In the mid-19th century, great shifts in the American workplace after the Industrial Revolution led to a labor movement spearheaded by disenfranchised laborers. As the movement gained traction, organized labor unions fought for better workplace conditions, wages, and the criminalization of child labor. Several popular figures of the movement are still remembered today, Caesar Chavez debatably the most notable. These figures are more often than not men, as the contributions of women in the labor movement have historically been overlooked. Yet, many memorable women held positions of leadership throughout the movement, a few of whom are depicted here in Eva Cockroft’s mural, Women and the Labor Movement in California.

One such woman is Charlotta Bass, former publisher of The California Eagle, one of the oldest African-American run newspapers. After The California Eagle shut down in 1964, Bass partnered with other papers to start a campaign against discrimination and segregation.

Cockroft herself was an accomplished writer, art historian, professor, and artist. In her life, she painted more than a dozen murals in the Los Angeles area, several of which were inspired by the civil rights movement. After relocating to Los Angeles from New York in 1989, a friend showed her the Southern California Library for Social Studies and Research, a library that would soon become the location of Women and the Labor Movement in California. Cockroft was so driven by this project that she funded it herself after several years of unsuccessful grant searching. The women in the painting stand in front of a police brutality scene, as Cockroft was also painting during the aftermath of the Rodney King beating. Interestingly, in the riots that followed the case’s verdict, “the liquor store across the street was torched, but the mural was not touched,” said Cockroft.

Cockroft’s commitment to social change and progressive movements is best exemplified through her artistic works. Oil, Life, and Ecology is another one of Cockroft’s paintings. It captures petroleum-based plastics and renewable energy sources as its subject. The mural also represents the importance of oil in California, particularly Long Beach. Other works include Homage to Siquieros, a reconstruction of David Siquiero’s America Tropical in collaboration with Alessandra Moctezuma, and Earth Memory, a 540-foot long mural in Belmont High School.

Outside of California, Cockroft’s murals are also located in New Jersey, New York, and Germany. Her more than 30 murals are viewed by an innumerable amount of people everyday.

Eva Cockroft died of breast cancer on April 1, 1999 at the age of 62. She is survived by her partner, three sons, seven grandchildren, and artistic works.¹

“Public art in general gives a neighborhood an identity, creates beauty and something for people to see as they walk by,” said Cockroft.

To view more information about Cocroft’s works, visit this page (insert link) of the Robin Dunitz digital collection. Dunitz was an independent muralist researcher.

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Notes