Jessie Street facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Jessie Mary Grey, Lady Street
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| Born |
Jessie Mary Grey Lillingston
18 April 1889 |
| Died | 2 July 1970 (aged 81) Sydney, Australia
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| Monuments | Jessie Street Gardens, Jessie Street National Women's Library |
| Nationality | Australian |
| Alma mater | University of Sydney (BA, 1911) |
| Spouse(s) | Sir Kenneth Whistler Street |
| Children | Sir Laurence Whistler Street |
| Relatives | Edward Ogilvie (grandfather) Sir Philip Whistler Street (father-in-law) |
| Family | Street |
Jessie Mary Grey, Lady Street (née Lillingston; 18 April 1889 – 2 July 1970) was an Australian suffragist and campaigner for Indigenous Australian rights, dubbed "Red Jessie" by the media. As Australia's only female delegate to the founding of the United Nations in 1945, Jessie was Australia's first female delegate to the United Nations. She was Lady Street by her husband Sir Kenneth Whistler Street. Street ensured the inclusion of gender as a non-discrimination clause in the United Nations Charter and led the Foundation for Aboriginal Affairs to campaign for the enfranchisement of Indigenous Australians in 1967.
Background
Jessie Mary Grey Lillingston was born on 18 April 1889 at Ranchi, Bihar, India. Her father Charles Alfred Gordon Lillingston, JP was a member of the Imperial Civil Service in India. Her mother Mabel Harriet Ogilvie was the daughter of Australian politician Edward David Stuart Ogilvie. In 1916, she married Kenneth Whistler Street. Her father-in-law Sir Philip Whistler Street served as Chief Justice of New South Wales, as did her husband Sir Kenneth and their youngest son, Sir Laurence. Their other children were Belinda, Philippa and Roger. She graduated from the University of Sydney in 1911 as a Bachelor of Arts.
Career and activism
Street was a prominent figure in Australian and international political life for over 50 years, from the women's suffrage movement in England to the removal of Australia's constitutional discrimination against Indigenous Australians in 1967.
Street ran in the 1943 Australian federal election as a member of the Australian Labor Party against United Australia Party frontbencher Eric Harrison for the Sydney Eastern Suburbs seat of Wentworth, and nearly defeated him amid that year's massive Labor landslide. She led the field on the first count, and only the preferences of conservative independent Bill Wentworth allowed Harrison to survive. Her attempt was the closest a Labor candidate has ever come to winning the Liberal Party stronghold of Wentworth.
At the San Francisco Conference in 1945, Street was Australia's only female delegate to the founding of the United Nations, where she played a key role alongside Eleanor Roosevelt in ensuring that gender was included with race and religion as a non-discrimination clause in the United Nations Charter. In 1949, Street was made a charter member of the Australian Peace Council. The Jessie Street Centre, the Jessie Street Trust, the Jessie Street National Women's Library and Jessie Street Gardens exist in her honour.
See also
In Spanish: Jessie Street para niños
