Lee, Algernon

Algernon Lee was a socialist, educator and New York City alderman. After attending the University of Minnesota in the early 1890s, Lee worked as a political organizer for the Socialist Labor Party and served as editor of several socialist publications. In 1909 Lee became the Director of Education at the Rand School of Social Science. He held this position until his death in 1954. Lee was also an instructor in economics and American history at the Rand School. On the New York City Board of Aldermen from 1918 to 1921 as a Socialist Party representative, Lee supported various measures regarding municipal ownership of the transit system and decreases in municipal taxes. During World War I Lee, a pacifist, opposed the Board's decision to assist in the sale of war savings stamps, but he later joined the Board in working on behalf of Liberty Bond sales. In November 1919 Lee was re-elected to the Board of Aldermen, but was prevented from taking office until November of 1921 because of a fight over voting irregularies. During the mid 1930s Lee was actively involved in the factional disputes which resulted in the Socialist Party split. Unable to hold the various factions together during this turbulent period, Lee withdrew from the Socialist Party in 1936 and joined the Old Guard in establishing the Social Democratic Federation for which he served as the national chairman and honorary national chairman.

Lee also served on the New York State Executive Committee of the American Labor Party in the late 1930s but later quit after discovering that the organization was dominated by the Communist Party.

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