Lena Morrow Lewis

Lena Morrow Lewis

Lena Morrow Lewis (1892), Monmouth College Archives.
Born December 1868
Warren County, Illinois
Died 1950 (aged 81–82)
Alma mater Monmouth College
Known for Activist

Martha Lena Morrow Lewis (1868-1950), commonly known by her middle name Lena, was an American orator, political organizer, journalist, and newspaper editor. An activist in the prohibition, women's suffrage, and socialist movements, Lewis is best remembered as a top female leader of the Socialist Party of America during that organization's heyday in the first two decades of the 20th Century and as the first woman to serve on that organization's governing National Executive Committee.

Early years

Martha Lena Morrow was born in December 1868 in rural Warren County, Illinois where she was raised.[1] She was the daughter of Rev. T. G. and Mary A. (Story) Morrow.[2] Her father was a Presbyterian minister.[3]

Morrow graduated from high school in Paxton, Illinois.[4] Following conclusion of her secondary education she enrolled the in Presbyterian-affiliated Monmouth College in Monmouth, Illinois, from which she graduated in 1892.[5]

Career

Upon graduation from Monmouth College, Morrow began her activist career. Her involvement changed focus as she set new priorities.

Lewis' first cause

For her first involvement, Morrow took a post as a national lecturer for the Women's Christian Temperance Union, remaining in that position until 1898.[6] During this period, she served as W.C.T.U. district president in Illinois.[7]

In 1898, Morrow took up the cause of women's suffrage, working as an organizer for the suffrage movement until 1901. She began working in South Dakota, then in 1900 she moved to Oregon.[8] As a worker for women’s suffrage, Morrow became the first female activist to work with the powerful labor union movement of Chicago in an effort to enlist its aid in bringing the vote to women.[9]

Lewis' major cause

"Downtrodden women, just listen to this and take heart! You are in reality superior to man, and if you hadn't been you could never have survived all the centuries of servitude and persecution that have been put upon you."[10]

Morrow joined the Socialist party in 1902 and redirected her activism from women's suffrage to Socialism.[11] Lewis was attracted to Socialism's emphasis on fair working conditions. As she saw it, a man without a job was worse off than a woman without a ballot because a job was necessary for a livelihood. She chose California for her activism, working out of the San Francisco Bay Area.[12]

In 1903, Lena Morrow took the name Lewis by a short-lived marriage to Arthur Morrow Lewis.[13] Arthur Morrow Lewis also lectured for the Socialist party. He was born in England, studied for the ministry, and became a noted scholar.[14] The next year, 1903, she was arrested in San Francisco for speaking on the streets and spent a few hours in jail.[15]

Lewis was indefatigable in promoting the Socialist party as a national organizer and lecturer from 1908-1914. During that time she spoke in every state, also in Canada and England. Her venues were lumber camps and mining districts as well as auditoriums and halls.[16]

Lewis was a member of the Intercollegiate Socialist Society. In 1905, she was elected to be a member the National Woman's Committee of the Socialist Party from California. She was the first and only woman member. From there, she was elected delegate to the 1909 International Socialist Congress in Copenhagen, Denmark.[17]

Although best known for her speaking, Lewis was a prolific writer. Over 200,000 copies of her pamphlet, "The Socialist Party and Woman Suffrage", were distributed.[18] She was a regular contributor to the Progressive Woman (originally the Socialist Woman).[19]

Middle-aged and divorced, Lewis was in the power structure of the Socialist Party and stood as one of its "outstanding lecturers and organizers". However, in 1910-11, Lewis became the target of scandal and calls for her resignation from the National Executive Committee because of her trysts with free love advocate J. Mahlon Barnes. Although the scandal subsided, Lewis declined to run again and went to the Alaskan Territory as an organizer. There, she lived alone in a two-room cabin from 1913-1917. During her time in Juneau, Lewis taught, lectured, wrote, and campaigned.[20]

Later years

"Lena Morris Lewis is one of the noblest of women, as I have reason to know." Eugene V. Debs, 1922.[21]

By 1919, both the women's movement and the Socialist Party had disintegrated. Leading Socialist women became "political ghosts". Lewis and a few others continued their efforts for socialism, but without the support of a strong national party.[22]

Lewis resigned from the Socialist party in 1936 and joined the new Social Democratic Federation[23] that replaced the disbanded Socialist party. She spent her last years organizing the library of the Rand School of Social Science that had been founded to teach socialism.[24]

Death and legacy

Lena Morrow Lewis died in 1950.[25] She was 81 years old at the time of her death.

Although she had been in the top leadership of the Socialist party for most of her life, she did not write her memoirs.[26] However, Lewis left many papers. They are housed at the Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Archives, located at New York University in New York City.[27] The Morrow collection consists of two linear feet of material in five archival boxes and has been microfilmed by the library for the use of scholars.[27] A small collection of photographs of Lewis with her contemporaries in the socialist movement is also housed at NYU.[28]

References

  1. ↑ The Alaska Women's Hall of Fame, which inducted Lena Morrow Lewis as a member, indicates her year of birth was 1862. Scholar Mari Jo Buhle, an expert on the turn of the century women's movement, indicates that Lewis was born in December 1868, however — the date which is used here. See: Mari Jo Buhle, Women and American Socialism, 1870-1920. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1981; pg. 162.
  2. ↑ John W. Leonard, Woman's Who's who of America: A Biographical Dictionary of Contemporary Women of the United States and Canada (American commonwealth Company, 1914), s. v. LEWIS, Lena Morrow, 489.
  3. ↑ Mari Jo Buhle, Women and American Socialism, 1870-1920. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1981; pg. 162.
  4. ↑ Solon DeLeon with Irma C. Hayssen and Grace Poole (eds.), The American Labor Who's Who. New York: Hanford Press, 1925; pg. 138.
  5. ↑ Mari Jo Buhle, Women and American Socialism, 1870-1920. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1981; pg. 162.
  6. ↑ Solon DeLeon with Irma C. Hayssen and Grace Poole (eds.), The American Labor Who's Who. New York: Hanford Press, 1925; pg. 138.
  7. ↑ John W. Leonard, Woman's Who's who of America: A Biographical Dictionary of Contemporary Women of the United States and Canada (American Commonwealth Company, 1914), s. v. LEWIS, Lena Morrow, 489.
  8. ↑ John W. Leonard, Woman's Who's who of America: A Biographical Dictionary of Contemporary Women of the United States and Canada (American Commonwealth Company, 1914), s. v. LEWIS, Lena Morrow, 489.
  9. ↑ Solon DeLeon with Irma C. Hayssen and Grace Poole (eds.), The American Labor Who's Who. New York: Hanford Press, 1925, 138.
  10. ↑ Mari Jo Buhle, Women and American Socialism, 1870-1920 (University of Illinois, 1981), 164-165.
  11. ↑ Mari Jo Buhle, Women and American Socialism, 1870-1920. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1981; pg. 163.
  12. ↑ Mari Jo Buhle, Women and American Socialism, 1870-1920. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1981, 163.
  13. ↑ Mari Jo Buhle, Women and American Socialism, 1870-1920. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1981; pg. 163.
  14. ↑ Margaret Collingwood Nowak, Two who Were There: A Biography of Stanley Nowak (Wayne State University, 1989), 53.
  15. ↑ John W. Leonard, Woman's Who's who of America: A Biographical Dictionary of Contemporary Women of the United States and Canada (American commonwealth Company, 1914), s. v. LEWIS, Lena Morrow, 489.
  16. ↑ John W. Leonard, Woman's Who's who of America: A Biographical Dictionary of Contemporary Women of the United States and Canada (American commonwealth Company, 1914), s. v. LEWIS, Lena Morrow, 489.
  17. ↑ John W. Leonard, Woman's Who's who of America: A Biographical Dictionary of Contemporary Women of the United States and Canada (American commonwealth Company, 1914), s. v. LEWIS, Lena Morrow, 489.
  18. ↑ Nancy F. Cott, Women and Politics, Vol 18, Pt 1, (K.G. Saur, 1992), 381.
  19. ↑ Tiffany K. Wayne, Women's Rights in the United States: A Comprehensive Encyclopedia of Issues, Events, and People (ABC-CLIO, 2014), 193.
  20. ↑ Mari Jo Buhle, Women and American Socialism, 1870-1920 (University of Illinois Press, 1981), 165-166.
  21. ↑ Ronald J. Leach, Karsner, Traubel, Debs and Trouble: Baltimore Authors Book 13 (AfterMath, 2012) EBook, no pagination.
  22. ↑ Mari Jo Buhle, Women and American Socialism, 1870-1920. (University of Illinois Press, 1981), 318-319.
  23. ↑ http://marxisthistory.org/subject/usa/eam/socialdemocraticfed.html.
  24. ↑ Mari Jo Buhle, Women and American Socialism, 1870-1920 (University of Illinois Press, 1981), 319, 326, fn.2 and http://marxisthistory.org/subject/usa/eam/socialdemocraticfed.html
  25. ↑ Buhle, Women and American Socialism, 1870-1920, pg. 326, fn. 2.
  26. ↑ Mari Jo Buhle, Women and American Socialism, 1870-1920 (University of Illinois Press, 1981), 166, 319.
  27. 1 2 "Guide to the Lena Morrow Lewis Papers, Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Archives, Elmer Holmes Bobst Library, New York University, New York City. Retrieved October 18, 2015
  28. ↑ "Guide to the Lena Morrow Lewis Photograph Collection", Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Archives, Elmer Holmes Bobst Library, New York University, New York City.

Works

External links

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