When Lucy brought her two children to see their father for the last time. she was arrested. along with her kids. taken to jail. forced to strip. and left naked with her children in a cold cell until her husband had been hanged dead. In tears upon her release. she vowed to continue to fight injustice and served as a radical labor leader for nearly 70 years. It was not easy for Clara Lemlich. a 16yearold immigrant garment worker. who at a meeting at New Yorks Cooper Union in November 1909. stood and recited her hardships in the sweatshops. galvanizing the audience with her call for action. The impassioned crowd affirmed its solidarity with the old Jewish oath. "If I turn traitor to the cause I now pledge. may this hand wither from the arm I now raise." A garment workers strike banner read. "We are starving white we work. we might as well starve while we strike!" And it was not easy for a young New York City researcher and social reformer named Frances. who while visiting a friend on March 25. 1911. suddenly heard the clanging of fire engines close by. Rushing out to the street. she saw the top floors of the Triangle Shirtwaist Company erupting in flames and watched with horror as young women workers leaped to their deaths.
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immigrant