Norton, Mary Teresa, 1875-1959

<p>Mary Teresa Norton (March 7, 1875 – August 2, 1959) was an American Democratic Party politician who represented Jersey City and Bayonne in the United States House of Representatives from 1925 to 1951.</p>

<p>She was the first woman member of the Democratic Party elected to Congress and the first woman elected to represent New Jersey, or any state in the Northeast. She chaired four House committees during her tenure and was a labor advocate and a supporter of women's rights.</p>

<p>She was born as Mary Teresa Hopkins in Jersey City, New Jersey. She attended parochial schools and Jersey City High School (since renamed William L. Dickinson High School) and graduated from Packard Business College, New York City in 1896. She married Robert Francis Norton in 1909.</p>

<p>For a quarter century in the House, America knew Mary T. Norton as “Battling Mary,” a reformer who fought for the labor and working-class interests of her urban New Jersey district. Norton came up through one of the country’s most notorious Democratic political machines and emerged from Jersey City as the first woman to represent an eastern state on Capitol Hill. From the very start—years before she became a powerbroker in the House as chair of four committees—Norton set the tone for her congressional tenure during her first speech on the floor when she declared the working class “the backbone of the Nation.” During her five terms as chair of the Committee on Labor, Norton prioritized policies to improve working conditions across the country.</p>

<p>Mary Teresa Hopkins was born on March 7, 1875, in Jersey City, New Jersey. She was the second surviving child of Thomas Hopkins, a road construction contractor, and Maria Shea, a private teacher. Mary kept house after her mother died and graduated from Jersey City High School. She moved to New York City in 1896 and attended Packard Business College. She later worked as a secretary and stenographer until she married Robert Francis Norton in April 1909. As part of the healing process after her one-week-old son, Robert Jr., died in 1910, Norton began working at the Queen’s Daughters Day Nursery and, within three years, became its secretary. By 1916 she was elected nursery president. In her capacity as a fundraiser for the nursery, Norton made contacts throughout the New Jersey political world. Her husband, who died in 1934, supported her professional and political careers to the end.</p>

<p>After World War I, in search of municipal support for the nursery, Norton met Jersey City’s mayor and powerful political boss, Frank “I Am the Law” Hague. Mayor Hague took office in 1917 and controlled Hudson County politics for three decades with a mixture of patronage, programs for his labor constituency, and, at times, the outright intimidation of his opponents. Following the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920, Hague looked to bring new women voters into the Democratic Party and into his political machine. The mayor pressed Norton to enter politics as his protégé. “It’s your duty to organize the women of Jersey City,” Hague said. When Norton, who had not been involved in the suffrage movement, protested that she didn’t know politics, Hague replied undiplomatically, “Neither does any suffragist.” In 1920, with Hague’s backing, Norton was the first woman named to the New Jersey Democratic Committee and, in 1921, was elected its vice chair, serving in that capacity until 1931. She became the first woman to head a state party when she was elevated to chair in 1932. She served until 1935 and was again named chair from 1940 to 1944.</p>