Frances May Witherspoon (July 8, 1886 – December 16, 1973) was an American writer and activist, co-founder with Tracy Dickinson Mygatt of the

War Resisters League The War Resisters League (WRL) is the oldest secular pacifist organization in the United States. History Founded in 1923 by men and women who had opposed World War I, it is a section of the London-based War Resisters' International. It continues ...

, and executive secretary of the New York Bureau of Legal Advice, a forerunner of the

American Civil Liberties Union The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is a nonprofit organization founded in 1920 "to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States". T ...

Early life and education

Frances May Witherspoon was born in 1886, in Meridian, Mississippi, the daughter of law professor and Congressman Samuel Andrew Witherspoon, and his wife, Susan E. May. She graduated from

Bryn Mawr College Bryn Mawr College ( ; Welsh: ) is a women's liberal arts college in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. Founded as a Quaker institution in 1885, Bryn Mawr is one of the Seven Sister colleges, a group of elite, historically women's colleges in the United ...

in 1909. After some years as a suffrage and labor organizer in Pennsylvania, she and Mygatt moved to New York City in 1913.

Career and activism

In New York City Witherspoon and Mygatt joined the

Woman's Peace Party The Woman's Peace Party (WPP) was an American pacifist and feminist organization formally established in January 1915 in response to World War I. The organization is remembered as the first American peace organization to make use of direct acti ...

, and together edited their publication, ''Four Lights''. They also organized the Socialist Suffrage Brigade, and edited an issue of ''The Call'' about suffrage. During the first World War, Witherspoon worked with various peace organizations, and lobbied in Washington against U. S. involvement in the war. She was a founding officer of the Anti-Enlistment League in 1915. In 1917, she co-founded the New York Bureau of Legal Advice with attorney Charles Recht, to assist conscientious objectors, draft resisters, and war protesters. She was anonymous author of a pamphlet, ''Who Are the Conscientious Objectors?'' published in 1919. Witherspoon and Mygatt continued with peace work after the war, as members of the Women's Peace Union, and as founders of the War Resisters League in 1923. They were charter members of the Episcopal Pacifist Fellowship when it was founded in 1939. In 1961 they were recognized jointly with the WRL Peace Award. Witherspoon and Mygatt co-wrote two Biblical novels, ''The Glorious Company'' (1928) and ''Armor of Light'' (1930), and a play about

Vincent van Gogh Vincent Willem van Gogh (; 30 March 185329 July 1890) was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter who posthumously became one of the most famous and influential figures in Western art history. In a decade, he created about 2,100 artworks, inc ...

, ''Stranger Upon Earth'', among other literary collaborations. In her eighties, Frances Witherspoon organized a campaign among Bryn Mawr alumnae against the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vietnam a ...

Personal life and legacy

Witherspoon lived and worked with Tracy D. Mygatt for over sixty years, in New York City, and later in

Brewster, New York Brewster is a village and the principal settlement within the town of Southeast in Putnam County, New York. Its population was 2,390 at the time of the 2010 census. The village, which is the most densely populated portion of the county, was nam ...

and

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

. The pair were active in the Episcopal Church. They died within a month of each other, in late 1973, in Philadelphia; Witherspoon was 87 years old. The couple's papers were donated to the Swarthmore College Peace Collection.Tracy D. Mygatt and Frances M. Witherspoon Papers, DG 089, Swarthmore College Peace Collection.
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External links

Tracy D. Mygatt and Frances Witherspoon Papers
in th
Swarthmore College Peace Collection
Swarthmore College

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Witherspoon, Frances M. American pacifists American women writers American women in World War I 1886 births 1973 deaths People from Meridian, Mississippi Bryn Mawr College alumni 20th-century American people