THE VFA PIONEER HISTORIES PROJECT
Mildred “Millie” Jeffrey
1911 – 2004
“My Underlying Goal was Always to Empower Women. Get Them to Learn Their Rights and to Exercise Them!”
Women’s rights, labor and civil rights activist. Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom. YWCA. The first woman UAW official (1940s); organized UAW’s women’s department; and served as special assistant to Walter Reuther from 1944 –1976. Early NOW member. Founding member of the National Women’s Political Caucus (1971) and the Michigan Women’s Foundation (now Michigan Women Forward) (1986). Coalition of Labor Union Women, Emily’s List, Americans for Democratic Action, the National Abortion Rights League and the American Civil Liberties Union. Inducted into the Michigan Women’s Hall of Fame in 1983.
Veteran Feminists of America honors labor leader Millie Jeffrey at the Seventh Regiment Armory, New York City, April 1998
Photo 1. Claudia “Lady Bird” Johnson and Millie Jeffrey, photographer Tony Spina. Photo 2. Nikki Beare, Jacqui Ceballos and Millie, 1998.
More About Millie:
- Joan Israel accepts the VFA Hall of Fame Award for Millie Jeffrey Chicago, 2004
- VFA Labor & The Woman’s Movement, St. Louis MO 2014 – Carol King honors Millie Jeffrey
- Clip of Millie Jeffrey in the film Passing the Torch
- Mildred receives the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Bill Clinton at marker 32:56 on August 9, 2000
- Interview with Millie 1995 – James J. Blanchard Living Library of Michigan Living History
- Oral History Heroes: Millie Jeffrey – Walter P. Reuther Library, Archives of Labor and Urban Affairs, Wayne State University
- Mildred Jeffrey Papers – Wayne State University
- UAW Spotlight
- SENATE HONORS SOCIAL JUSTICE ACTIVIST MILLIE JEFFREY
- Obituary
- Cited in Barbara Love’s Book – Feminists Who Changed America – page 235