As the sun set, thousands of women streamed into the streets. Dressed in stained, sweaty rags, they trudged toward the textile mills for the night shift. Justine Wise Polier, daughter of powerful labor activist Rabbi Stephen Wise, walked with them, disguised as a new immigrant. My feet are killing me from last night's shift, she thought, but it's worth it to experience what these women suffer.

Like lifeless puppets, the women dragged themselves up a set of narrow, stuffy stairs. They stood around their work tables, where the mill owners forced them to work continuously for ten hours.

"Roll call!" barked the mill boss. "Waterman?"

"Here," Justine said, responding to her mother's maiden name. I hope he doesn't figure out my real name. I shudder to think what might happen if my bosses knew my father was their biggest enemy. Roll call continued, but Justine could no longer hear the names. The skinny blonde girl, who always wore the dirty red scarf around her neck, started coughing uncontrollably. That's a sure sign of tuberculosis, Justine thought. She's spreading the bacteria everywhere.

Despite the dangerous conditions, Justine worked undercover for months, until one evening when the bosses discovered her true identity.

Standing up to three, intimidating goons who demanded she get out immediately, Justine snapped, "you'll see me again--and when you do, I'll bring you to justice for forcing such terrible conditions on your workers."

True to her word, Justine returned two years later to support Passaic's great textile strike. Hoisted on a platform above the crowd, she raised her voice against injustice, inspiring the mill workers to go on strike. In December 1927, the textile workers finally won the right to unionize.