Activist. Clara Lemlich was a leader of the "Uprising of 20,000," the massive strike of shirtwaist workers in New York's garment industry in 1909. Later blacklisted from the industry for her labor union work, she became a member of the Communist Party and a consumer activist. In her last years as a nursing home resident she helped to organize the staff. She was born to a Jewish family and was raised in a predominantly Yiddish-speaking village. Young Lemlich learned to read Russian over her parents' objections, sewing buttonholes and writing letters for illiterate neighbors to raise money for her books. After a neighbor introduced her to revolutionary literature, Lemlich became a committed socialist. She immigrated to the United States with her family in 1903. She was able to find a job in the garment industry upon her arrival in New York. Conditions there had become even worse since the turn of the century, as the new industrial sewing machine allowed employers to demand twice as much production from their employees, who often had to supply their own machines and carry them to and from work. Lemlich, along with many of her co-workers, rebelled against the long hours, low pay, lack of opportunities for advancement, and humiliating treatment from supervisors. She became involved in the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union and was elected to the executive board of Local 25 of the ILGWU. She came to the attention of the outside world at the mass meeting held at Cooper Union on November 22, 1909 to rally support for the striking shirtwaist workers at the Triangle Shirtwaist Company and Leiserson Company. Triangle Shirtwaist became a synonym for "sweatshop" during the following year. On March 25, 1911, 146 garment workers died as a result of a fire that consumed the factory. Workers were either burned to death or died jumping to escape the flames. Lemlich searched through the armory where the dead had been taken to search for a missing cousin. She then devoted herself to the campaigns for women's suffrage and other women's rights After marrying in 1913, she devoted herself to raising a family and organizing housewives. Lemlich remained an unwavering member of the Communist Party, denouncing the trial and execution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. Her passport was revoked after a trip to the Soviet Union in 1951. She retired from garment work in 1954, and then fought a long battle with the ILGWU to obtain a pension. After the death of her second husband she moved to California to be near her children and in-laws in the 1960s. While living at the Jewish Home for the Aged in Los Angeles, she persuaded the management to join in the United Farm Workers' boycotts of grapes and lettuce, and prodded the workers there to organize. She passed away at the Jewish Home. Her life story has been the subject of numerous books and documentary films, including "Brave Girl" by Michelle Markel and Melissa Sweet, "Audacity" by Melanie Crowder, and "Clara Lemlich: A Strike Leader's Diary" by Icarus Films. An annual award has been established in her name by the Puffin Foundation and The Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation. It is awarded to women who exemplify her commitment to social activism. Her archives reside at the Robert F. Wagner Labor Archive of New York University and the Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation and Archives at Cornell University.