In a new book, Dana Frank tells stories of the people who ‘made history happen’ through organizing and mutual aid

Historian Dana Frank treasures a photo from a 1937 edition of Life magazine. It shows a group of seven African American women, clustered close, sitting on chairs in a small space. Each wears a fashionable hat and is bundled in a coat appropriate for the late Chicago winter. At first glance, the photo appears to be a gathering of friends. All are smiling, and some appear to be laughing, as they talk with each other.

The women were actually on strike, occupying the city hall office of the president of the Chicago board of health. As wet nurses for a local hospital, they were paid $0.04 for each ounce of breast milk they produced. The women all knew that the white wet nurses at another hospital were getting paid $0.10 per ounce. “They shouldn’t make any difference between us,” Louise Clark, a wet nurse on strike, told reporters at the time.