McAlister Coleman (July 3, 1888 – May 18, 1950) was an American journalist, author, and political activist on behalf of

socialism Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the e ...

and

organized labor A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and Employee ben ...

. Coleman gained public notice as a leading leftist critic of the

Lusk Committee The Joint Legislative Committee to Investigate Seditious Activities, popularly known as the Lusk Committee, was formed in 1919 by the New York State Legislature to investigate individuals and organizations in New York State suspected of sedition. ...

of the New York State Legislature in 1920. He was subsequently a frequent candidate for public office on the ticket of the

Socialist Party of America The Socialist Party of America (SPA) was a socialist political party in the United States formed in 1901 by a merger between the three-year-old Social Democratic Party of America and disaffected elements of the Socialist Labor Party of Ameri ...

. Coleman is today best remembered as an early biographer of

Eugene V. Debs Eugene Victor "Gene" Debs (November 5, 1855 – October 20, 1926) was an American socialism, socialist, political activist, trade unionist, one of the founding members of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), and five times the candidate ...

as well as the author of a 1943 work of

social history Social history, often called the new social history, is a field of history that looks at the lived experience of the past. In its "golden age" it was a major growth field in the 1960s and 1970s among scholars, and still is well represented in his ...

, ''Men and Coal.''

Biography

Early years

McAlister Coleman was born July 3, 1888, in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

.Solon DeLeon with Irma C. Hayssen and Grace Poole (eds.), "McAlister Coleman," in ''American Labor Who's Who.'' New York: Hanford Press, 1925; p. 45. His father, John Caldwell Coleman, was a successful attorney and prominent figure in liberal New York

Republican Party Republican Party is a name used by many political parties around the world, though the term most commonly refers to the United States' Republican Party. Republican Party may also refer to: Africa *Republican Party (Liberia) * Republican Part ...

political circles."McAlister Coleman, Journalist, Author, Ex-Socialist Candidate"
''Brooklyn Eagle,'' May 19, 1950, p. 15. Coleman enrolled at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

in New York City, from which he graduated in 1909. After graduation, he worked as a journalist, first taking a position with the ''

New York Sun ''The New York Sun'' is an American online newspaper published in Manhattan; from 2002 to 2008 it was a daily newspaper distributed in New York City. It debuted on April 16, 2002, adopting the name, motto, and masthead of the earlier New York ...

.'' During the course of his work as a New York journalist, Coleman covered the New York garment workers strike of 1909–1910 as well as the catastrophic Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire of 1912. These experiences had a radicalizing effect and not long after the Triangle fire he joined the

(SPA) and — while still working for the ''Sun'' — Coleman began contributing articles to the SPA's New York daily newspaper, the ''

New York Call The ''New York Call'' was a socialist daily newspaper published in New York City from 1908 through 1923. The ''Call'' was the second of three English-language dailies affiliated with the Socialist Party of America, following the ''Chicago Daily S ...

.'' Coleman left the ''Sun'' in 1913 and went to work in the field of advertising and

public relations Public relations (PR) is the practice of managing and disseminating information from an individual or an organization (such as a business, government agency, or a nonprofit organization) to the public in order to influence their perception. P ...

, first taking a position with the

American Telephone and Telegraph Company AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas, Texas. It is the world's largest telecommunications company by revenue and the third largest provider of mobile tel ...

, before leaving in 1914 to join the Frank Presbrey Advertising Agency. In 1916, Coleman left the Presbrey agency to take a new position as a copywriter for the Berrien Advertising Agency. He would remain at that position until 1922, interrupted only by a stint in the Army Engineers during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. Coleman was twice married, marrying the former Elizabeth Bache Gould in April 1916, before remarrying Dr. Ruth Fox in 1931. He was the father of two children, a daughter and a son.

Political career

In 1920, Coleman entered the public eye as a prominent critic of the

of the New York state legislature — an investigative agency established in March 1919 which conducted a series of raids on the

Russian Soviet Government Bureau The Russian Soviet Government Bureau (1919-1921), sometimes known as the "Soviet Bureau," was an unofficial diplomatic organization established by the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic in the United States during the Russian Civil War. T ...

(the de facto Soviet embassy), the

Rand School of Social Science The Rand School of Social Science was formed in 1906 in New York City by adherents of the Socialist Party of America. The school aimed to provide a broad education to workers, imparting a politicizing class-consciousness, and additionally served a ...

, and other radical institutions in New York City. Coleman was the editor of a March 1920 report entitled ''The Truth About the Lusk Committee,'' which charged that the Lusk Committee and its Assistant Counsel and leading light

Archibald E. Stevenson Archibald E. Stevenson (September 23, 1884 – February 10, 1961) was an American attorney and legislative researcher. Stevenson is best remembered for his work as Assistant Counsel of the Lusk Committee of the New York State Senate from 1919 to ...

had accomplished little more than aiding the arrest and conviction of Big Jim Larkin and

Benjamin Gitlow Benjamin Gitlow (December 22, 1891 – July 19, 1965) was a prominent American socialist politician of the early 20th century and a founding member of the Communist Party USA. During the end of the 1930s, Gitlow turned to conservatism and wrote t ...

and two hapless

Finnish language Finnish ( endonym: or ) is a Uralic language of the Finnic branch, spoken by the majority of the population in Finland and by ethnic Finns outside of Finland. Finnish is one of the two official languages of Finland (the other being Swedish ...

newspaper editors and spur on the widely condemned expulsion of five elected Socialist legislators from the

New York State Assembly The New York State Assembly is the lower house of the New York State Legislature, with the New York State Senate being the upper house. There are 150 seats in the Assembly. Assembly members serve two-year terms without term limits. The Assem ...

, all the while illegally overspending its legislative appropriation. In 1920 Coleman was arrested in

Meriden, Connecticut Meriden is a city in New Haven County, Connecticut, United States, located halfway between the regional cities of New Haven, Connecticut, New Haven and Hartford, Connecticut, Hartford. In 2020, the population of the city was 60,850."No Legal Control Over Free Speech,"
''Boston Post,'' April 29, 1921, p. 15. Convicted and levied a nominal $25 fine, Coleman appealed the case all the way to the

Connecticut Supreme Court The Connecticut Supreme Court, formerly known as the Connecticut Supreme Court of Errors, is the supreme court, highest court in the U.S. state of Connecticut. It consists of a Chief Justice and six Associate Justices. The seven justices sit in ...

as a test of

freedom of speech Freedom of speech is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or a community to articulate their opinions and ideas without fear of retaliation, censorship, or legal sanction. The right to freedom of expression has been recogni ...

rights, ultimately seeing his conviction overturned with the finding that state and local ordinances giving public officials control over citizens' permission to speak were unconstitutional. Coleman became assistant editor of ''The Illinois Miner'' in 1922, remaining with that publication until 1923. He also was a frequent contributor to a wide array of liberal and radical periodicals, including ''

The New Republic ''The New Republic'' is an American magazine of commentary on politics, contemporary culture, and the arts. Founded in 1914 by several leaders of the progressive movement, it attempted to find a balance between "a liberalism centered in hum ...

,'' ''

Labor Age ''Labor Age'' was a monthly political magazine published from 1922 to 1933. The publisher was by the Labor Publication Society. History Establishment ''Labor Age'' succeeded the ''Socialist Review'', journal of the Intercollegiate Socialist So ...

,'' ''

The Survey Paul Underwood Kellogg (September 30, 1879 – November 1, 1958) was an American journalist and social reformer. He died at 79 in New York on November 1, 1958. Life He was born in Kalamazoo, Michigan, in 1879. After working as a journalist he mo ...

,'' and ''

The Nation ''The Nation'' is an American liberal biweekly magazine that covers political and cultural news, opinion, and analysis. It was founded on July 6, 1865, as a successor to William Lloyd Garrison's '' The Liberator'', an abolitionist newspaper tha ...

.'' From the early 1920s onward, Coleman was active in the

League for Industrial Democracy The League for Industrial Democracy (LID) was founded as a successor to the Intercollegiate Socialist Society in 1921. Members decided to change its name to reflect a more inclusive and more organizational perspective. Background Intercollegiate So ...

(LID) and 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 ...

(ACLU). During the middle 1920s he was active in the

Conference for Progressive Political Action The Conference for Progressive Political Action was officially established by the convention call of the 16 major railway labor unions in the United States, represented by a committee of six: William H. Johnston of the Machinists' Union, Martin F. ...

(CPPA), a political organization bringing together socialist and non-socialist political figures with a view to starting a new labor party in the United States. Coleman was particularly active as a reporter of the conditions and affairs of American coal miners throughout the 1920s, traveling the country as a corresponding journalist for the labor press and publicly lecturing to mine workers under the auspices of the

United Mine Workers of America The United Mine Workers of America (UMW or UMWA) is a North American Labor history of the United States, labor union best known for representing coal miners. Today, the Union also represents health care workers, truck drivers, manufacturing worke ...

(UMWA). He traveled to

West Virginia West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian, Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States.The Census Bureau and the Association of American Geographers classify West Virginia as part of the Southern United States while the Bur ...

in 1925 to cover the bitter union organizing campaign there, suffering incarceration along with 200 others after being arrested at one non-union mine. Coleman was frequently a candidate for public office. In the fall of 1928 Coleman stood as the nominee of the Socialist Party for

United States Senate The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and pow ...

in New York state. Coleman also ran as the Socialist nominee in the

New York State Senate The New York State Senate is the upper house of the New York State Legislature; the New York State Assembly is its lower house. Its members are elected to two-year terms; there are no term limits. There are 63 seats in the Senate. Partisan com ...

in 1930, for

United States Congress The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, composed of a lower body, the House of Representatives, and an upper body, the Senate. It meets in the U.S. Capitol in Washing ...

from New York in both 1937 and 1938, and once again running for US Senate, this time from

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

, in 1940. Coleman was a close political associate of six-time Socialist candidate for

President of the United States The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United Stat ...

Norman Thomas Norman Mattoon Thomas (November 20, 1884 – December 19, 1968) was an American Presbyterian minister who achieved fame as a socialist, pacifist, and six-time presidential candidate for the Socialist Party of America. Early years Thomas was the ...

. Together with Thomas, Coleman sought move aside the so-called "Old Guard" of the party by working to develop an alternative

Militant faction The Militant faction was an organized grouping of Marxists in the Socialist Party of America (SPA) who sought to steer that organization from its orientation towards electoral politics and towards direct action and revolutionary socialism. The fa ...

, youth-oriented and tending towards particularly radical political rhetoric. To this end, Coleman is credited by historian Jack Ross as the author of the first explicit document of the Militant faction's ideas, a 1931 pamphlet called ''A Militant Program for the Socialist Party of America: Socialism in Our Time.''

Later years

In the late 1930s, Coleman moved to

Newark, New Jersey Newark ( , ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey and the seat of Essex County and the second largest city within the New York metropolitan area.Congress of Industrial Organizations The Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) was a federation of unions that organized workers in industrial unions in the United States and Canada from 1935 to 1955. Originally created in 1935 as a committee within the American Federation of ...

(CIO) as its publicity director. Generally a publicist rather than a scholar or a historian, Coleman was the author of a broad array of pamphlets and magazine articles, but few longer works. One notable exception was his wartime ''magnum opus'' on coal miners and coal mining, ''Men and Coal,'' published by

Farrar and Rinehart Farrar & Rinehart (1929–1946) was a United States book publishing company founded in New York. Farrar & Rinehart enjoyed success with both nonfiction and novels, notably, the landmark Rivers of America Series and the first ten books in the Nero ...

in the fall of 1943.''"Men and Coal,'' by McAlister Coleman"
''

Kirkus Reviews ''Kirkus Reviews'' (or ''Kirkus Media'') is an American book review magazine founded in 1933 by Virginia Kirkus (1893–1980). The magazine is headquartered in New York City. ''Kirkus Reviews'' confers the annual Kirkus Prize to authors of fic ...

'', October 21, 1943. Coleman provided a sympathetic portrait of the miners and their daily struggle to earn a living in the mining industry, while providing a mixed review of the personality and performance of mine workers' labor leader

John L. Lewis John Llewellyn Lewis (February 12, 1880 – June 11, 1969) was an American leader of organized labor who served as president of the United Mine Workers of America (UMW) from 1920 to 1960. A major player in the history of coal mining, he was the d ...

, both criticizing him for instability and opportunism while acknowledging his achievements in organizing miners for higher wages and better working conditions.

Death and legacy

McAlister Coleman died on May 18, 1950, at his home in

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

. He was 62 years old at the time of his death. Coleman was eulogized in the contemporary press as the " ocialistParty's public relations man," having worked tirelessly alongside SPA leader

writing pamphlets and letters to the press in an effort to advance the socialist cause."Battler for Socialism"
''Bradford AEra,'' June 23, 1950, p. 10.

Bibliography

Books

* * "Herrin" ''Survey'' 53 (October 1, 1924), p. 56. * "The Miners Turn to Giant Power," ''Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science,'' vol. 118, no. 1 (March 1925), pp. 60–62
In JSTOR
* ''Don't Tread on Me: A Study of Aggressive Legal Tactics for Labor.'' With

Clement Wood Clement Richardson Wood (September 1, 1888 – October 26, 1950) was an American writer, lawyer and political activist. He graduated from the University of Alabama in 1909 and received his law degree from Yale in 1911. Wood's second marriage was ...

and Arthur Garfield Hayes. New York: Vanguard Press, 1928. —Reissued as ''Legal Tactics for Labor's Rights.'' * ''Pioneers of Freedom.'' New York: Vanguard Press, 1929. * ''Eugene V. Debs: A Man Unafraid.'' New York: Greenberg, 1930. * ''A Militant Program for the Socialist Party of America: Socialism in Our Time.'' With Theodore Shapiro and Robert Delson. New York: Program Committee, n.d.

931 Year 931 ( CMXXXI) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Europe * Spring – Hugh of Provence, king of Italy, cedes Lower Burgundy to Rudolph II, in r ...

* ''The Betrayal of the Workless.'' Girard, KS: Haldeman-Julius Publications, 1931. * ''Pioneers of Socialism.'' Girard, KS: Haldeman-Julius Publications, 1931. * ''Red Neck.'' With Stephen Rauchenbush. New York : Harrison Smith & Robert Haas, 1936. —Novel. * ''Symbols of 1936, Roosevelt, Lemke, Thomas, Browder, Landon.'' New York: Thomas and Nelson Independent Committee, 1936. * ''Men and Coal.'' New York: Farrar and Rinehart, 1943.

Essays and reporting

Footnotes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Coleman, McAlister 1888 births 1950 deaths American socialists Columbia University alumni Journalists from New York City Male non-fiction writers Members of the Socialist Party of America New York (state) socialists The New Yorker people