Heywood Broun (1888-1939)
He was born in Brooklyn, New York, on 7th December, 1888. His father was an English immigrant who had developed a successful printing business in the city.
Broun entered Harvard University in 1906 where he became friends with Walter Lippmann, John Reed and Alan Seeger.
After leaving Harvard in 1910, Broun found work as a sports reporter for the New York Morning Telegraph. Two years later he joined the New York Tribune and during the First World War worked as a foreign correspondent in France.
In 1921 Broun moved to the New York World where he began writing a column entitled It Seems To Me. Over the next few years Broun campaigned against censorship and racial discrimination and for academic freedom. He also supported those like Margaret Sanger, John T. Scopes and D. H. Lawrence who were persecuted in the United States for their political and social views.
His main preoccupation was with what he believed was the injustice of the conviction of Bartolomeo Vanzetti and Nicola Sacco.
In 1930 Broun ran unsuccessfully for Congress as a socialist. Three years later Broun was expelled from the Socialist Party after appearing with members of the Communist Party at a rally demanding the release of Tom Mooney and the Scottsboro Nine.
Broun helped establish the American Newspaper Guild in 1933 and was elected its first president.
Heywood Broun died in Stamford, Connecticut, on 18th December, 1939.