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Presidential Medal of Freedom Recipient Mildred Jeffrey
MILDRED "MILLIE" JEFFREY
Awarded by
President Bill Clinton
August 9, 2000
A women's labor and Democratic Party activist, was the first female to direct a department of the United Auto Workers. She worked for the UAW from 1945 to 1976 and served on commissions during the Kennedy and Carter administrations.
A Presidential Medal of Freedom was awarded on August 9 at a White House ceremony to Mildred McWilliams Jeffrey, who received a two-year Certificate (equivalent to a master's of social work) from Bryn Mawr's graduate department of Social Economy and Social Research in 1934.
A lifetime pioneer for workers', civil and women's rights, Jeffrey became a union organizer in Philadelphia in 1935 for the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America. In 1945, she became the first female department head of the United Auto Workers union. In the 1950s and 60s, Jeffrey became more active in the civil rights movement, marching with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and registering voters in Mississippi. In the 1970s, she helped establish the National Women's Political Caucus, fighting for ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment, child care and equal pay legislation.
The Detroit resident-known to friends and associates as 'Millie'-is also the subject of a historical documentary, "The Secret to Change," released this fall by the National Women's Education Fund.
Jeffrey received her bachelor's degree from the University of Minnesota, where she became active with the student YWCA, known for its strong support of civil rights issues. Her involvement with related YWCA programs exposed Jeffrey to the plight of women factory workers who coped with low wages, long hours and lack of respect from others. Jeffrey says that "a wonderful" YWCA secretary at UM, Lois Wildy, "suggested that I apply to Bryn Mawr, knowing my interests in the labor movement, social and economic is sues."
Mildred McWilliams Jeffrey with First Lady Hillary Clinton before the Medal of Freedom Ceremony.
"Bryn Mawr was idyllic," Jeffrey says. "I was a very naive young woman from the Mid-west, had never been East. It opened up whole new worlds for me, intellectual, cultural, historical vistas-Valley Forge and the Brandywine, incomparable Philadelphia with its symphony and museums. Also, after working 40 hours a week while finishing an undergraduate degree in four years, plus campus activity, I was exhausted. Bryn Mawr was a completely different environment, both relaxing and challenging." Inspiring faculty included Social Economy and Research department chair Dr. Susan Kingsbury, a pioneer in the suffrage movements and social causes including child care. Case work experiences, such as helping a young married fur worker adjust to the stress of his irregular employment in a highly seasonal industry, led her to the decision that "I wanted to change the world, not help people adjust to it. ... I treasure my two years at Bryn Mawr," Jeffrey says.
Millie Jeffrey, tireless champion for justice by Judy Woodward
 "In the early sixties, I was at an NAACP convention in Chicago. Mayor [Richard] Daley had said there were no ghettoes in Chicago--imagine that! Then there was a newspaper photo of my daughter being carried off to jail in Baltimore, where there had been a big civil rights demonstration at a [segregated] amusement park. So what to do? I sent her a telegram. It said something like "You have my full support." She showed it to [her cell mates] and told them, 'Well, my family thinks what we're doing is O.K.' When your daughter is arrested, you want her to know that you have her in your thoughts." --Mildred Jeffrey When Bill Clinton presented Mildred Jeffrey '32 with the 2000 Presidential Medal of Freedom , the nation's highest civilian honor, the tall president had to bend almost double to congratulate the diminutive 89-year-old labor leader.
But when it comes to the things that count--courage, energy, vision, and public service--Millie Jeffrey is a giant. Indeed, the Mildred Jeffrey Collection at Wayne State University--where she served on the board of governors for 16 years--runs to 63 linear feet of documents, on subjects ranging from civil rights to consumer protection to women in the labor movement.
When Jeffrey was still Mildred McWilliams, studying psychology as a College of Liberal Arts (CLA) undergraduate during the Depression, she began testing her political wings as a young socialist and member of the Women's International League For Peace and Freedom. The campus YWCA to which she belonged ("one of the most radical groups on campus at the time") took a public stand in favor of racial integration, and so did she. With an African-American classmate, she worked to desegregate some restaurants near campus where black diners were not welcome.
A few months later, a photo of Millie marching in support of Socialist party leader Norman Thomas appeared on the front page of the Minneapolis newspaper. Her younger sister, Arlene McWilliams Swain, recalls that in those days, just saying the word "socialist" could get your mouth washed out with soap: "There I was in Catholic grade school, and there was a picture of my big sister in the newspaper, picketing for a socialist!"
In Jeffrey's view, that Catholic upbringing helped shape her political ideals, developing in her "a strong sense of caring and compassion." That sense of caring--honed by education both in the classroom and in the trenches, coupled with uncommon stamina-- would lead Jeffrey from her Iowa roots to the forefront of the labor, civil rights, and women's movements throughout the next seven decades. Her friends would include the likes of Hubert Humphrey and Martin Luther King, as well as Geraldine Ferraro, whose historic U.S. vice presidential candidacy she helped orchestrate.
With a B.A. from the U and a master's degree from Bryn Mawr, in 1934 Jeffrey began a decade of work as a labor organizer in the troubled garment industry. In the 1940s, she joined the NAACP and helped to organize Americans for Democratic Action. As returning World War II soldiers displaced the women workers who had filled the ranks of industry, Jeffrey--who already had distinguished herself as a tough but compassionate labor leader--organized the first UAW Women's Conference as the director of a new arm of the United Auto Workers (UAW) union, the Women's Bureau.
"My underlying goal was always to empower women," she says. "Get them to learn their rights--and to exercise them!"
Serving in the administrations of two presidents (Kennedy and Carter), Jeffrey continued working tirelessly to enlarge the economic and political opportunities of women, workers, and people of color. In 1971 she cofounded of the National Women's Political Caucus and eagerly joined the fight for ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment.
A self-described "Midwest product" and the eldest of seven children, Jeffrey credits her mother as "an inspiration and a mentor." "She was determined that all of her children would be college-educated," says Jeffrey admiringly, so she moved the family from a small Iowa town to Minneapolis for educational opportunities.
At Minneapolis's Central High School, Jeffrey was senior class vice president and a member of several clubs, including "something called the CCC. That stood for courtesy, consideration, and cleanliness," she laughs. "I still pick up papers on the street."
Reflecting on her accomplishments, Jeffrey is a little impatient with those who try to plumb the wellsprings of her extraordinary character. "I wasn't always inquiring as to my inner motives," she huffs. "I just did it."
As for her future, she doesn't plan to slow down any time soon. "I will retire," she says flatly, "when I die."
Social Justice Activist Millie Jeffrey Presents Marsh Lecture
March 22, 2002
 DELAWARE, OHIO -- On Tuesday, March 26, at 7 p.m., Mildred "Millie" Jeffrey, a galvanizing activist in the twentieth century's revolution for social justice, will be presenting the 2nd annual Marsh Lecture on Public Affairs at Ohio Wesleyan University, titled "The Secret to Change." A documentary and lecture will take place in the R.W. Corns Building and is sponsored by OWU's Department of Politics and Government.
On Aug. 9, 2000, former President Bill Clinton awarded Jeffrey the Medal of Freedom , the nation's highest civilian honor. She was recognized for her commitment to and sincere concern for victims of exploitation and discrimination over the past seven decades. In the 1930s, Jeffrey organized textile workers, and during World War II, she helped thousands of "Rosie the Riveters" learn to thrive in a male-dominated world. Jeffrey was a pioneer among whites in the '50s and '60s in the struggle for civil rights. Forging for progressive policy makers to be elected, she became a leader in Democratic Party politics. And when the modern women's movement was taking shape in the United States and across the world, Jeffrey offered savvy leadership.
In "The Secret to Change," Jeffrey passionately offers a tested blueprint for action, urging those working for social change to organize, build power coalitions and above all -- never give up. In her words, "You never win freedom permanently. You have to win it time after time ... whether it's union rights, civil rights, or equality for women. We have to keep at it and at it."
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Medal History
