Dates

• Existence: 1901 - 1953

Biographical Note

Maurice Joseph Tobin was born in 1901 in Roxbury, Massachusetts, and raised in Mission Hill. He took courses at Boston College, and, though he never officially graduated, considered the school his alma mater. Tobin's political career began in 1926 when he won election to the state legislature as a Democrat, the legislative minority at the time. He was elected mayor of Boston in both 1937 and 1941. As mayor during the Great Depression, he strove to unify Democratic and Republican approaches by being both economically conservative and socially liberal, and by upholding progressive components of each party. Tobin's popularity as mayor helped him to be elected Massachusetts governor in 1944. He defended Harry Truman's civil rights stance at the Democratic National Convention of 1948, which led Truman to nominate him as the sixth U.S. Secretary of Labor. Tobin accepted and campaigned diligently for the president, becoming one of the strongest advocates for Truman's social and foreign policy. He was also vocal in his support of labor unions, increased minimum wage, and stricter workplace safety codes, though he had limited success against the conservative majorities of his time. He died in 1953.

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