Mildred McAdory
Mildred McAdory was an American organizer, community leader, and civil rights activist. Originally a domestic worker, she was a member of the Communist Party USA and the Southern Negro Youth Congress. In 1942, she received media attention after being arrested for refusing to rise from her bus seat to police. She later moved to New York City, where she worked as a reporter and organizer. She was later an unsuccessful candidate for the New York State Assembly and the United States Senate.
Early life
McAdory was born on June 23, 1915, in Homewood, Alabama. She was one of three children to Crittle McAdory and Irving McAdory, the latter a market gardener and miner. Despite being the only black miner in his community, he was respected; he represented two fellow miners in court, and also signed checks for the men, as they were illiterate. McAdory began attending school at age five. Her mother lied, stating she was seven years old, for her to be allowed to attend. In an interview, McAdory said that she began to develop her beliefs after witnessing a white superintendent call a black teacher by her first name, a sign of disrespect. She attended a private high school, which her father funded the tuition of. In high school, she played for the basketball and track and field teams. During the Great Depression, McAdory's family established a small farm.Following high school, McAdory became a domestic worker, due to a lack of other jobs available. She later attended a private college in Alabama. On August 11, 1932, she married Samuel Steele; they had one child, Stephen. They divorced in 1942.
Career
Early career
McAdory was a member of the Communist Party USA, having joined as a young adult. In the early 1940s, she was placed under watch by the Federal Bureau of Investigation for her communist activities. She was recruited to the Southern Negro Youth Congress by Esther Cooper Jackson and Dorothy Burnham. McAdory first worked for the SNYC as a clerk, and in 1939, became a staffer and served as director the SNYC's Fairfield Recreational Youth Center, a center which hosted classes and activities. As director, she helped increase its membership to 300 and its participance to 1,500. On August 10, 1940, she attempted to vote in an election. Despite passing the voter requirements, her vote was voided. On July 30, 1942, Arthur Shores filed a lawsuit on her behalf to the circuit court, seeking $5,000 in damages and an injunction. The jury ruled against her.Arrest
On the night of December 12, 1942, McAdory, alongside three or five other SNYC members, boarded a bus travelling from Fairfield to Birmingham. She had spent the workday organizing a scrap drive at the Fairfield Recreational Youth Center to support the war effort of World War II. She sat in the full colored section, which was signified by both a removable wooden board and a line on the roof of the bus. A second board stood, in the colored section, two rows behind the first one. Two men boarded the bus and sat in the row ahead of McAdory, sitting atop the wooden booard, which had been at some point removed; they later moved it onto the floor.When the bus driver ordered the two men to move behind the board, they declined. The bus driver called the police, and when police asked who moved the board, the bus driver pointed at the four black people sat in front of the board: the two men, McAdory, and another man sat beside her.
The four were ordered to exit the bus and enter the police car, which McAdory refused. Police threatened to beat her when she asked what she was being charged with. Instead of arresting her, police took another man – who was standing – and left. Afterward, she and another black man willingly exited the bus, with her threatening to the bus driver to report them to the bus company. The bus driver encouraged her, then kicked her in the back as she was exiting and yelled to police to arrest her also.
During questioning, McAdory claimed to not know who moved the board. While being processed, an officer kicked her in the back, slapped her in the face, punched her in the shoulder, and hit her on the hip with a baton. The officer composed himself, after which McAdory was brought to a holding cell occupied by five other women. In an interview, she described the cell being swarmed with cockroaches, and her mattress being as "hard and dirty as the floor". She did not receive a phone call or bail. During her trial, the police officer who arrested her and bus driver reportedly gave false testimonies. She later said she should have shown the bruises underneath her skirt, despite objection from her attorney, Arthur Shores. In March 1944, she was found guilty and was fined $10.
The story of McAdory's arrest was published in For Common Courtesy on Common Carriers, an SNYC pamphlet. It also spawned the creation of the short-lived Citizens Committee for Equal Accommodations on Common Carriers, which advocated for racial equality on public transport. She and James E. Jackson organized a boycott on Birmingham's buses for a short time. She spoke about the incident at events across Alabama; at one, in 1943, at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, she met a young Martin [Luther King Jr.].
Later career and personal life
In the third quarter of 1944, she moved to New York City to work as a switchboard operator for the Daily Worker, later becoming a reporter. She made the suggestion to simplify the wording of the paper's articles after learning some of its readers did not know the reasons as to the arrest of Benjamin J. Davis Jr., and was fired for making the suggestion. After departing from the paper, she became an organizer for the CPUSA and the United Furniture Workers of America, a trade union. She remained under watch by the FBI due to her organizing. She spoke at multiple CPUSA events, including its 1947 national convention. For some time, she headed the United Harlem Tenants and Consumers Organization, a housing rights organization. In 1949, she worked as a switchboard operator for the headquarters of the New York County Communist Party.In 1960, she and Arnold Johnson ran for the New York State Assembly in the 13th district, McAdory on a dual ticket of the CPUSA and the People's Party. During a campaign event on August 23, police attacked her husband, Joseph Edelman, after he criticized hecklers. As they left the event, a group of 150 surrounded her vehicle to block attackers. She and Johnson were later removed from the ballot due to not having filed as left-wing candidates, a violation of the McCarran Internal Security Act. Their removal was challenged by four Democrats in a complaint to the New York State Board of Elections.
In the late 1960s, she worked at the Benjamin J. Davis Bookstore and Center, named for Benjamin J. Davis Jr..
In 1974, she unsuccessfully ran for the United States Senate with the CPUSA.
With Joseph Edelman, McAdory had a son, Stephen McAdory Steelman, who was a furniture maker. He died on May 4, 1951, aged 18, of illness. She died in November 1988, aged 73.