Powers Hapgood

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Powers Hapgood (28 December 1899- 4 February 1949) was an American Trade Union Organizer and Socialist Party leader known for his involvement with the United Mine Workers in the 1920s. Hapgood was the son of a Progressive canner in Indianapolis. Hapgood graduated Harvard University in 1921 and decided to dedicate his life mobilizing the working-class. Hapgood became a coal miner in Pennsylvania, serving under union organizer John Brophy. Hapgood was instrumental in organizing non-union coal mines in Somerset County, Pennsylvania during the Somerset Coal Strike of 1922-23, especially mines at Jerome, Boswell and Gray.^[1] Hapgood later aided Brophy in his challenge to John L. Lewis for the leadership of the UMWA, a challenge that led to the ouster of Hapgood and Brophy from the Union. Hapgood joined the Socialist party and ran for Governor of Indiana on their ticket in 1932, losing to Paul V. McNutt. He later joined the CIO at the behest of Lewis to help in several high profile campaigns. He was married to Socialist leader Mary Donovan Hapgood. He died in a car crash in Indianapolis in 1949.^[2]

German-American author Kurt Vonnegut pays homage to Hapgood in his novel Jailbird.

[edit] FOOTNOTES

1. ^ Bussel, Robert. From Harvard to the Ranks of Labor: Powers Hapgood and the American Working Class. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1999. pp. 43-63
2. ^ Leeder, Elaine J. (1993). The Gentle General: Rose Pesotta, Anarchist and Labor Organizer. SUNY Press, pg.136. ISBN 0791416712.