Lucy Randolph Mason papers, 1912-1954

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Summary

Creator:
Mason, Lucy Randoph, 1882-1959 and Sallie Bingham Center for Women's History and Culture
Abstract:
Lucy Randolph Mason (1882-1959) was a white suffragist and labor activist who served for over fourteen years as the Public Relations Representative for the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) in the South. Collection contains correspondence, writings, speeches, and notes, papers related to Mason's labor activism and other interests, and clippings. Collection material largely documents Mason's work for the CIO, especially how she worked to positively change public attitudes towards organized labor, her local interventions on behalf of labor organizers and striking workers, and the relationship between Christianity and labor unions.
Extent:
9.75 Linear Feet
Language:
Material in English.
Collection ID:
RL.00854

Background

Scope and content:

Collection material largely documents Mason's work for the CIO, especially her efforts to improve public attitudes towards organized labor; her local interventions on behalf of labor organizers and striking workers; and her role and the relationship between Christianity and labor unions.

The Correspondence series contains correspondence to and from Lucy Mason, as well as related accompanying materials, dating from 1917 to 1954. The correspondence is largely professional and documents Mason's work as the CIO's Public Relations Representative, although some pieces of personal correspondence are scattered throughout the series.

The Writings, Speeches, and Notes series contains much of Lucy Mason's work output as the CIO's Public Relations Representative, It is largely composed of her writings and associated drafts and notes, her speeches and associated notes, and the field notes and memoranda that she created during or shortly after site visits to towns or workplaces. This series also contains drafts of Mason's CIO memoirs, To Win These Rights, as well as other shorter publications and by Mason, at times writing as Lucy Cary. Also of interest are Mason's field notes, which give hyper-local and detailed insight into a given town or company's attitudes towards organized labor and their employment policies and history.

The Labor and Activism Papers series contains publications, printed materials, administrative materials, and other items related to the organizations, people, events, and causes with which Lucy Mason was involved. Materials in this series largely document Mason's work with and interest in labor unions, union-affiliated organizations, and Christian organizations, as well as Mason's interest in voting issues, pacifism, interracial cooperation, and racial equality for Black Americans.

The Clippings series contains newspaper and magazine clippings largely from Southern newspapers, as well as a few typescript copies of articles, related to Lucy Mason's many interests and causes.

Common topics that recur throughout the collection include: Southern textile mills; economic problems in the South; workers' rights to organize and strike; violation of workers' rights by company staff and anti-union citizens; violence against labor organizers and striking workers, particularly police violence; strikes; the relationship between Christianity and labor, especially how Christian principles support unionization; racial tensions between white and Black workers in the South; the importance of interracial unionization; civil rights for Black Americans; Southern newspapers and their treatment of labor unions; the education of workers; voting issues, including women's suffrage, poll taxes, the county unit system in Georgia, and voter intimidation; labor- and union-related legislation and policies; Communism, especially its conflation with labor organization; fascism and white supremacy; and the effects of World War II upon labor and unions; Franklin D. Roosevelt's presidency; and Georgia politics.

Recurring correspondents, names, and organizations represented in this collection include: Allan S. Haywood, John L. Lewis, Jonathan Daniels (Raleigh News & Observer), Eleanor Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Paul Christopher, Virginus Dabney (Richmond Times-Dispatch), Ralph Jones (Atlanta Constitution), Philip Murray, Bernard "Buck" Borah, Robert Ramspeck, Ellis Arnall, Van A. Bittner, Margaret Fisher, Robert Starnes, Brownie Lee Jones, Myles Horton, John G. Ramsay, George Baldanzi, Gladys Dickason; Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO), United Mine Workers of America (UMWA), Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America (ACWA), Textile Workers Union of America (TWUA), Textile Workers Organizing Committee (TWOC), American Federation of Labor (AFL), National Association of Manufacturers (NAM); the Federal Council of Churches and its Department of Church and Economic Life, Highlander Folk School, the National Religion and Labor Foundation, the Southern Conference Educational Fund (SCEF), the Southern Conference for Human Welfare, the Southern Regional Council (SRC), the Southern School for Workers; and staff from the Civil Rights Section of the Department of Justice, including Victor Rotnem, Toxey Hall, Tom Clark, A. Abbot Rosen, and T. Vincent Quinn.

Biographical / historical:

Lucy Randolph Mason (1882-1959) was a white suffragist and labor activist who worked for over fourteen years with the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) as its Public Relations Representative in the South. Born in Virginia on 1882 July 26, Lucy Randolph Mason was the daughter of Rev. Landon Randolph and Lucy (Ambler) Mason and a descendant of George Mason. Her parents instilled in her an active interest in social problems, and she devoted her life to improving economic and working conditions for women, factory workers, and Black Americans. Mason taught herself stenography and typing, went to work in a law office in Richmond, Virginia, and became active in the Richmond Equal Suffrage League and the League of Women Voters. During this time (1906-1914) she published several newspaper articles and pamphlets in support of women's suffrage under the pseudonym of Lucy Cary.

Mason served as industrial secretary for the Richmond YWCA from 1914 to 1918 and then as its general secretary from 1923 to 1932. During her time with the Richmond YWCA, Mason encouraged economic reform in the Black business community, interracial cooperation, and equality for Black citizens. In 1931 she was employed for two months by the National Consumers League to work with the Southern Council on Women and Children in Industry in an attempt to create more favorable public attitudes toward child labor legislation and restrictions on working hours for women and children in factories.

In 1937 Mason moved to Atlanta, Georgia, to assume a post with the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) in the South, first on its Textile Workers Organizing Committee (TWOC) and then as its Public Relations Representative. A vaguely defined role, Mason essentially served as an ambassador for the CIO and as an advisor to labor organizers, striking workers, and unions. During her time with the CIO, Mason represented labor interests during strikes and visited communities where the CIO was attempting to organize workers. These visits often entailed Mason traveling alone to small towns; confronting anti-union law enforcement, companies, and citizens; helping labor organizers who had been threatened, beaten or otherwise harmed, or arrested; and filing complaints with the Department of Justice's Civil Rights Section. Through her site visits, Mason played an imporant role in the CIO's post-World War II "Operation Dixie," which aimed to organize as many labor unions in the South as possible. In addition to this work, Mason attended many college conferences, made speeches, wrote articles, and carried on an extensive correspondence with labor leaders, politicians, journalists, manufacturers, and church representatives. Mason believed strongly that Christian principles and beliefs supported laborers' right to organize, and much of her work in the later 1940s and early 1950s focused on the relationship between churches and organized labor. She also continually emphasized the importance of organizing both white and Black workers to ameliorate economic and racial problems in the South.

Due to failing health, Mason stopped traveling for the CIO in early 1951 and spent the next year gathering information for and writing her CIO memoirs. Shortly before retiring in 1952, Mason published these memoirs, entitled To Win These Rights. Lucy Mason died in 1959 at the age of 77 in Atlanta.

Sources consulted: John A. Salmond, Miss Lucy of the CIO: The Life and Times of Lucy Randolph Mason, 1882-1959 (University of Georgia Press, 1988); "Key People in Labor History: Lucy Randolph Mason," AFL-CIO website (accessed 2025 June 05).

Acquisition information:
The Lucy Randolph Mason papers were received by the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book Manuscript Library as a gifts from Lucy Randolph Mason and George S. Mitchell from 1953-1954. Originally acquired as part of Duke University Library's Labor Archives.
Processing information:

Originally processed by Rubenstein Library staff. Encoded by Paula Jeannet, March 2011. Collection rehoused by Tracy M. Jackson in 2022; minor finding aid updates in 2024.

Reprocessed by Leah Tams, June 2025. Reprocessed to enhance collection-, series-, and file-level notes and to better organize and describe what was previously described as Miscellany and Printed Materials.

Accessions described in this collection guide: 48-1553, 48-1559, 48-1717, 48-1889.

Arrangement:

Arranged into the following series: Correspondence; Writings, Speeches, and Notes; Labor and Activism Papers; Clippings.

Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Subjects

Click on terms below to find related finding aids on this site. For other related materials in the Duke University Libraries, search for these terms in the Catalog.

Subjects:
African Americans -- Civil rights -- Southern States
African American labor union members -- Southern States
Labor -- Religious aspects -- Christianity -- Southern States
Labor laws and legislation -- United States
Labor leaders -- United States
Labor unions -- Southern States -- Public Opinion
Labor unions and communism -- Southern States
Labor unions and education -- Southern States
Labor union members -- Abuse of -- Southern States
Right to strike -- Southern States
Suffragists -- Southern States
Textile factories -- Southern States
Textile workers -- Southern States
Women -- Suffrage -- Southern States
World War, 1939-1945 -- Economic aspects -- United States
Working class -- Southern States
Names:
Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America
American Federation of Labor
Congress of Industrial Organizations (U.S.)
Congress of Industrial Organizations (U.S.). Textile Workers Organizing Committee
Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America. Department of the Church and Economic Life
Highlander Folk School (Monteagle, Tenn.)
National Religion and Labor Foundation (U.S.)
Southern Conference Educational Fund
Southern Conference for Human Welfare
Southern Regional Council
Southern School for Workers (Richmond, Va.)
Textile Workers Union of America
United States. Department of Justice. Civil Rights Section
Sallie Bingham Center for Women's History and Culture
Arnall, Ellis Gibbs, 1907-1992
Baldanzi, George, 1907-1972
Bittner, Van A. (Van Amberg), 1885-1949
Christopher, Paul R., 1910-1974
Daniels, Jonathan, 1902-1981
Dickason, Gladys
Haywood, Allan S., 1888-1953
Hillman, Sidney, 1887-1946
Horton, Myles (Myles Falls), 1905-1990
Jones, Brownie Lee, 1897-1980
Lewis, John L. (John Llewellyn), 1880-1969
Mason, Lucy Randoph, 1882-1959
Mitchell, George Sinclair, 1902-1962
Murray, Philip, 1886-1952
Ramsay, John (John Gates), 1902-1991
Roosevelt, Eleanor, 1884-1962
Roosevelt, Franklin D. (Franklin Delano), 1882-1945
Places:
Georgia -- Politics and government
Southern States -- Race relations -- Economic aspects
Southern States -- Economic conditions

Contents

Using These Materials

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Using These Materials

Restrictions:

Collection is open for research.

Terms of access:

The copyright interests in this collection have not been transferred to Duke University. For more information, consult the copyright section of the Regulations and Procedures of the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library.

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Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], Lucy Randolph Mason Papers, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University.

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