Tom Morello announces death of 102-year-old mother, Mary Morello
Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello has confirmed the sad death of his 102-year-old mother, Mary Morello.
Morello took to Instagram to share the news on July 12th, posting an image of her smiling as well as one of them holding hands while she was in a hospital bed. He wrote, “Mary Morello is forever with the Rebels of Light & Song. (1923-2026)”.
Mary worked as a history teacher, but was also an activist dating back all the way to the 1930s in the Great Depression, a trait that she passed on to her son.
In 2018, on Mother’s Day, Morello shared a history of his mother’s activism, explaining, “In the 1930’s she helped feed hobos during the Great Depression and supported the coal miners struggle to organize. In the 1940’s she helped raise war bonds to defeat the fascists in WWII.”
His post, filled with admiration for his mother, continued, “In the 1950’s she taught international students and opposed racist Jim Crow laws and as a single woman traveled the world. In the 1960’s she aided anti-colonial movements while living in Africa.”
Then, in the 1970s, Mary “was a radical teacher in a conservative high school inspiring students to challenge the system and aided the United Farm Workers and the Urban League” before going on nine “peace missions to the Soviet Union and Cuba” in the ’80s, as well as speaking out “against Apartheid South Africa and Central American death squads”.
Later in life, during the 1990s, Morello recalled how “she opposed the first Iraq War and founded an international organization to fight music censorship” through Parents for Rock and Rap.
The activism and community work didn’t stop there, either, as Mary continued to oppose wars in the 21st century, help “homeless people and recovering addicts get their high school diplomas”, as well as volunteer at soup kitchens and assist Doctors Without Borders.
In his 2018 post, Morello lovingly described her as “still the most radical member of the Morello family”.
Meanwhile, in an essay for the New York Times in 2021, Morello revealed that he still gets regularly contacted by her former students who say she was “the most important educator in their lives and pushed them to see beyond the borders of our conservative, homogeneous suburb”.
Morello recently cancelled a series of shows in Europe to allow him to be with his mother in the United States after she was hospitalised.
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