Lella Secor Florence (February 13, 1887 – January 14, 1966), née Lella Faye Secor, was an American writer, journalist,

pacifist Pacifism is the opposition or resistance to war, militarism (including conscription and mandatory military service) or violence. Pacifists generally reject theories of Just War. The word ''pacifism'' was coined by the French peace campaign ...

feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...

and pioneer of

birth control Birth control, also known as contraception, anticonception, and fertility control, is the use of methods or devices to prevent unwanted pregnancy. Birth control has been used since ancient times, but effective and safe methods of birth contr ...

Early life

Lella Faye Secor was born in

Battle Creek, Michigan Battle Creek is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan, in northwest Calhoun County, Michigan, Calhoun County, at the confluence of the Kalamazoo River, Kalamazoo and Battle Creek River, Battle Creek rivers. It is the principal city of the Battle C ...

. In 1892 her family moved to Ventura, California before moving to

Green Bay, Wisconsin Green Bay is a city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. The county seat of Brown County, it is at the head of Green Bay (known locally as "the bay of Green Bay"), a sub-basin of Lake Michigan, at the mouth of the Fox River. It is above sea lev ...

and finally, in 1898, returning to Battle Creek. Her father abandoned the family, and her mother ran a boarding house.

Journalism career and peace activist

In 1906 she became a journalist in Battle Creek and then in a variety of towns in Washington state. She sailed on the Henry Ford Peace Ship in 1915 as a reporter. She co-founded two pacifist organisations that aimed to keep the United States out of World War One: the American Neutral Conference Committee and the Emergency Peace Federation.

Personal life

In 1917 Secor married the economist Philip Sargant Florence. They had two children, both sons.

Feminist activist

In 1921, Secor moved to Cambridge, England with her husband after he began working at University of Cambridge. She joined the

Women's International League The Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) is a non-profit non-governmental organization working "to bring together women of different political views and philosophical and religious backgrounds determined to study and make kno ...

. In Cambridge she became actively involved in campaigning for

. She set up the first birth control clinic in Cambridge in 1925 and was one of the earliest women members of the Cambridge Labour Party. On one occasion, she attended a lecture given by a famous anti-feminist lecturer and was surprised to see women audience members segregated at the side of the hall. She sat in the middle of the hall to protest this. Ivor Montagu wrote of Secor in his autobiography that she was "a freckled American redhead who had been a spirited battler against the violence with which the U.S. authorities assailed pacifist protest.' For a period she lived away from her husband in a flat in Paris. In 1929, Philip was appointed to the

chair A chair is a type of seat, typically designed for one person and consisting of one or more legs, a flat or slightly angled seat and a back-rest. They may be made of wood, metal, or synthetic materials, and may be padded or upholstered in vario ...

in commerce at the University of Birmingham and the couple moved to the Birmingham district of Selly Park, where they bought a large house called ''

Highfield Highfield may refer to: Places ;Places in England * Highfield, Bolton * Highfield, Derbyshire * Highfield, Gloucestershire *Highfield, Southampton *Highfield, Hertfordshire a neighbourhood in Hemel Hempstead * Highfield, Oxfordshire * Highfield, S ...

''. In 1930 she published ''Birth Control on Trial''. Their house ''Highfield'' became a focal point for the intellectual life of Birmingham in the 1930s – the poet

Louis MacNeice Frederick Louis MacNeice (12 September 1907 – 3 September 1963) was an Irish poet and playwright, and a member of the Auden Group, which also included W. H. Auden, Stephen Spender and Cecil Day-Lewis. MacNeice's body of work was widely a ...

lived in the converted coachman's quarters and the writer Walter Allen described how "Most English Left-Wing intellectuals and American intellectuals visiting Britain must have passed through Highfield between 1930 and 1950". Lella remained committed to disarmament, birth control and women's rights and continued to write and campaign. She died of pneumonia following a stroke in 1966.

References

Bibliography

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Florence, Lella Secor 1887 births 1966 deaths American birth control activists American newspaper reporters and correspondents American pacifists American women journalists American feminists Place of death missing American expatriates in the United Kingdom