Honoring Grief and Taking Action

I came to Washington to work for God, FDR, and the millions of forgotten, plain, common working men. –Frances Perkins

During her 12 years as Secretary of Labor, Frances Perkins took a monthly retreat at an Episcopal convent. Among the many remarkable things Perkins did in her lifetime of service, maintaining a pattern of rest and retreat for spiritual renewal stands out. Who better to advocate for the needs of the everyday worker than one who knows her own need for refreshment? 

Yes, it’s notable that she was the first woman to serve on a U.S. Cabinet, appointed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt as Secretary of Labor in 1933.

Yes, we can credit Frances Perkins with helping to bring us social security, unemployment insurance, federal minimum wage, and laws regulating child labor. 

But as we consider Frances Perkins on her feast day, note how integrated her life’s work was with her theology. While she did not speak publicly about her faith, it was her faith that led her to work tirelessly for the benefit of the common person—believing that everyone deserves dignity and safety in the pursuit of labors by which we make our life. Her conviction that the love of God for God’s children made each one worthy flowed into her determination that the social contract should reflect and uphold that God-given reality.

Perkins believed society benefits from lay persons with a developed spiritual life who bring that maturity into their work and their civic and social participation. Sometimes facing devastating failures as a community and feeling the weight of that grief leads to a better way forward. A follower of the crucified and risen Christ knows that pattern.

In New York City in 1911, Perkins heard the fire engines and chaos unfolding and watched from nearby as the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory burned, killing scores of workers inside while others jumped from 9 or 10 stories to their deaths. 

In this archival recording, you can hear Perkins in her own voice speaking of the way that tragedy set in urgent motion a movement for labor protections in the state of New York in which she would have a leadership role. In this 1964 lecture at Cornell University, she’s in her mid-eighties, reflecting on the events: 

I can’t begin to tell you how disturbed the people were everywhere. It was as though we had all done something wrong. It shouldn’t have been. We were sorry. Mea culpa! Mea culpa! We didn’t want it that way. We hadn’t intended to have 147 girls and boys killed in a factory. It was a terrible thing for the people of the City of New York and the State of New York to face.

Perkins describes the way grieved and concerned people came together to change the conditions leading to the tragedy. She learned the political wisdom of finding a successful path for the changes sought. 

When the legislature appointed a commission to work toward preventing future workplace fires, Perkins was a chief investigator. They discovered all manner of challenges faced by workers employed in factories, “…long hours…low wages…the labor of children…the overwork of women, including homework put out by the factories to be taken home by the women. It included almost everything you could think of that had been in agitation for years. We were authorized to investigate and report and recommend action on all these subjects. I may say we did.”

Perkins held that Christians must see political activity as a basic Christian duty, through which the health and dignity of every human being could be safeguarded.

While Christians of good faith might come to different conclusions as to the practical, political way to achieve common good, those differences count for less than the mutual respect we bring to the argument and the shared desire for better outcomes.

Mature Christians can enter disagreement without need to destroy or humiliate one who comes at it from another angle. 

The social safety nets emerging from the work and vision of Frances Perkins are not “set it and forget it.” Work must be done to ensure the protections of social security continue or that wages are realistic and just in the contemporary economy. These critical aspects of social care must be stewarded and retooled, improved, updated, to meet the needs of the present and future.

There’s a wealth of engaging information and archival material at the Frances Perkins Center, which exists to further her legacy through nonpartisan education and civic dialogue. 

In honor of Frances Perkins, experiment with one of these practices today. Invite the children in your life to explore these with you:

• Rest. Take a real break today if you can—turn off your phone, go for a walk, take a nap.
• Take a political action. Write to or call an elected representative on something you care about, small or large, local or beyond. Thank your city council rep for the repaired pothole or urge your Senator to support a cause you value.
• Follow your grief. Whether for the protracted conflict and suffering in Palestine, or the pains in your community. How can attending to that sorrow bring you and others together toward a better shared future?
• Pray. My God, I love thee above all others, and for thy sake I love my neighbors as myself. Frances Perkins, in the tradition of St. Augustine