From collection Candidates
Anna Louise Strong was the Democratic candidate for State House of Representative from the Forty-Sixth District in King County, Washington in 1916. She campaigned successfully for a seat on the Seattle, Washington School Board in 1917. She was known as an expert on child welfare. This background and her support for organized labor gave her the backing of women's groups as well as workers, and she easily won the position. She was the only female member of the board and distinguished herself by arguing that public schools should also be community centers and should offer social service programs. By the time she joined the school board Strong had moved from being a progressive to identifying as a socialist. When the United States entered World War I in 1917 Strong announced as a pacifist and opponent of the draft. In 1918, these unpopular positions led fellow school board members to initiate a successful recall campaign against her. Before Strong left the board she did, however, succeed in convincing board members to replace her with a woman. A well known country club woman, Evangeline C. Harper, was their choice. Strong, who held a Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Chicago, was increasingly radicalized as she researched issues of poverty, child welfare, and workers' rights. She covered these issues as a journalist, first in the United States and then in Eastern Europe, the Soviet Union, and China. She authored dozens of books and major articles. Strong spent the last decade of her life living in China.
