An activist, writer, speaker, socialist, and anarchist, Lucy Parsons helped found the Industrial Workers of the World and spent her life organizing for workers’ rights. Forced to flee Texas because of her interracial marriage, she became deeply involved in Chicago’s labor movement and helped lead the first May Day demonstration calling for the eight-hour workday. After a bombing at a labor rally known as the Haymarket affair, her husband and seven other labor organizers were arrested and convicted despite no evidence tying them to the bombing; four, including her husband, were executed. Though she died in poverty and is often overlooked, she continued organizing and fighting for workers’ rights for the rest of her life.