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5 unusual facts about Norman Thomas


Harry W. Laidler

He is best remembered as Executive Director of the League for Industrial Democracy, successor to the Intercollegiate Socialist Society, and for his close political association with perennial Socialist Party Presidential nominee Norman Thomas.

Jasper McLevy

This caused friction between McLevy and other local Socialists who stayed with the party, including journalist Devere Allen, a close associate of party leader Norman Thomas, and state representative Jack Bergen.

As early as 1936, left-wing socialists, such as party leader Norman Thomas, accused McLevy, a member of the Old Guard, of only paying "lip service" to socialism.

Rand School of Social Science

Among those teaching classes at Camp Tamiment over the years were Norman Thomas, Jessie Wallace Hughan, Solon DeLeon, and Stuart Chase.

Workers' Defense League

The group was founded on August 29, 1936 with the endorsement of Norman Thomas, six-time presidential candidate of the Socialist Party of America.


Maynard C. Krueger

In 1940, Krueger was the Socialist Party's candidate for Vice President of the United States, running with Norman Thomas.

Roswell Parkhurst Barnes

He was active in the 1920s in the Committee on Militarism in Education (CME), established in 1925 by John Nevin Sayre, Norman Thomas, and E. Raymond Wilson to combat then required military training at public schools and universities; the CME fought to remove military training, in the form of Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC), from high schools and to eliminate then compulsory ROTC service at state universities.


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