Lewis, Lena Morrow, 1868-1950

Lena Morrow Lewis was one of the most active women socialists in the United States during the first half of the 20th century. Throughout her career in radical politics, Lewis was immersed in a variety of socialist activities. She was a candidate on the Socialist Party ticket in numerous local, state, and congressional elections in California and Alaska. Besides her electoral endeavors, Lewis gave lectures on contemporary socialist issues and worked as a journalist for several socialist and labor publications in California and Alaska, including The Labor World, which she edited. Lewis also worked diligently in support of the release of Warren K. Billings who, along with Tom Mooney, was convicted and imprisoned for 23 years on a charge of complicity in the Preparedness Day parade bomb explosion at San Francisco in July 1916.

From the guide to the Lena Morrow Lewis Papers, 1899-1951, (Tamiment Library / Wagner Archives)

Lena Morrow Lewis (1862-1950) was an itinerant Socialist Party organizer, lecturer, candidate for public office, and journalist. She organized for the Womens Christian Temperance Union, the Socialist Party of America, becoming the first woman elected to its National Executive Committee, and managed Eugene V. Debs 1920 presidential campaign in the Pacific Northwest. From 1913 through 1931, she served as editor for labor and socialist publications on the West Coast and in Alaska. In 1936, she left the Socialist Party and helped found the Social Democratic Party. In the last years of her life she worked in the Meyer London Memorial Library of the Rand School of Social Science.

From the description of Lena Morrow Lewis photograph collection [graphic]. 1870-ca. 1949 (bulk 1900-1920) (New York University). WorldCat record id: 80966493

Lena Morrow Lewis (1862-1950), a talented itinerant Socialist Party organizer, popular lecturer, and journalist, was born in Gerlaw, IIlinois. Daughter of a Presbyterian minister, she graduated from Monmouth College (where she wrote for the college newspaper), a small private institution. Immediately upon graduation she became an official of the Women's Christian Temperance Union, where she honed her talents as an organizer. In 1898, Lewis left the WCTU to work for the woman suffrage movement full-time, working her way West on state suffrage referendums, ending in Oregon. In 1902, in California, she joined the Socialist Party of America (SP). Shortly after, she rose quickly to become a full-time national organizer for the SP. In 1903 she married Arthur Lewis, a well-known Socialist lecturer, and in 1909 she became the first woman to be elected to the Socialist Party's National Executive Committee. The following year she served as its delegate to the International Socialist Congress in Copenhagen.

After bearing the brunt of a bout of intercine conflict at Party headquarters, Lewis moved to Alaska in 1913, where she edited Alaska Labor News and in 1916 ran for Congress on the Socialist Party ticket. In 1917 she left Alaska for Seattle and edited the Party's Seattle Daily Call . In 1919, when many Socialist Party members left to join the newly-formed Communist Party, she remained with the SP, the next year managing Eugene Debs' presidential campaign in the Northwest.

Returning to California, Lewis served as managing editor for the Oakland Labor World, an influential and progressive daily newspaper, from 1925-1931, as well as State Secretary of the California Socialist Party. When the Depression caused Labor World to fold, she managed the 1932 Socialist Party campaign in Salt Lake City, and as worked for the Party in Wyoming, Colorado, Utah and Idaho. By now in her mid-sixties, and virtually penniless, she moved to New York City, where a small group of socialist functionaries might find support. In 1936 she left the Socialist Party and helped found the Social Democratic Party. In the last years of her life she worked in the library of the Socialist Party-associated Rand School of Social Science, organizing the papers of the movement to which she had devoted her life.

From the guide to the Lena Morrow Lewis Photographs, Bulk, 1900-1920, 1870-1949, (Bulk 1900-1920), (Tamiment Library / Wagner Archives)

The papers include Billings correspondence, general correspondence, family and personal papers, lectures, memorabilia, memorials and biographical notes, notebooks, notes, photographs, printed matter, radio talks, and nine scrapbooks. The Billings correspondence and the general corresponcence constitute the largest quantity of materials. Of special importance in the correspondence files is the extensive collection of letters from and about Warren K. Billings during seventeen of his twenty three years in prison. The letters, which are occasionally critical of Tom Mooney, affirm Billings' innocence and concentrate on numerous efforts to have him released from prison. Prominent correspondents include Theodore Dibs, James H. Maurer, James Oneal, Eugene V. Debs, Norman Thomas, and Charles Edward Russell. There are also a number of personel letters from Iva Ettor which offer some interesting insights into some of the socialist and labor organizaing activities of her husband, Joe Ettor. The scrapbooks consist primarily of newspaper clippings and focus on specific aspects of Lewis's life, particularly her work with her husband, Arthur Morrow Lewis; her experiences as a journalist and political candidate in Alaska; her involvement with the Socialist Party in Claifornia; and her writings about various personalities in the socialist and communist movements. There is also a variety of miscellaneous items including WEVD radio scripts and speech notes.

From the description of Papers, 1899-1951. (New York University). WorldCat record id: 17269226