Sadie Griffin

Sadie K. Griffin was born in North Baltimore, Ohio, on February 18, 1877, to Robert and Mary O'Leary Dempsey.^[1][2] She spent much of her early life being raised in upstate New York.^[1] It wasn't until 1918 at the age of forty-one that she moved to Bridgeport, Connecticut, in order to take a job at a grocery store.^[3][4] It was while in Bridgeport she married Harry Griffin.^[1]

During the 1935 Bridgeport municipal elections, Griffin and fifteen other members of the Socialist Party won seats on the Bridgeport City Council.^[1][5] The first woman to serve on the council,^[1][6] she would serve for fourteen years before losing re-election in 1949,^[7] an election which marked a substantial decline in support for the Socialists.^[8] She also served a single term in the Connecticut House of Representatives representing the city of Bridgeport.^[9] A close ally of mayor Jasper McLevy, Griffin was appointed to several city and county offices. She was chairwoman of the Bridgeport Tax Review Unit from 1948 until her death.^[3]

• Ross, Jack (April 15, 2015). "Socialist Elected Officeholders, 1897– 1960". The Socialist Party of America: A Complete History. Lincoln, Nebraska: Potomac Books. University of Nebraska Press. pp. 609–638. doi:10.2307/j.ctt1d98c2g. ISBN 978-1612344904. JSTOR j.ctt1d98c2g. OL 29260092M.
• Bucki, Cecelia (2001). Bridgeport's Socialist New Deal, 1915-36. Chicago, Illinois: University of Illinois Press. ISBN 978-0-252-02687-4.