Austin, Aleine

Aleine Austin, historian, author, and labor activist was born in New York City, July 19, 1922.

She received the B.A. (1945) from Antioch College and completed her graduate work at Columbia University (M.A. 1947; Ph. D., 1970). Austin's special interest of study and teaching was the American labor movement. She was a teaching staff member intermittently at the Highlander Folk School in East Tennessee from 1943-1956 and remained closely associated with the school's directors, Myles and Zilphia Horton. Austin later began research for an unfinished biography of Zilphia Hoton. During 1944-1946, Austin initiated a union education program for the riverboat workers on the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers, part of her assignment with the National Maritime Union. She contributed to the Monthly Review edited by Leo Huberman and later (1956-1959) did organizational work for the West Side Schools Community Centers in New York City. She taught history and labor studies at the University of Maryland Baltimore County (1966-1970) and Western Maryland College (1976-1980). Austin was the author of "The Labor Story (1949) and Matthew Lyon (1980). Aleine Austin resides in California.