary to create a union.”

But the movement’s rank-and-file women also played significant roles. A 2014 article observed: “Women became the lifeblood of the union. . . . Women of all ages stood on picket lines, and some suffered violence. . . . When [César] Chávez defied a court-ordered picketing injunction at particular lettuce ranches, 15 women chose to get arrested with him.”

The farmworkers’ success was historic. From 1970 to 1973, the UFW represented 60,000 grape and lettuce pickers across the state. Of these, more than half were women.

Elaine Black Yoneda

Elaine Black Yoneda with “Free the Scottsboro Boys” Activists, 1934

California Historical Society

She was the daughter of Russian revolutionary immigrants. The only woman on the 1934 San Francisco waterfront strike committee. A voluntary prisoner at the Manzanar incarceration camp for Japanese Americans, where her husband and son were imprisoned during World War II.

Elaine Black Yoneda was known the “Tiger Woman” and the “Red Angel” among those who knew her. She was arrested about a dozen times for disturbing the peace, inciting riots, and unlawful assembly—even “seditious utterances.” A New York Times obituary referred to her as a “radical labor activist.” After the war she was chair of the Sonoma County chapter of the Civil Rights Congress; worked for the ILWU’s Pacific-Maritime Association pension fund until retirement; organized pilgrimages to Manzanar and advocated for reparations for Japanese Americans interned during the war.

Elaine Black Yoneda was a passionate activist for labor, civil liberties, women, peace, and interracial understanding throughout her life. Her oral history is part of the CHS Collections.

Shelly Kale
Publications and Strategic Projects Manager
skale@calhist.org 

Marie Silva
Acting Director of Library and Archives
Msilva@calhist.org 

Sources

• Katherine Bishop, “Elaine Black Yoneda, 81, Radical Labor Activist,” New York Time, May 30, 1988; http://www.nytimes.com/1988/05/30/obituaries/elaine-black-yoneda-81-radical-labor-activist.html 
• Lori Flores, “The Neglected Heroines of ‘César Chávez,’” March 31, 2014; https://www.colorlines.com/articles/neglected-heroines-c%C3%A9sar-ch%C3%A1vez 
• Maurice Hourdane, “UFW—Women Heroes in the Shadow,” September 30, 2014; http://www.huffingtonpost.com/maurice-jourdane/ufw-women-heroes-in-the-s_b_8218054.html
• Louise Todd Lambert Oral History, California Historical Society; https://archive.org/details/chi_00006/chi_00006_t01_a_access.mp3 
• Annelise Orleck, Rethinking American Women’s Activism (New York: Routledge, 2015)
• Helene Powell Oral History, California Historical Society; https://archive.org/details/chi_000014/chi_000014_t1_a_access.mp3
• Susan Ware, ed., Notable American Women: A Biographical Dictionary Completing the Twentieth Century (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2004)
• Elaine Black Yoneda, “ILWU’s ‘Red Angel,’” The Dispatcher, March 24, 1992; http://archive.ilwu.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/19920324.pdf
• Elaine Black Yoneda Oral History, California Historical Society; https://archive.org/details/chi_000015/chi_000015_t01_a_access.mp3 

CHS Celebrates Women’s History MonthMarch Fong Eu

Portrait of March Fong Eu during Her Term as California State Assembly Woman,

15th District, 1967–1974

California Historical Society 

CHS promotes National Women’s History Month and its theme, “Working to Form a More Perfect Union: Honoring Women in Public Service and Government,” by acknowledging the contributions of March Fong Eu (born 1922).