A member of the Socialist Party and writer for several newspapers such as the Daily World and the Chicago Daily Socialist, J. Louis Engdahl (1884-1932) was one of the most distinguished editors in the history of American socialism. Engdahl became chairman of the International Labor Defense, and editor of its popular magazine, Labor Defender. The ILD organized mass protests in support of class war prisoners, including Tom Mooney and the Scottsboro Boys. In 1932, Engdahl and Ada Wright, mother of two of the Scottsboro defendants, Andy and Roy embarked on an extensive tour of Europe and the Soviet Union to gather international support for these frame-up victims. Engdahl and Wright were prohibited from entering several countries, including Belgium, Czechoslovakia, England, and Ireland, and were jailed in several others. Despite such setbacks, however, the tour was a success: In six months Engdahl and Wright addressed some two hundred mass meetings in sixteen cities. All over Europe Tom Mooney and the Scottsboro Boys were now recognized as working-class heroes, and millions of European trade-unionists and political organizations joined in the demand for their freedom. In Moscow, while attending the World Congress of International Red Aid, Engdahl contracted pneumonia and died there. 5,000 workers attended his funeral. Shown here is a letter from Engdahl to his wife while on this tour.

The J. Louis Engdahl Papers were acquired in 2001.

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