- Browse:
- Collections
- Subjects
- Creators
- Record Groups
Kate Richards O'Hare Papers
Kate Richards O'Hare Papers
Collection Overview
Title: Kate Richards O'Hare Papers
Predominant Dates:1917
ID: OGLMC220
Extent: 0.75 Linear Feet
Date Acquired: 00/00/1972. More info below under Accruals.
Subjects: Legal, Politics and Government, Women's History
Languages: English
Abstract
Scope and Contents of the Materials
Collection Historical Note
Kate Richards was born March 26, 1876, to Andrew and Lucy Richards, farmers in Central Kansas. A drought in 1887, combined with the cumulative effects of the economic depression of the 1870s, completely devastated the family. Forced off their farm, the family moved to a poverty stricken area of Kansas City, where Andrew Richards barely made enough money for the family to survive.
In 1894, Kate found work as a machinist in a small Kansas City machine shop. During this year, she also met prominent socialist Mother Jones, who introduced her to Kansas City socialists and gave her books regarding socialism. This was followed in 1895 by a meeting with Eugene V. Debs, another noted socialist. In 1899, she and her father founded the Socialist Labor Party, although she later left the organization. In 1901, she was a founding member of the Socialist Party in America; she also met her future husband, Frank P. O'Hare, an Iowa born socialist from St. Louis. They were wed in January 1902, and then set out on a national lecturing and organizing tour. They eventually moved to Oklahoma in 1904, and operated a small farm there until 1908, when the family moved back to Kansas City with their four young children.
During her years in Kansas City, O'Hare remained a vocal and active supporter of socialism. She toured many southwestern states, often for the length of an entire summer. Her popularity was said to be second only to Eugene Debs himself. She also became a militant supporter of women's suffrage. She served as grand marshal for a suffrage parade in Washington, D.C. in 1913. Both in 1910 and in 1916, she ran for political office, even though women did not have the right to vote.
Kate Richards O'Hare was strongly opposed to United States entry into World War I. She toured throughout the nation, presenting a speech entitled "Socialism and the War." On July 17, 1917, she addressed a crowd in Bowman, North Dakota. The Bowman speech was the 76th time she had given the address. This time, however, she was arrested under the auspices of the 1917 Espionage Act. She was tried and convicted before a court in Bismarck, North Dakota, and was sentenced to five years in prison, to begin on April 15, 1919. In May 1920, her sentence was commuted and she was set free.
She remained active in her post-prison years. She led a march to Washington D.C. in 1922 to protest the treatment of opponents of the war, helped to organize a socialist college in Arkansas in 1925 and was active in Upton Sinclair's "End Poverty in California" campaign in 1928. She was especially active in the area of prison reform. She made her greatest contribution to that field in the state of California, where she was appointed Director of Penology. She directed many reforms of that state's penal system.
Kate Francis O'Hare died January 12, 1948, at the age of 71.
Subject/Index Terms
Administrative Information
Repository: Elwyn B. Robinson Department of Special Collections
Accruals: Additional material was photocopied from the National Archives in Washington, DC in 1986 (86-1433). The bound volume of correspondence was donated in 2015 (2015-3302).
Access Restrictions: Open for inspection under the rules and regulations of the Elwyn B. Robinson Department of Special Collections.
Acquisition Source: Bonnie Sobolik, Grand Forks, North Dakota
Acquisition Method: Donation
Original/Copies Note: Most of the materials in the collection were photocopied from the National Archives in Washington D.C. and the Federal Records Center in Kansas City, Missouri.
Preferred Citation: (Description of Item). Kate Richards O'Hare Papers. OGLMC 220, Box #, Folder #. Elwyn B. Robinson Department of Special Collections. Chester Fritz Library. University of North Dakota, Grand Forks.
Finding Aid Revision History: Finding aid added to Archon in November 2013.
Box and Folder Listing
Browse by Box:
[Box 1],
[Box 2],
[All]
- Box 1
- Folder 1: Correspondence relating to the donation of the collection
- Folder 2: United States vs. O'Hare, U.S. Attorney's Files
- Folder 3: United States vs. O'Hare, Bench Warrant
- Folder 4: United States vs. O'Hare, Indictment with Plea and Judgment
- Folder 5: United States vs. O'Hare, Recognizance for Appearance
- Folder 6: United States vs. O'Hare, Papers for Defendant in Error
- Folder 7: United States vs. O'Hare, Various Documents of Trial
- Folder 8: United States vs. O'Hare, Bill of Exceptions, Transcript of Testimony
- Folder 9: United States vs. O'Hare, Charge to the Jury
- Folder 10: Copy of pamphlet created by the National Civil Liberties Bureau, The Conviction of Mrs. Kate Richards O'Hare and North Dakota Politics, March 1918
- Folder 11: James J. Wood, Red Kate: A Case Study of Midwestern Socialism, Yale University undergraduate research paper, 1965
- Folder 12: W.E. Zeuch, The Truth about the O'Hare Case, 1917
- Folder 13: United States vs. O'Hare, includes O'Hare's address to the Court and sentence of the Court
- Folder 14: Federal Bureau of Investigation reports, 1921
- Folder 15: Speeches: Kate O'Hare, Bill Haywood, 1920
- Folder 16: Letters from prison, Kate O'Hare, 1920
- Folder 17: Minutes from a conference of the Attorney General regarding commutation, Washington, D.C., May 14, 1920
- Folder 18: United States vs. O'Hare, Indictments, July 1917
- Folder 19: United States vs. O'Hare, Attorney's Files, August-December 1917
- Folder 20: United States vs. O'Hare, Attorney's Files, 1918
- Folder 21: United States vs. O'Hare, Attorney's Files, 1919
- Folder 22: United States vs. O'Hare, Attorney's Files, 1920
- Folder 23: United States vs. O'Hare, Attorney's Files, 1921
- Folder 24: United States vs. O'Hare, Attorney's Files, 1922
- Folder 25: Erling Sannes, "Kate Richards O'Hare: Pioneer Socialist and Agitator," International Socialist Review, December 1985
- Box 2
Browse by Box:
[Box 1],
[Box 2],
[All]