On this day in ...... 1890, Kate Kennedy (left), a pioneer Californian, died in Oakland. (photo credit) Born in Gaskinstown, County Meath, Ireland in 1827, she'd arrived in San Francisco in 1856. Largely self-educated, she worked for 3 decades as a public-schools teacher and principal, becoming, in the words of the San Francisco Chronicle, "a distinguished educator ... of national repute." The Board of Education nonetheless demoted her; she objected, eventually winning $5,000 in back pay. She was a suffragist, labor activist, and "ardent feminist" who fought successfully for equal-pay-for-equal-work legislation.
(Prior March 18 posts are here, here, here, and here.)
