English: Biography: Maida Kemp has been active in the trade union movement for almost 50 years--from participating in the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union (ILGWU) general strike of 1933, to coordlnating a meeting of African trade union women in 1978 in Kenya. Born in Panama, at the age of seven she emigrated with her mother to New York City. Because of her mother's involvement with Marcus Garvey's Universal Negro Improvement Association, she was exposed to political activism at an early age. She graduated from Bordentown Manual Training and Industrial School, and became a licensed beautician after study at the Malone School of Beauty Culture. In 1932 she went to work as a finisher, doing hand sewing in a garment shop. She soon joined the ILGWU and was a member of one of the strike committees during the 1933 walkout. After serving her own Local 22 in various capacities, in 1942 she was appointed education director of Local 132, the Plastic Button and Novelty Workers' Union. In 1947 she returned to Local 22, working for 13 years as business agent, the first Black to hold the position. She has traveled as a representative of the American labor movement to England, the Scandinavian countries, Africa, and has studied at Ruskin College, Oxford. Membershlps lnclude the NAACP, NOW, and the Coalition of Labor Union Women. In 1975 as vice-president of the NCNW she attended the Internatlonal Women's Year meeting in Mexico City.

Description: The Black Women Oral History Project interviewed 72 African American women between 1976 and 1981. With support from the Schlesinger Library, the project recorded a cross section of women who had made significant contributions to American society during the first half of the 20th century. Photograph taken by Judith Sedwick
Repository: Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America.
Collection: Black Women Oral History Project
Research Guide: http://guides.library.harvard.edu/schlesinger_bwohp

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