William
English Walling
was born in 1877. The son of a rich Kentucky former slaveholding family,
he became a socialist while studying at
the University of Chicago. After graduating in 1897 he joined the
Hull House Settlement in Chicago. He
also did postgraduate work in sociology with John
Dewey.
Walling worked as a factory inspector in Chicago before moving to
New York where he worked with Lillian Wald,
the founder of the Henry Street Settlement. In 1902 he visited England
where he met Mary MacArthur, head of
Women's Protective and Provident League.
In November, 1903, Walling attended the American
Federation of Labour (AFL) annual convention in Boston. He met
Mary Kenney O'Sullivan and told her about
Britain's Women's Protective and Provident League.
He invited her to Hull House where
she met other women interested in trade unionism.
This included Jane Addams, Mary
McDowell, Florence Kelley and Sophonisba
Breckinridge.
He married Anna Strunsky, a Russian Jew who had been imprisoned for
her involvement in revolutionary politics. In August, 1908, Walling
and his wife witnessed the Springfield Riot in Illinois, where a white
mob attacked local African Americans. During the riot two were lynched,
six killed, and
over 2,000 African Americans were forced to leave the city.
In an article entitled, The
Race War in the North,
that he wrote for the Independent
about the riot, Walling complained that "a large part of the
white population" in the area were waging "permanent warfare
with the Negro race". Walling argued that they only way to reduce
this conflict was "to treat the Negro on a plane of absolute
political and social equality".
Mary Ovington, a journalist working
for the New
York Evening Post,
responded to the article by writing to Walling and at a meeting in
New York they decided to form the National
Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP).
The first meeting of the NAACP was held on 12th February, 1909. Early
members included Josephine Ruffin, Mary
Talbert, Mary Church Terrell, Inez
Milholland, Jane Addams, George
Henry White, William Du
Bois, Charles Edward Russell, John
Dewey, Charles Darrow, Lincoln
Steffens, Ray Stannard Baker, Fanny
Garrison Villard, Oswald Garrison Villard
and Ida Wells-Barnett.
In 1912, Walling's friend, Max Eastman,
became editor of the left-wing magazine, The
Masses. Organised like a co-operative, artists and writers
who contributed to the journal shared in its management. Walling joined
the team as did Floyd Dell, John
Reed, Crystal Eastman, Sherwood
Anderson, Carl Sandburg, Upton
Sinclair, Amy Lowell, Louise
Bryant, John Sloan, Dorothy
Day, Cornelia Barns, Alice
Beach Winter, Art Young, Boardman
Robinson, Robert Minor, K.
R. Chamberlain, Stuart Davis, George
Bellows and Maurice Becker.
The harmony of the group came to and end during the First
World War. Max Eastman believed
that the war had been caused by the imperialist competitive system.
Eastman and journalists such as John Reed
who reported the conflict for The
Masses, argued that the USA should remain neutral.
Most of those involved with the journal agreed with this view but
there was a small minority, including Walling and Upton
Sinclair, who wanted the USA to join the Allies
against the Central Powers. When
Walling failed to convince his fellow members he ceased to contribute
to the journal. Walling also left the American
Socialist Party because of its attitude towards the war.
(1)
William English Walling,
Race War in the North, The Independent (3rd September, 1908)
Either the spirit of the
abolitionists, of Lincoln and of Lovejoy must be revived and we must
come to treat the Negro on a plane of absolute political and social
equality, or Vardaman and Tillman will soon have transferred the race
war to the North. Yet who realizes the seriousness of the situation,
and what large and powerful body of citizens is ready to come to their
aid?
(2)
Mary White Ovington, The Walls Came Tumbling Down (1947)
I saw the article as soon
as it came out. Its description of rioting and brutality was terrible,
but I was familiar with that. What made me put down the magazine and
write to Walling within the hour was the appeal to citizens to come
to the Negro's aid. My letter reached Walling in Chicago. He replied,
telling me that he counted it of the utmost importance and that he
would come shortly to New York where we must meet.
(3)
William English Walling,
The
Masses (January, 1913)
We are beginning to realize
that the forces of conservatism are composed as largely of the owners
of jobs as the owners of capital. The literature of socialism and
unionism has shown the change for several years. Debs has repeatedly
said that the older unions have their basis in the desire of their
members in their desire of their members to protect themselves and
their jobs against the great mass of workers. As the unskilled workers
and machine operatives attempt in industry after industry, to improve
their lot, they find that these owners of jobs oppose them almost
as bitterly as the capitalists do.
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