Ann Washington Craton

Ann Washington Craton
Ann Washington Craton
Ann Washington Craton
Born(1901-09-01)September 1, 1901
North Carolina, US
Died1970
Rockville, Maryland, US
Alma materColumbian College of Arts and Sciences, George Washington University
Known forLabor and feminist activism
SpouseHeber Blankenhorn

Ann Washington Craton (1891–1970) was a labor activist, social services, worker, and feminist who helped to organize and support low-paid women workers who worked in rural and suburban garment factories during the 1920s. Middle-class and American-born, she helped to expand unionization work beyond the then-dominant Yiddish-speaking urban shops of the time and helped as well to overcome male-dominated resistance to female labor organization. Using trial and error as her method, she became adept at working with women of varying ages and ethnic backgrounds. She refused to adopt party-line labor political positions. She successfully overcame accusations of being merely a "sentimental middle-class liberal" or "bourgeois intellectual" and showed that enthusiastic and idealistic college-trained women organizers could perform at least as well as the working-class men who dominated the labor movement.[1][2]: 1031 [3] Craton wrote vividly of her experiences in contemporary news sources. As organizer and activist, she helped to reduce and alleviate the hardships of child labor, provide relief for families in distress, and place unwanted children in good homes.

Born in North Carolina, she received a Bachelor of Arts degree from George Washington University in 1915 and attended the Columbia University Graduate School of Social Sciences in the early 1920s. During the depression years of the 1930s, she worked in public service agencies including the Institute of Social and Religious Research, the WPA Public Works of Art project, and the New York Temporary Emergency Relief Committee. After her marriage to Heber Blankenhorn in 1936, she devoted her time to study and research but produced nothing for publication.

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference Major Problems in the History of American Workers 1991 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference Autobiography 1976 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference The Woman Worker and the Trade Unions 1926 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).