Dorothy Jacobs Bellanca
Dorothy Jacobs Bellanca was a prominent labor organizer born in Zemel, Latvia, to a Russian Jewish family, who emigrated to Baltimore in 1900. After beginning work in a clothing factory at age thirteen, she became acutely aware of the poor conditions faced by garment workers, particularly young female immigrants. By 1909, she was instrumental in organizing Local 170 of the United Garment Workers of America (UGWA), advocating for unskilled workers and contributing to the establishment of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America (ACWA) in 1914. Bellanca served as a vital organizer within the ACWA, holding positions on its executive board and leading initiatives to improve labor conditions for textile workers throughout the 1930s.
Her activism extended beyond labor organizing; she became politically active, supporting New Deal policies and helping establish the American Labor party to promote leftist voting. Throughout her career, Bellanca focused on issues such as child welfare, women's working conditions, and racial harmony. She held various governmental roles during her lifetime, striving to ensure safe work environments and advocate for underrepresented communities. Dorothy Jacobs Bellanca passed away at the age of fifty-two in New York City, leaving a lasting impact on labor rights and social justice initiatives.
Subject Terms
Dorothy Jacobs Bellanca
- Dorothy Bellanca
- Born: August 10, 1894
- Died: August 16, 1946
Labor organizer, was born in Zemel, Latvia, to a Russian Jewish family. In 1900 her parents, Harry Jacobs and Bernice Edith (Levinson) Jacobs, emigrated to Baltimore with their four daughters. Harry Jacobs worked there as a tailor, and Dorothy Jacobs, the youngest child, went to work in a clothing factory at the age of thirteen.
Appalled by the poor pay and working conditions that prevailed in the garment industry, Dorothy Jacobs soon began organizing her co-workers, many of whom were young, female immigrants like herself. By 1909 she had helped to organize Local 170 of the United Garment Workers of America (UGWA). Unskilled workers were also joining the UGWA in other cities. This created friction between the union leadership—which was male, native-born, and craft-minded—and the new, more radical members. The conflict resulted in the creation of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America (ACWA) in 1914. The ACWA was a militant union, dedicated to improving the lot of unskilled workers.
Jacobs was a delegate to the organization convention of the ACWA, and her Baltimore local was the first to become affiliated with the association. She was to be linked to the ACWA for the rest of her life, helping to make it one of the most dynamic unions in the nation. She was involved in all of its major organizational drives and was perhaps its most effective organizer. In 1916, she was elected to the executive board and was the only woman on it.
She resigned from the board two years later, after her marriage in 1918 to August Bellanca, an Italian immigrant and fellow ACWA organizer and executive board member. She nonetheless continued to play an active role in the ACWA, working from her home in New York City during the 1920s to organize workers outside the major manufacturing centers. The ACWA founded its Women’s Bureau in 1924 (with Dorothy Bellanca as chief), but it collapsed in 1926. Putting the association’s goals above feminism, she did not support reinstatement in 1928. She did, however, take part in the Women’s Trade Union League. In the 1930s she was involved in ambitious organizational drives among cotton-shirt makers in the mid-Atlantic states and among textile workers. In 1934, she was once again elected to the ACWA executive board and remained on it until her death.
Bellanca became involved in politics during the thirties. She and other officers of the ACWA endorsed New Deal labor policies and were determined to aid Franklin D. Roosevelt in retaining the presidency. In 1936 she helped to organize the American Labor party in New York State to provide a ticket on which Roosevelt could attract the votes of leftists and others who refused to vote for the Tammany-controlled Democratic ticket. Two years later Bellanca unsuccessfully ran for a Brooklyn congressional seat as the American Labor candidate. In 1940 and again in 1944 she was elected vice-chairperson of the state party and worked to aid Roosevelt’s bids for reelection.
Bellanca also began serving on a number of federal, state, and municipal commissions during the thirties. Early in the New Deal period she served on the General Advisory Committee on Maternal and Child Welfare. In 1938 she participated in the National Health Conference sponsored by the Labor Department and the next year served on a committee dealing with children’s health. During World War II she was appointed to the Women’s Policy Committee of the War Manpower Commission and worked to bring women into industry while insuring them safe working conditions. She also served on several wartime New York State commissions that addressed the problem of racial discrimination in industry as well as on a New York City commission that sought to promote racial harmony. A talented labor organizer, Bellanca was especially committed to providing for the welfare of children, improving working conditions of women, and promoting ethnic and racial tolerance. She died at the age of fifty-two in New York City from multiple myeloma.
For biographical material see the ACWA Research Department, New York City; Notable American Women (1971); and The Dictionary of American Biography, supplement 4 (1974). Obituaries appeared in The New York Times and New York Herald Tribune, August 17, 1946. For additional information and appreciations of Bellanca, see The Advance, September 1 and 15, 1946; ACWA Report (1948); The Nation, August 31, 1946; the New Leader, September 21, 1946; and Woman’s Press, December 1946. To understand the context of Bellanca’s labor activities, see M. Josephson, Sidney Hillman (1952).