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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.
The J. Louis Engdahl Papers were acquired in
2001.
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Introduction
