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By Root 859 0

and Ronnie in California, she nevertheless cherished poignant memories of Kermit. She was not surprised by Jones’s descriptions of how difficult it had been to get Kermit’s eulogy printed (the eulogy to this unsung hero of the labor movement was finally printed on September 14, 1967, some four months after his death). It was clear that a generation gap existed between the veterans of 1937 and the labor leaders of the 1960s. Things had changed, and they were not to Genora’s liking. This new generation, while reaping benefits from past actions, did not appreciate the hardships the sit-downers had suffered or the sacrifices they had made. To make matters worse, union leaders and their publicists in journals like Searchlight were getting increasingly close to creating a “company union,” one that almost always agreed with those in the executive suites. She predicted hard times ahead for organized labor in the United States.

Genora threw herself into a frenzy of causes, telling a friend that “I used to wish when I was a kid that I was a twin; now, I wish I had been born a twin million [because] it would be a little easier!”40 She operated within the context of California’s ferment of great issues: the environment, education (Genora organized numerous advisory councils and appeared before school boards with suggestions for pedagogical improvements), civil liberties, the feminist movement, and the race question. On this latter point, Genora and Sol both opposed the “fawning manner” of white reformers toward the “lumpen proletarian,” or Black Panthers. “These were people,” Sol asserted, “who had guilty consciences over their relations with blacks.” Neither Genora nor Sol had such guilt, for they had spent many years of their lives “advancing the cause of integration,” citing their work with the NAACP and ACLU in Flint and Detroit.41 Genora joined the Peace and Freedom movement, and for a time she and Sol served on its steering committee.42 Peace and Freedom, made up of thousands of young people, opposed U.S. involvement in Vietnam. The “ultra-leftists” in the party, however, hinged their program to the fate of the “undisciplined, nationalist, obscurantist, Black Panther party.”43 Genora and Sol, while respecting some of the tactics of the Black Panthers, viewed them as an “anarchistic group unable to engage the system over a long period of time.”44 Genora became active in the People’s Lobby, a grassroots movement indigenous to California. With the People’s Lobby, she fought to raise political and environmental awareness about the steady erosion of the country’s natural resources. She involved numerous high school clubs, including one to which her son, Ronnie, belonged, to try to save the palm trees on Highland Avenue and prevent the development of the Pan-Pacific Park for the simple reason that too many trees would have to be destroyed. Sol modestly said later, “They won small victories.”45

During these activities, Genora coped with continuing health problems. She already had arthritis (although she continued to take painting and sculpture classes sponsored by the city’s Adult Educational Program), heart problems, periodic spells of TB, and now she had gall bladder problems. In 1968 her gall bladder was removed, and for several weeks afterward she suffered a weakened and depressed condition. Sol suggested that she go to Acapulco and lie in the sun to regain her strength. She thought this an admirable idea, so she and a friend, fellow ACLU volunteer Susan Stein, headed south. It proved to be a memorable trip, raising questions about “ugly Americans.” Stein, a widow, was a “knowledgeable world traveler,” at least in her own mind.46 Genora discovered, to her dismay, that Susan did not like Mexicans and was not bashful about showing it. She was too direct and abrupt for Mexican personalities and lifestyles. She got “told off” by a waiter serving drinks, and, Genora reported, “she richly deserved it.” Genora apologized for Stein’s brusque ways in the Spanish that she had picked up over the years. “I don’t think she [Stein] was ever