Harrison McGowen Parker

Harrison Parker on the day he argued Parker v. State of Illinois at the Supreme Court in 1948

Harrison McGowen Parker, born , was the founder of the Chicago-based Co-operative Society of America. In the 1930s, he sued the Chicago Tribune for libel.

In 1948, he was a pro se petitioner at the US Supreme Court in the case Parker v. State of Illinois. Parker had been charged with contempt of court for submitting letters to a grand jury. The Court affirmed the charge. While serving jail time for contempt, he and his family would be accused of mail fraud for advertising a contest in several newspapers.

In 1960, the Democratic Party included him in a list of anti-Catholic activists opposed to the Kennedy campaign. Anti-Catholic literature from Parker's Puritan Church is archived by the Kennedy Presidential Library.