Penn Kemble
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Penn Kemble (21 January 1941 - 15 October 2005) was an American political activist.
Born in Worcester, Massachusetts, Kemble grew up in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. He studied at the University of Colorado, where he helped set up a local branch of the Young People's Socialist League. His first job was at the New York Times, but was fired for refusing to cross a picket line during a typesetters' strike.[1]
During the 1960s, Kemble was active in the Socialist Party of America, and attempted to set up a youth wing. He was also a founder of Negotiation Now!, which called for a negotiated end to the Vietnam War, and was active in the Congress of Racial Equality.[1]
In 1972, Kemble was a founder of the Social Democrats, USA, and also of the Coalition for a Democratic Majority.[2] In the second half of the decade, he was assistant and speechwriter to Daniel Patrick Moynihan.[1] Fiercely opposed to the Soviet Union and to nuclear disarmament, he helped found the Institute on Religion and Democracy and from 1981 until 1988 was the president of Prodemca, which opposed the Sandanistas and related groups in Central America.[2]
In 1991, Kemble was appointed to the Board for International Broadcasting and soon became the Washington, D.C. representative of Freedom House. However, as a supporter of the Democratic Party, he refused to accept any office under George W. Bush.[2]
[edit] References
- ^ a b c Joe Holley, "Political Activist Penn Kemble Dies at 64", Washington Post, 19 October 2005
- ^ a b c "Penn Kemble", The Times, 31 October 2005
