Ah Quon McElrath
{{Short description|Social activist in Hawaii}}
Ah Quon McElrath (15 December 1915 – 11 December 2008) was a Hawaii labor reform leader and social activist. She retired in 1981, but spent her career advocating for unions by pushing for equal pay and treatment from the Big Five in Hawaii.
Early life
McElrath was born Leong Yuk Quon in Iwilei after her parents immigrated to Hawaii from Zhongshan, China.{{cite book |last1=Yung |first1=Judy |last2=Chang |first2=Gordon H |last3=Lai |first3=H. Mark |title=Chinese American voices: from the gold rush to the present |date=2006 |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=978-0-520-93832-8 |pages=259–271 |oclc=64466216}} Her father worked many small jobs, and died when McElrath was 5 years old.{{cite journal |last1=Rigelhaupt |first1=Jess |title=Solidarity Stories: An Oral History of the Ilwu |journal=The Oral History Review |date=1 September 2011 |volume=38 |issue=2 |pages=430–433 |doi=10.1093/ohr/ohr092 |jstor=41440942}} After her father's death, McElrath and her siblings worked in pineapple canneries.{{Cite web|url=https://www.ilwu.org/ah-quon-mcelrath/|title=Ah Quon McElrath|website=www.ilwu.org|date=17 May 2004 |language=en-US|access-date=2018-04-06}}
At age 17, McElrath went to a burlesque theater to hear Upton Sinclair, a famed muckraker, give a speech on poverty. This speech was her inspiration to become a social activist.{{citation needed|date=January 2018}}
Career and activism
While enrolled in the University of Hawaiʻi, Ah Quon McElrath joined the leftist Interprofessional Association and met Communist Party USA leader Jack Hall, who was the head of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) Local 142.{{cite book |last1=Coffman |first1=Tom |chapter=With Justice for All |pages=58–71 |jstor=j.ctt6wqgrf.9 |title=I Respectfully Dissent: A Biography of Edward H. Nakamura |date=2012 |publisher=University of Hawaiʻi Press |isbn=978-0-8248-3572-9}}
After graduation she worked at the Board of Public Welfare.
McElrath started volunteering for the ILWU in the 1940s by making speeches and signing up dockworkers as union members. She volunteered her skills as a social worker widely, such as in the aftermath of the 1946 tsunami in Hilo. While on leave, she also became involved with the sugar strike of 1946, teaching strikers what rights they were entitled to.
In 1954 she became a paid union social worker with the ILWU,{{cite journal |last1=Frank |first1=Dana |title=Daughters of Mother Jones |journal=The Women's Review of Books |date=1996 |volume=14 |issue=1 |pages=17–19 |doi=10.2307/4022516 |jstor=4022516}} and worked there she retired in 1981.{{Cite web|url=https://www.bizjournals.com/pacific/stories/2008/12/08/daily76.html|title=Hawaii activist Ah Quon McElrath dies at 92|last=|first=|date=December 12, 2008|website=www.bizjournals.com|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=2018-04-06}} In 1981, she served on the board of a civil rights advocacy organization founded by Hawaii defense attorney David Schutter.
Communism links
In 1971, the FBI released information naming the Central Committee of the Communist Party USA in Hawaii. Aside from McElrath, the list included Jack Hall, Jack Denichi Kimoto, John Reinecke, and Robert McElrath.{{cite book |last1=Ahlquist |first1=John S. |last2=Levi |first2=Margaret |chapter=Provoking Preferences |pages=155–184 |jstor=j.ctt32bc75.11 |title=In the Interest of Others: Organizations and Social Activism |date=2013 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=978-0-691-15857-0}} Hall, Kimoto, Reinecke, and four others were put on trial for violating the Smith Act.{{Cite web|url=http://www.hawaii.edu/uhwo/clear/HonoluluRecord/articles/v10n26/Smith%20Act%20Victory%20Exposes%20Hawaiis%20McCarthyism%20Set%20Up.html|title=Smith Act Victory Exposes Hawaii's McCarthyism Set-Up|website=www.hawaii.edu|access-date=2018-04-07}}
Retirement
After retirement, McElrath continued to advocate for the poor, women's rights, education, and health care. For two years after retirement she worked with the Villers Foundation to improve the Supplemental Security Income program. She also served on the Board of Regents at the University of Hawaiʻi, and helped to create the Ethnic Studies department there.{{Cite web|url=https://manoa.hawaii.edu/news/article.php?aId=2596|title=System: Statement from UH President David McClain on the passing of Emeritus Regent Ah Quon McElrath {{!}} University of Hawaii News|website=manoa.hawaii.edu|access-date=2018-04-07}} McElrath received an honorary doctorate from the university in 1988{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780813522692|title=Rocking the boat : union women's voices, 1915-1975|date=1996|publisher=Rutgers University Press|others=O'Farrell, Brigid., Kornbluh, Joyce L.|isbn=0813522692|location=New Brunswick, New Jersey|oclc=42328763|url-access=registration}} and the UH Founders Alumni Association Lifetime Achievement Award in 2004.{{Cite web|url=https://manoa.hawaii.edu/news/article.php?aId=730|title=System: UH Alumni Association Announces 2004 Distinguished Alumni Award Recipients {{!}} University of Hawaiʻi News|website=manoa.hawaii.edu|access-date=2018-04-06}}
References
{{reflist|2}}
External links
- [http://uluulu.hawaii.edu/titles/14698 Oral history interview]
{{DEFAULTSORT:McElrath, Ah Quon}}
Category:University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa alumni
Category:Members of the Communist Party USA
Category:Activists from Hawaii
Category:International Longshore and Warehouse Union people
Category:Chinese emigrants to the United States