Lewis, John L. (John Llewellyn), 1880-1969

John L. Lewis was born in Lucas, Iowa in 1880. From 1917 until his death in 1969 he served the United Mine Workers of America, acting as its president from 1920 to 1960. Lewis led in the establishment of the Congress of Industrial Organizations and served as CIO president until his resignation from that post in 1940.

From its founding in 1935 until 1942, the history of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) was inseparable from that of John L. Lewis and the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA). Lewis created the CIO as an organization, and he used the manpower and treasury of the UMWA to keep the CIO alive. The early history of the CIO was also greatly influenced by the relationship between Lewis and Franklin D. Roosevelt. In 1935, the CIO devoted the bulk of its assets and energies to Roosevelt's re-election campaign. Roosevelt's victory in 1936 set the stage for the CIO's triumph over General Motors and United States Steel in early 1937. As the Lewis-Roosevelt relationship began to cool in 1937, the CIO lost ground to the AFL, Lewis resigned as president of the CIO in 1940, and the UMWA left the CIO two years after that.

John L. Lewis was born in Lucas, Iowa in 1880. From 1917 until his death in 1969 he served the United Mine Workers of America, acting as its president from 1920 to 1960.