Student Activism in the 1930s
Home  |  Historical Essay  |  Documents  |  Credits

ASU Autobiographies

American Student Union Summer Training Institute Autobiographies
Why Progressive?

Claire Lippman

1. Family discussions awakened my interest in social problems while I was still very young. My parents were deeply concerned about world relations and conditions, and my grandmother was an active social worker at the Henry Street Settlement. Many of my summers were spent in large country houses with a large family. These houses were frequently the destination of Henry Street Settlement excursions of children from the lower East side in New York. Young workers and unemployed came to spend a free vacation with us, and they always became very friendly with me. Through these contacts, I became conscious of some sort of social inequality based on wealth, which seemed puzzling and unjust.

2. By the time I was ten, I had some vague ideas of a socialist society as an ideal. Of course, I did not understand the issues involved, but saw in the word "socialism" a fair chance for all my impoverished friends. In that year there was a congressional election, and in a flare of mild excitement I propagandized my classmates for the socialist candidates. Then my interest waned for about a year and a half until the presidential campaigns. Either because my parents were praising Norman Thomas at that time, or because one of my good friends was a niece of Morris Hillquit, I became a very ardent Thomas supporter. That year I heard him speak once or twice and was so deeply impressed that I tried to join the Young Peoples Socialist League. (They refused me as too young). In this great burst of enthusiasm, I spent some time after school hours distributing socialist handbills in front of a Seventh Avenue Subway station, with an equally ardent friend.

3. Just about this time the election campaigns of 1932 were raging. My class in school (eighth grade) held a political rally. Each party was represented by one or two speakers who volunteered on the basis of previous knowledge. The socialist platform was presented by the girl who was Morris Hillquit's niece. After listening to the comparatively narrow and backward programs of the Republicans and Democrats, I was more firmly convinced by the Socialist platform than I had ever been before.

4. The following year several upper classman organized a school peace council. As I knew most of the people fairly well and they knew of my interest, I soon found myself assisting in the council's formation, and later on the executive committee. That year we centered on discussions and extensive space in the school paper. we joined the peace parade which originated, I think, that year, and marched with the Society for Ethical Culture of which our school was a part. The Peace Council continued until sometime after the formation of the national A.S.U. As soon as the ASU was formed, we got a charter and started our chapter. Eventually the Peace Council merged with the peace committee of the ASU because of an interlocking membership and program. The most important piece of work undertaken by the Peace Council was one which gained us quite a wide reputation in New York educational circles. The group which included students of the first two years of high school, wrote a pamphlet entitled "The Student Looks at War." It was printed—with several pictures—and sold in the leading bookstores and department stores in New York City.

5. I joined the ASU as soon as it formed and helped to organize the chapter at Fieldston. By this time I had a more basic understanding of the social problems and an intellectual craving for further study. From this time on, I spent a good deal of time working with the ASU, going to lectures by noted people in the progressive movement and reading literature by the same. I had come more and more to realize the need for action and organization, and decided to take a determined stand. I became interested in this school because it seemed the best way to become a more able leader in the ASU and other student activities. For some time I felt that my knowledge of the student movement and its problems was too indefinite. This seemed the opportunity to overcome that common weakness. I hoped, through this school, to learn more about the problems of the student movement throughout the nation, also methods of organization, and how to BUILD a broad student union.

Home  |  Historical Essay  |  Documents  |  Credits