Lena Morrow Lewis

Martha Lena Morrow Lewis (1868–1950) was an American orator, political organizer, journalist, and newspaper editor. An activist in the prohibition, women's suffrage, and socialist movements, Lewis is best remembered as a top female leader of the Socialist Party of America during that organization's heyday in the first two decades of the 20th century and as the first woman to serve on that organization's governing National Executive Committee.

Biography Early years

Martha Lena Morrow was born in December 1868 in rural Warren County, Illinois where she was raised. She was the daughter of Rev. T. G. and Mary A. (Story) Morrow. Her father was a Presbyterian minister.

Morrow graduated from high school in Paxton, Illinois. Following the conclusion of her secondary education she enrolled in the Presbyterian-affiliated Monmouth College in Monmouth, Illinois, from which she graduated in 1892. Morrow joined the Socialist Party of America (SPA) in 1902 and redirected her activism from women's suffrage to socialism. She was attracted to socialism's emphasis on fair working conditions. As she saw it, a man without a job was worse off than a woman without a ballot because a job was necessary for a livelihood. She chose California for her activism, working out of the San Francisco Bay Area. The next year, 1903, she was arrested in San Francisco for speaking on the streets and spent a few hours in jail. as well as headlining engagements in Canada and England. She was a regular contributor to the Progressive Woman (originally the Socialist Woman).

Middle-aged and divorced, Lewis was in the power structure of the Socialist Party and stood as one of its "outstanding lecturers and organizers". However, in 1910–1911, Lewis became the target of scandal and calls for her resignation from the National Executive Committee because of her tryst with Socialist Party National Executive Secretary J. Mahlon Barnes. Although the scandal subsided, Lewis declined to run again and went to the Alaskan Territory as an organizer. There, she lived alone in a two-room cabin from 1913 to 1917. During her time in Juneau, Lewis taught, lectured, wrote, and campaigned. She was the editor of the Sunday Morning Post in Juneau for over two years as well as serving as co-editor of the state's official organized labor newspaper, Alaska Labor News.

Return to California

The 1920s found Lewis in San Francisco, California, and still active in the Socialist Party. She was the SPA's nominee for Lieutenant Governor of California in 1926, winning an impressive 56,000 votes in the race—more than 10,000 more than garnered by writer Upton Sinclair, the Socialist candidate for Governor.

Lewis was elected the State Secretary of the Socialist Party of California in 1925 and remained in that capacity until 1930, serving also during this time as editor of the Socialist Party newspaper Labor World.

Death and legacy

Lewis died in 1950. She was 81 years old at the time of her death. Although she had been in the top leadership of the Socialist party for most of her life, she did not write her memoirs. However, Lewis left many papers. They are housed at the Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Archives, located at New York University in New York City. The Morrow collection consists of two linear feet of material in five archival boxes and has been microfilmed by the library for the use of scholars.

Footnotes

Works

The Socialist Party and Women Suffrage. Chicago: National Office of the Socialist Party, n.d. (1911). "The Materialist Basis of Education", The Masses, March 1912. Mission of the Social Democratic Federation. Washington, DC: Social Democratic Federation National Office, n.d. (c. 1936).