AQ doing what she did best...giving galvanizing speeches. She is pictured here giving a fiery speech that earned a standing ovation at the 32nd ILWU International Convention in 2003.

...If you don’t know, you better ask somebody... 

This is someone to be proud of when you think of ILWU history; this is part of your labor legacy.

Tough Beginnings 
Ah Quon was born in 1915 in Honolulu to working class immigrants from China.

She and her nine siblings came of age during the Great Depression. Her father died when she was five and times were tough enough as it was. The determination it took to scrape by in difficult times undoubtedly shaped her social conscience.

Passionate Learner 
Economic hardship did nothing to tame her spirit, and she quickly learned that her passion for learning would take her far. When it came time for her to further her studies, she was fully aware that education helps to level the playing field, and made sure to leverage this to her best advantage.

She was concerned with the big questions: Why do some have to suffer the ills of poverty and misfortune while others don’t? What can be done about the gap between the haves and the havenots? How much responsibility do the haves owe to the ones who don’t?

Driven for Justice 
Since the age of 13, Ah Quon, known by most as AQ, spent summers canning pineapple earning 12-1/2 cents per hour.

College at the University of Hawaii helped her dive deep into the ideologies competing to shape the times: communism, socialism, capitalism...

She already had firsthand experience with the inequality of capitalism with the meager wages she and the majority of Hawaii’s people endured.

But her commitment to the labor cause truly solidified when she witnessed the violence that enabled the core of the capitalist status quo; obey and do your job or else.

The first instance of violence came via the violent beating of labor leader Jack Hall (another ILWU hero for another issue of the VOCE) during the 1938 Honolulu dock strike, and then from the Big Island’s Hilo Massacre, where strikers were bayoneted and shot by police.

Local 142 Legend 
She graduated in 1938 from the UH with a degree in social work. She became a tireless advocate for justice and fairness on behalf of the working class in Hawaii, not just in the capacity of social worker, but as what we refer to today as a community organizer.

Her moral compass was founded on deeply held beliefs that were layered in her whole being: from personal experience, the dream of a more just Hawaii and stopping the demoralizing violence that kept so many from dreaming in the first place.

She walked the talk, so no one could knock her off her game, even though she barely cleared five feet tall. When this small in stature woman talked, people listened; that is power.

The Ah Quon McElrath 
Documentary Project ILWU Local 142 was so fortunate to benefit from her leadership and vision for more than two decades. As ILWU’s first social worker, she helped make our organization matter as a progressive force in Hawaii.

It is important to remember someone like her, especially for the younger generations. Please read the details at the left for more information on how to contribute to a documentary project spearheaded by UH West Oahu’s Center for Labor Education and Research (CLEAR) that will help students and other people learn more about AQ and her crucial contributions to the labor movement in Hawaii.

Education was a turning point for AQ and her destiny as a powerhouse for justice. 

Educational projects like these can help us make sure we can keep the fire going and perhaps even inspire the AQ’s of tomorrow.