In 1909 Clara Lemlich, a young Jewish refugee from Russia, sparked the first great strike by women in American history with a speech in Yiddish to a rally of sweatshop workers in New York City that a reporter called “eloquent even to American ears.” Over the next three months, Lemlich faced beatings and arrests, but the “Uprising of 20,000” inspired a rare coalition of poor immigrants, middle-class reformers, and feminists. Why did this landmark strike occur? How did it change America?
