ELWYN B. ROBINSON DEPARTMENT OF SPECIAL COLLECTIONS
CHESTER FRITZ LIBRARY
UNIVERSITY OF NORTH DAKOTA
GRAND FORKS, NORTH DAKOTA 58202
COLLECTION: OGL #220
DATES: 1917-1972; Bulk Dates 1917-1919
SIZE: .50 linear feet
ACQUISITION: The Kate Richards O'Hare Papers were deposited in the Orin G. Libby Manuscript Collection by Daniel Rylance and Bonnie Sobolik, both of Grand Forks, in 1972. Sobolik was a student of Rylance and had the copies made for a term paper. The originals are held by Federal Records Center in Kansas City, Missouri.
ACCESS: Open for inspection under the rules and regulations of the Department of Special Collections.
Kate Richards was born on 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 on January 12, 1948 at the age of 71.
The Kate Richards O'Hare Papers consist mainly of photocopied material relating to her 1917 treason and sedition trial in Bismarck. Among the collection is information from the U.S. attorney, the charge to the jury given by the judge in the case, a transcript of the testimony and a copy of the indictment. Also included is a copy of a pamphlet created by the National Civil Liberties Bureau, protesting the outcome of the case, as well as a copy of a research paper written by a Yale University undergraduate is also included.
Box 1
Folder
| Original Donation | First Addition: 1917-1985 (bulk dates 1917-1922) |
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