New city trail remembers 'neglected' working-class Glaswegians

She is Scotland’s only documented woman of colour in the suffrage movement.

Thanks to a new library window trail showcasing extraordinary working-class Glaswegians, Jessie’s name and legacy will live on in the city where she bravely campaigned for women’s voting rights.

“There are so many forgotten histories of people who made a real difference to the city, and the trail is a fantastic way to bring those stories alive,” explains stained glass artist Keira McLean, who has been working with people in communities around the city on the innovative project.

Cian and Oreoluwa at the unveiling of the new window (Image: Robert Perry/Newsquest)

“Glass is a great material for telling stories, you can paint, stain, etch and mould it. All the layers of history you can put into it – it is very exciting.”

So far there have been eight windows installed in three libraries, including the latest to be unveiled at Woodside Library on St George's Road, which features Jessie and fellow suffragette Helen Crawfurd.

READ NEXT: 'It was terrifying': Glasgow soldiers recall parachute jump disaster 50 years on

Jessie was born in South Africa to a Glaswegian weaver mother and a Xhosa minister father who had attended the University of Glasgow.

She co-founded the Hillhead branch of the Women’s Freedom League (WFL) in Glasgow in January 1908.

Gorbals-born suffragette Helen set up the Glasgow Women’s Housing Association with Mary Barbour and Agnes Dollan and helped co-ordinate the successful Rent Strikes of 1915.

Helen Crawfurd, right, with Janet Barrowman (Image: Newsquest)

Like many other women, she was jailed and badly treated for standing up for women’s right to vote. She was arrested for breaking the windows of the Minister of Education’s residence in central London, and sentenced to one month in Holloway Prison.

The beautiful Woodside window (Image: Robert Perry/Newsquest)

The unveiling of the Woodside Library window, which was made with help from the SiMY community youth development project in Townhead, was a fun affair.

Clare Thompson (Image: Robert Perry/Newsquest)

Singer Lorna Morgan sang her new musical arrangements of poems written by imprisoned suffragettes, published in Glasgow as Holloway Jingles, and librarian and creative herstory project Protests and Suffragettes founder Clare Thompson spoke about the research behind the window. There was also a suffragette zine-making session.

Lorna Morgan sang at the event (Image: Robert Perry/Newsquest)

In Govanhill, Keira worked with six different community groups to design and make the windows, she explains.

“They included Hollybrook Academy, where we worked with young people who have additional support needs; Govanhill Youth Project, who designed the window to look like a graffiti wall which they filled with aspirational quotes about their future and community; and the Larkfield Centre’s art group, who depicted how art has been a lifeline for them,” adds Keira.

READ NEXT: Story of fire that 'burned for decades' in hills near Glasgow turned into play

There are also windows dedicated to Irish heritage, a nod to the large Irish diaspora who settled in Govanhill and Glasgow; to the culture and language of Arab and Asian women living in the area; and to the People’s History of Govanhill, which is accompanied by a sound recording that you can access using a QR code painted into the window.

“The quotes are from the recording and the images are from photographs the group took whilst developing the oral history of the area,” explains Keira.

As part of a larger commission for the centenary of John Maclean’s death, a window was installed in Pollokshaws Library dedicated to the famous Glasgow socialist campaigner.

Windows are also planned for Castlemilk and Easterhouse libraries, with a focus on the women of those communities.

Keira was a young mum, working in a “string of rubbish jobs” when she discovered stained glassmaking at a college open day.

“I did a taster course and I loved it,” she explains. “I get the chance to work all over Scotland. These are by far my favourite jobs.

"Getting the chance to tell the stories of my city, my peers and my heroes feels good.”

Growing up in a working-class family with strong ties to trades unions and political activism has inspired her socialist spirit, she says.

Keira’s debut play, The Fire That Never Went Out, tells the story of a legendary campfire which burned in the hills north of Glasgow for decades, becoming a beacon of companionship and solidarity for activists, poets and Glaswegians escaping the grime and poverty of the city.

“Much of my work is restoring damaged or neglected windows,” she explains, “but the library project feels like a step beyond, restoring the neglected histories of communities often marginalised or dismissed.”