Lucy Robins Lang

Lucy Fox Robins Lang (March 30, 1884 – January 25, 1962) was an American activist involved with the American Federation of Labor (AFL) and the fight for amnesty for political prisoners. She is best known for her work with Emma Goldman and Samuel Gompers. Lang advocated for many political prisoners who had been charged under Wartime Emergency Laws. She was also a Zionist who helped raise money for settlements for Jewish refugees. Lang wrote about her life in an autobiography, Tomorrow is Beautiful.

Biography Lang was born on March 30, 1884, in Kyiv, Ukraine and grew up in Korostyshev. Lang's paternal grandfather was a rabbi in Kyiv and was known as Reb Chiam the Hospitable. Lang's father went to America ahead of the family. The family moved to the United States when Lang was nine and they lived for a short time on the Lower East Side of New York City before settling in Chicago. She began to work in a cigar factory, where she was a good enough worker to make $20 a week. She also helped take care of her four younger siblings after work. Lang learned English at night school. She was also invited to start attending an anarchist study group. Lang also attended programs at Hull House and Jane Addams was a big influence on her life. Addams even asked her to work as an assistant dance instructor for Hull House. Lang and her husband briefly separated, still viewing their marriage as a limited contract. The separation was considered "scandalous" and there was gossip printed about them in the newspapers in San Francisco. Lang differentiated her amnesty campaigns from other contemporary ones, by calling hers "constructive" as opposed to the others, which she considered "radical." She also believed that other campaigns for amnesty existed more to raise money than to provide actual aid. Lang ensured that her campaigns were funded by unions, not individual laborers. Lang worked as a mediator between the labor unions and Washington, D.C., officials. Her position at AFL was executive secretary of the amnesty committee. In 1921, Lang focused her energy on amnesty for Eugene Debs.

Lang and her husband began to have differences over her work for AFL and split up in the mid-1920s. She was also involved in helping during the 1927 Mine Workers Strike.

Tomorrow is Beautiful Lang's autobiography, Tomorrow is Beautiful (1948), tells her life story and also describes a history of the Jewish labor movement in the United States in early half of the twentieth century.