AH QUON McELRATH

AQ, who recounts a brief history of the labor movement in Hawai‘i.

A segment from a 1982 Rice & Roses studio program, Employer Sponsored Child Care that aired in July 1982. This was a 2 part series that we recorded with a live studio audience. Child care is an issue that affects both men and women, but of course it is women who mostly bear the burden, face the challenges and are leaders for change! AQ helped unpack this complicated issue. Sadly, the need for extensive community wide child care and child support programs continues. The struggle never ends!!

As the birthplace of Barack Obama, the first African American US president, Hawai‘i will always have a special place in the observance of Black History Month. President Obama notes in his book, Dreams from My Father, that Hawai‘i became the home of poet, author and journalist Frank Marshall Davis. Frank was a drinking buddy of Obama’s white grandfather, and Obama often accompanied him when he met with Frank. Before moving to Hawai‘i, Frank enjoyed success as a poet, publishing several volumes that were critically acclaimed. He also was editor of several Black-owned newspapers, like the Atlanta World and the Chicago Evening Bulletin. He was the director of the Associated Negro Press, a news agency for the black newspapers, similar to the Associated Press. He and his wife, Helen, moved from Chicago to Hawai‘i in early 1949, seeking an environment that was more accepting of a mixed-race marriage. Frank spent much of his life waging a never-ending struggle against racism. During the 2008 presidential campaign, there was a rightwing smear campaign naming Davis as Obama’s “Marxist mentor.” While Davis may have at one time worked with the Communist Party, he also was employed by the Republican Party to work on the 1940 presidential campaign of Wendell Willke. Davis explains this apparent contradiction: “I do not like being kicked around, nor do I like to see other people get kicked around. For 30 years as a working newspaperman. I have fought for civil rights. In this battle for my rights as a Negro American, I have accepted the aid and support of any man of good will who is willing to fight beside me. I do not care about his color, religion, or politics. When the octopus of prejudice crushes me with his tentacles, I will welcome the help of the devil himself in order to get loose.”In an interview from our archives, AQ tells us about Frank, his coming to Hawai‘i and his contributions as a columnist for the labor-oriented newspaper, the Honolulu Record.

In 1954 the Democratic Party took control of the Territorial Legislature ousting Republicans in what has been called a revolution! This takeover of political power is often simplified as being the result of Governor Jack Burns’ party leadership and the returning Japanese American soldiers. AQ reminds us that history tells a more complete story.

Hawaiʻi’s history is filled with examples of struggles to overcome rampant inequality. In 1932, 4 Caucasians--Tommy Massie, Grace Fortescue, Albert Jones, Edward Lord--were convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to 10 years each in the vigilante style murder of a young Hawaiian man, Joseph Kahahawai, age 20. The 10-year sentence was commuted by Governor Lawrence Judd to a one hour stay in his office, followed by all 4 defendants leaving Hawai‘i. In 1948, Hawaiians James Majors, age 20, and John Palakiko, age 19 were convicted of rape and first degree murder of an elderly Haole woman, Therese Wilder, and sentenced to hang. In this case, AQ and the ILWU helped mobilize community-wide support with petitions and demonstrations against their death penalty. This outpouring of support led to commutation of the death sentences in 1954, when Governor Samuel King reduced their sentences to life in prison. There was evidence that their confessions were coerced and that charges of rape were unfounded. These factors helped stoke the community support for the commutation. The Majors and Palakiko case became the cause that resulted in the Hawai‘i legislature’s abolition of the death penalty in 1955.

Years of education about racism, poverty and social justice by the ILWU was a major factor in community awareness of the issues. During AQ’s final illness in 2008, she was researching LGBTQ issues and saw these as the continuation of struggles for human rights. AQ’s friend, Claire Shimabukuro, tells us about bringing resource material to AQ’s hospital bed so she could continue to research and fight.

Tony Bise on AQ McElrath and her work to benefit working people

ILWU social worker Ah Quon McElrath was instrumental in helping to organize and preparing workers for a strike. Her friend Claire Shimabukro reccounts how AQ taught her the craft of labor organizing.

While Ah Quon McElrath is widely remembered as a union organizer and a champion for social justice, she also had a deep and abiding love of the arts. This love began in childhood. s a student at Kaʻiulani Elementary School during the Great Depression, she remembered with fondness her participation in plays and musicals. She also developed a love of classical music and opera at an early age. Her older sister had purchased a gramophone and recordings of various operatic arias that Ah Quon learned to cherish. In her high school years, her love of literature, and Shakespeare in particular, deepened. As an adult, Ah Quon remained a voracious reader and music lover, and sang in the Honolulu Choir.