Since 1851, obituaries in The New York Times have been dominated by white men. With Overlooked, we’re adding the stories of remarkable people whose deaths went unreported in The Times.

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A slight young woman with lively dark eyes pushed her way to the front of a crowd of garment workers at a union meeting in New York City in 1909 and demanded to be heard.

“I am tired of listening to speakers who talk in general terms,” the woman, Clara Lemlich Shavelson, declared in Yiddish, as the audience lifted her onto the platform. “I move that we go on a general strike!”

The crowd roared its approval, according to news reports at the time. Male union officials had cautioned against a strike, arguing it would be too difficult and too costly, especially for young women working in the factories.

But the day after the speech, thousands of young women were among the garment workers who formed the Uprising of the 20,000, a milestone action in a swelling labor movement that made workplaces safer, workdays shorter and wages higher.