Anna Louise Strong
Anna Louise Strong (1885-1970, OC 1905) was a social activist and journalist. She received her B.A. from Oberlin College in 1905. While at Oberlin, Strong protested the restrictions put on female students concerning curfews and late-night gatherings. After graduating, she attended the University of Chicago where she received her M.A. in philosophy in 1907 and her Ph.D. in philosophy in 1908.
In 1910 Strong served on the National Child Labor Committee and organized child welfare exhibits. She resigned in 1916 and moved to Seattle where she was elected to the Seattle School Board in 1917. Strong began writing for the New York Evening Post and the Seattle Daily Call that same year. She was recalled from the Seattle School Board in 1918 because of her socialist beliefs and association with the Industrial Workers of the World (I.W.W.).
Strong remained in Seattle where she became a journalist for the Seattle Union Record, the newspaper of the Seattle general strike, after she joined the I.W.W. Strong was one of the leaders of the Seattle general strike, which took place on February 6, 1919. On that day, the city of Seattle shut down as union workers and most of the Seattle workforce joined striking shipyard workers. The strike ended on February 11 after Federal officers refused to negotiate with the striking workforce and the police arrested I.W.W. workers and closed the Seattle Union Record.
In 1921 Strong moved to Russia to work for the famine relief effort. She was again employed as a reporter and wrote books focused on the rise of socialism in the Soviet Union. She traveled to China and throughout Asia to witness the Chinese Civil War and to Spain and Mexico to write about political unrest. After she was arrested and charged as an American spy in the Soviet Union, Strong moved to China in 1958. She continued to write pro-labor books, including The Rise of the Chinese People's Communes (1959), and articles advocating for communism until her death in 1970.
Sources:
“Anna Louise Strong papers, 1885-1971.” Orbis Cascade Alliance. Accessed April 2, 2020. http://archiveswest.orbiscascade.org/ark:/80444/xv20539/op=fstyle.aspx?t=k&q=WAUStrongAnnaLouise1309_1444.xml
Civil Rights and Labor History Consortium. “Seattle General Strike Project.” University of Washington. Accessed April 2, 2020. http://depts.washington.edu/labhist/strike/
Student File (Anna Louise Strong), Alumni & Development Records, O.C.A.