| I am seeking information on Anna (Burns) Sullivan, 1903-1976 (?), a pioneering labor leader. Her parents were Thomas F. Burns and Elizabeth Bleasius Burns (of Chicopee Falls). Anna began working in the mills at age 14. In the 1930s she helped organize the Skinner Mills Textile Workers Union. From 1940-67 she served as Executive Director of the Textile Workers Union of America (Holyoke Board); ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 1950 (against Rep. John Heseltine); was active in local Democratic Party politics; and later worked for the Mass. Commission Against Discrimination, 1963-70. For thirty years she lived at 35 Hitchcock St. in Holyoke. . I am also seeking information on the 1940 incident in which a Holyoke Protestant Church agreed to provide space for birth control crusader Margaret Sanger to give a talk, but then rescinded the invitation under pressure from the city's Catholic churches. In this incident Anna Sullivan provided a union hall for Sanger to speak in. Although she was raised in a devout Irish Catholic family, Sullivan supported the campaign to legalize birth control in Mass., which was not accomplished until 1965. Sullivan explained in 1940, "I was burned up that in a town of this sort where I thought we had progressed to the point where freedom of speech was accepted, a group had to fight for a place to meet." Because doctors could not legally prescribe birth control, she explained that women "snitched the information," often buying unreliable products from quacks who charged exorbitant prices. Sullivan believed that her union members were already practicing birth control. She noted that in 1939 there were 120 married women in one of her union locals, but not one childbirth had occurred during the entire year. Her mother's relatives, the Bleasius family, continued to live in Chicopee Falls for many decades. Anna's mother, Elizabeth Bleasius, lived 1872-1934. Her father, Thomas F. Burns, was also a union organizer. He died in 1918 and was the youngest of 14 children Anna Burns Sullivan had six siblings, all born roughly 1900-1910. Her brother, Thomas F. Burns, became international vice-president of the United Rubber Workers of America. Her brother, William Burns, was a member of the Labor Workers Guild. Charles Burns and his wife Helen settled in Easthampton in the 1930s. Her sister Alice moved to Goshen. Her son, William Sullivan (born 1927-28), worked as a Purchasing Agent for Package Machine and had seven children. I would be very interested in interviewing anyone who knew Anna B. Sullivan or any relatives of hers who may remember family stories. I would also be interested in talking with anyone who is knowledgeable about Holyoke politics or labor history (especially relating to the textile mills) during the 1930-60 time period, or anyone who remembers the campaign to legalize birth control in Mass. (which the Catholic Church vocally opposed). Please contact me if you have knowledge of any of these people! Tel. 572-5620 or mdodge@wsc.ma.edu Mara Dodge History Dept. Westfield State College |
