William English Walling
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William English Walling (1877–1936) (known as "English" to friends and family) was an American
labor Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...
reformer and
Socialist 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 ...
Republican Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...
born into a wealthy family in
Louisville Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border. ...
,
Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia to ...
. He founded the
National Women's Trade Union League The Women's Trade Union League (WTUL) (1903–1950) was a United States, U.S. organization of both working class and more well-off women to support the efforts of women to organize labor unions and to eliminate sweatshop conditions. The WTUL play ...
in 1903. Moved by his investigation of the Springfield Race Riot of 1908 in the state capital of
Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...
, he was among the co-founders of the
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is a civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E. ...
(
NAACP The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is a civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E.&nb ...
) in 1909. He wrote three books on socialism in the early 20th century. He left the Socialist Party because of its anti-war policy, as he believed United States participation in the
Great War 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 ...
was needed to defeat the
Central Powers The Central Powers, also known as the Central Empires,german: Mittelmächte; hu, Központi hatalmak; tr, İttifak Devletleri / ; bg, Централни сили, translit=Tsentralni sili was one of the two main coalitions that fought in ...
.


Early life and education

William English Walling was born into wealth in Louisville, Kentucky, the son of Willoughby Walling, a physician who had inherited much real estate, and Rosalind (née English) Walling. He had an older brother, Willoughby George Walling. His father's family were planters who had held
slaves Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...
before the
American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...
. The boys' maternal grandfather was
William Hayden English William Hayden English (August 27, 1822 – February 7, 1896) was an American politician. He served as a U.S. Representative from Indiana from 1853 to 1861 and was the Democratic Party's nominee for Vice President of the United States in ...
, a successful businessman in
Indiana Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th s ...
and the Democratic candidate for
vice president A vice president, also director in British English, is an officer in government or business who is below the president (chief executive officer) in rank. It can also refer to executive vice presidents, signifying that the vice president is on t ...
in
1880 Events January–March * January 22 – Toowong State School is founded in Queensland, Australia. * January – The international White slave trade affair scandal in Brussels is exposed and attracts international infamy. * February ...
. Walling was educated at a private school in Louisville, and at the
University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...
and
Harvard Law School Harvard Law School (Harvard Law or HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest continuously operating law school in the United States. Each class ...
. After his grandfather English died while Walling was in college, the young man inherited a private income. He became a socialist. After moving to New York in 1900, he became active in state social movements and politics.


Career

Walling became involved in labor and political movements, first working at
Hull House Hull House was a settlement house in Chicago, Illinois, United States that was co-founded in 1889 by Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Starr. Located on the Near West Side of the city, Hull House (named after the original house's first owner Cha ...
in Chicago, an early settlement house and
University Settlement Society of New York The University Settlement Society of New York is an American organization which provides educational and social services to immigrants and low-income families, located at 184 Eldridge Street (corner of Eldridge and Rivington Streets) on the Lowe ...
. He vowed to live on the equivalent of a worker's wage. Moving to New York City in 1900, he worked as a factory inspector. In 1903 he founded the
National Women's Trade Union League The Women's Trade Union League (WTUL) (1903–1950) was a United States, U.S. organization of both working class and more well-off women to support the efforts of women to organize labor unions and to eliminate sweatshop conditions. The WTUL play ...
. In 1906 following a lengthy trip to Russia to report on the abortive
Russian Revolution of 1905 The Russian Revolution of 1905,. also known as the First Russian Revolution,. occurred on 22 January 1905, and was a wave of mass political and social unrest that spread through vast areas of the Russian Empire. The mass unrest was directed again ...
, he married
Anna Strunsky Anna Strunsky Walling (March 21, 1877 – February 25, 1964) was known as an early 20th-century Jewish-American author and advocate of socialism based in San Francisco, California, and New York City. She was primarily a novelist, but also wrote a ...
, a Jewish immigrant and an aspiring
novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living writing novels and other fiction, while others aspire to ...
from
San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...
, who had lived as a child with her family on New York's Lower East Side before they moved to California. They had four children together: Rosamond, Anna, Georgia and Hayden. In 1908 Walling published ''Russia's Message'', a book inspired by the social unrest which he and his wife had observed in Russia.Walling, William Englis
''Russia's Message: The True World Import of the Revolution''
(New York: Doubleday, Page & Company, 1908).
He joined the
Socialist Party Socialist Party is the name of many different political parties around the world. All of these parties claim to uphold some form of socialism, though they may have very different interpretations of what "socialism" means. Statistically, most of th ...
(1910–17), but resigned several years later at the time of the Great War because of its anti-war stance. Walling became convinced that United States intervention in the war was needed to defeat the Central Powers.His marriage to Anna Strunsky ended at this time, in part due to their disagreement over the United States' role in the conflict. In 1908 Walling and his wife Anna went to
Springfield, Illinois Springfield is the capital of the U.S. state of Illinois and the county seat and largest city of Sangamon County. The city's population was 114,394 at the 2020 census, which makes it the state's seventh most-populous city, the second largest o ...
to investigate a
race riot This is a list of ethnic riots by country, and includes riots based on ethnic, sectarian, xenophobic, and racial conflict. Some of these riots can also be classified as pogroms. Africa Americas United States Nativist period: 1700s ...
that occurred on August 14. Ethnic whites had attacked blacks, with physical conflict arising out of job competition at the lowest levels and rapid social change in the developing city. Walling wrote an article, "The Race War in the North," for the September 3 issue of ''The Independent.'' He said, "the spirit of the abolitionists, of Lincoln and Lovejoy, must be revived and we must come to treat the negro on a plane of absolute political and capitalist equality, or Vardaman and
Tillman Tillman is a surname and given name of English origin and an Americanized spelling of Tillmann. Other variants of the name include Tilman and Dillman. Notable people with the name Tillmann include: Surname * Albert Tillman (1928–2004), Amer ...
will soon have transferred the race war to the North."Walling, William English
"The Race War in the North"
''Independent'' 65 (September 3, 1908): 529–534.
He appealed for a "large and powerful body of citizens to come to their aid."
Mary White Ovington Mary White Ovington (April 11, 1865 – July 15, 1951) was an American suffragist, journalist, and co-founder of the NAACP, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Biography Mary White Ovington was born April 11, 1865, ...
wrote to him in support. She was one among a number of people, white and black, Christians and Jews, who were moved to create a new organization to work for civil rights. Walling was among the white founders of the NAACP; founding black members included such leaders as
W.E.B. Du Bois William Edward Burghardt Du Bois ( ; February 23, 1868 – August 27, 1963) was an American-Ghanaian sociologist, socialist, historian, and Pan-Africanist civil rights activist. Born in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, Du Bois grew up in ...
from the
Niagara Movement The Niagara Movement (NM) was a black civil rights organization founded in 1905 by a group of activists—many of whom were among the vanguard of African-American lawyers in the United States—led by W. E. B. Du Bois and William Monroe Trotter. ...
. They had some of their first meetings in Walling's New York apartment.William English Walling
Exhibition: ''NAACP: A Century in the Fight for Freedom 1909–2009'', Library of Congress
Walling served initially as chairman of the NAACP Executive Committee (1910–1911). Walling later worked full-time for the
American Federation of Labor The American Federation of Labor (A.F. of L.) was a national federation of labor unions in the United States that continues today as the AFL-CIO. It was founded in Columbus, Ohio, in 1886 by an alliance of craft unions eager to provide mutu ...
. His books include: *
Socialism As It Is – A Survey of The World-Wide Revolutionary Movement
' (1912/1918) *
The Larger Aspects of Socialism
https://archive.org/details/largeraspectsofs00walluoft 2]'' (1913) *
Progressivism and After
' (1914) *
The Socialists and the War
' (1915) *
Russia's Message: The People Against the Czar
' (1917) *
Sovietism: The ABC of Russian Bolshevism—According to the Bolshevists
' (1920)


Footnotes


Further reading

* James Boylan, ''Revolutionary Lives: Anna Strunsky and William English Walling.'' Amherst, MA: University of Massachutsetts Press, 1998. * Berry Craig, "William English Walling: Kentucky's Unknown Civil Rights Hero," ''The Register of the Kentucky Historical Society'', vol. 96, no. 4 (Autumn 1998), pp. 351–376
In JSTOR
* Richard Schneirov, "The Odyssey of William English Walling: Revisionism, Social Democracy, and Evolutionary Pragmatism," ''The Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era'', vol. 2, no. 4 (October 2003), pp. 403–430
In JSTOR


External links



Spartacus website * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Walling, William 1877 births 1936 deaths American trade union leaders Writers from Louisville, Kentucky Harvard Law School alumni University of Chicago alumni NAACP activists Progressive Era in the United States Kentucky Republicans