Kate Richards O'Hare

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Kate Richards O'Hare, circa 1913

Kate Richards O'Hare (1877-1948) was a prominent American Socialist anti-war activist during World War I.

As the editor of the National Rip-Saw, a socialist journal, O'Hare critiqued American society from a socialist perspective. After the outbreak of war in 1917, O'Hare led the Socialist Party's Committee on War and Militarism. Due to her anti-war activities, she was imprisoned by the government for violating the Espionage Act of 1917, but in 1920 was pardoned by President Warren Harding after a nationwide campaign to secure her release. While in prison, she met the anarchists Emma Goldman and Gabriella Segata Antolini, and worked with them to improve prison conditions.

O'Hare, unlike many Socialists at the time, supported segregation and wrote a 1912 pamphlet titled "'Nigger' Equality", which attempted to appeal to Southern voters [1]. Her views on this issue have ruined her image for many socialists today, but at the time she was admired for her strong anti-war stance. Some have attacked the legacy of the Socialist Party based on her views on race, but they ignore the contributions of the Socialist Party to the struggle against segregation, and that frequent SP candidate Eugene V. Debs refused to speak to segregated audiences.

[edit] Publications

O’Hare, Kate Richards. The sorrows of Cupid. St. Louis: National Rip-Saw, 1912.
Engdahl, John Louis. Debs and O’Hare in prison. Chicago: Socialist Party, [1919?].
O’Hare, Kate Richards. Americanism and Bolshevism. St. Louis, Mo.: F.P. O’Hare, 1919.
O’Hare, Kate Richards. Socialism and the world war. St. Louis, Mo.: F.P. O’Hare, 1919.
Zeuch, William Edward. The truth about the O’Hare case / by W.E. Zeuch. And Kate Richards O’Hare’s address to the court. St. Louis, Mo.: F.P. O’Hare, [1919?].
O’Hare, Kate Richards. In prison. New York: A.A. Knopf, 1923.