Thomas, Norman (Mattoon)
 Norman Thomas |
| b. Nov. 20, 1884, Marion, Ohio, U.S. d. Dec. 19, 1968, Huntington, N.Y. |
Following his graduation from Union Theological Seminary,
New York City, about 1911, Thomas accepted the pastorate of the East
Harlem Church and the chairmanship of the American Parish, a settlement
house in one of the poorest sections of New York City. He became a
pacifist and opposed U.S. participation in World War I. Then, in 1918
Thomas joined the Socialist Party,
and, leaving his East Harlem posts the same year, was appointed secretary
of the newly formed Fellowship of Reconciliation, an international
pacifist organization. In 1921 he became associate editor of the
influential liberal weekly The Nation, and the following year he
was made executive codirector of the League for Industrial Democracy--a
position he held for more than 10 years. He was also one of the founders
of the American Civil Liberties Union.
Thomas ran for
governor of New York on the Socialist Party ticket in 1924; he ran for
mayor of New York City twice (1925, 1929) and for president of the United
States in six successive elections beginning in 1928. He was generally
critical of the Democratic New Deal administration of Franklin D.
Roosevelt, holding that it stressed solution of economic emergencies to
the neglect of moral issues.
In 1935 Thomas
severed his connection with the New Leader, a magazine then
dominated by the Marxist "Old Guard" of the Socialist Party, and supported
the newly founded Socialist Call. This internal factionalism, added
to Thomas' pacifist resistance to intervention in World War II, weakened
his public influence, though he remained the party's unofficial popular
spokesman in years to come. Following World War II, as chairman of the
Postwar World Council, he devoted much of his energy to the problems of
international peace and pressed for a cessation of fighting in Indochina.
Thomas' many books
include The Test of Freedom (1954), Mr. Chairman, Ladies and
Gentlemen (1955), The Prerequisites for Peace (1959), and
Socialism Re-examined (1963).
Search for related Internet links that use the term "Thomas, Norman (Mattoon)".
Information about this topic in other articles
Thomas, Norman Mattoon (Am. pol.)
    |
