Jessie Street
Jessie Street | |
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Born |
Jessie Mary Grey Lillingston 18 April 1889 Ranchi, Bihar, Bengal Presidency, British Raj (now in Jharkhand, India) |
Died |
2 July 1970 81) Sydney, Australia | (aged
Monuments | |
Nationality |
|
Alma mater | University of Sydney |
Spouse(s) | Sir Kenneth Whistler Street |
Children | Sir Laurence Whistler Street |
Relatives | Street family |
Jessie Mary Grey Street (née Lillingston, commonly known as Lady Street; 18 April 1889 – 2 July 1970) was an Australian suffragette and an extensive campaigner for peace and human rights.
A maverick among Australia's conservative establishment, she was dubbed Red Jessie by her detractors in the right-wing media for her efforts to promote diplomacy with the USSR and to ease tensions during the Cold War. She was nevertheless ardent until death in her support for the progressive cause.[1]
Early life
Jessie Mary Grey Street was born on 18 April 1889 at Ranchi, Bihar, India, the eldest child of Charles Alfred Gordon Lillingston (great-grandson of Sir George Grey, 1st Baronet)[2] and his wife Mabel Harriet Ogilvie, daughter of Australian politician Edward David Stuart Ogilvie, MLC.[3]
Activism
She was a key figure in Australian and international political life for over 50 years, from the women's suffrage struggle in England to the removal of Australia's constitutional discrimination against Aboriginal people in 1967. Jessie was Australia's first and only female delegate to the establishment of the United Nations, where she played a key role alongside the likes of Eleanor Roosevelt in ensuring that gender was included with race and religion as a non-discrimination clause in the United Nations Charter.[4]
She is recognised both in Australia and internationally for her activism in human rights, social justice and peace. The Jessie Street Centre, the Jessie Street Trust, the Jessie Street National Women's Library and Jessie Street Gardens exist in her honour.[5]
Street made two bids to enter the Australian House of Representatives as a member of the Australian Labor Party. In 1943, she ran against United Australia Party frontbencher Eric Harrison in the Eastern Suburbs seat of Wentworth, and nearly defeated him amid that year's massive Labor landslide. She actually led the field on the first count, and only the preferences of conservative independent Bill Wentworth allowed Harrison to survive. She sought a rematch against Harrison in 1946, and lost by a wider margin.
Family
By wedding Chief Justice Sir Kenneth Whistler Street, Jessie married into Australia's prominent Street dynasty. The Streets have been at the fore of the New South Wales legal, political and military establishments since the 19th Century.
References
Bibliography
- Red Jessie: Jessie Street – biography produced by the National Archives of Australia.
- Street, Jessie Mary Grey – The Encyclopedia of Women and Leadership in Twentieth-Century Australia
- Jessie Street | Australian Women – Australian Women's Archives Project.
- Jessie Street Papers | National Library of Australia – National Library of Australia.
- Jessie Street | Australian Broadcasting Corporation – Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) profile.
Further reading
- Lenore Coltheart, "Jessie Street and the Soviet Union", in Political Tourists: Travellers from Australia to the Soviet Union in the 1920s–1940s. Eds. Sheila Fitzpatrick and Carolyn Rasmussen. Melbourne University Press, 2008. ISBN 0-522-85530-X
- Heather Radi, Jessie Street, Documents and Essays, Women's Redress Press, 1990. ISBN 1-875274-03-0
- Peter Sekuless, Jessie Street, a rewarding but unrewarded life, Prentice Hall, 1978. ISBN 0-7022-1227-X
- Jessie Street, ed Lenore Coltheart, Jessie Street, a Revised Autobiography, Federation Press, 2004. ISBN 1-86287-502-2
- Jessie Street, Truth or Repose, Australasian Book Society, 1966.
- Eric Russell, Woollahra – a History in Pictures, John Ferguson Pty Ltd, 1980. ISBN 0-909134-23-5
External links
- Red Jessie: Jessie Street – biography produced by the National Archives of Australia.
- Street, Jessie Mary Grey in The Encyclopedia of Women and Leadership in Twentieth-Century Australia
- Jessie Street | Australian Women Australian Women's Archives Project.
- Jessie Street Papers | National Library of Australia National Library of Australia.
- Jessie Street | Australian Broadcasting Corporation ABC broadcast on Jessie Street.