The American journalist who chronicled the Russian and Chinese revolutions from the inside, founder of Moscow News
"We are undertaking the most tremendous move ever made by labor in this country, a move which will lead — NO ONE KNOWS WHERE!" — editorial on the eve of the Seattle General Strike, 1919
American left-wing journalist and communist. After earning a Chicago PhD, she covered the Seattle General Strike (1919), moved to the USSR in 1921, and co-founded Moscow News (1930). In 1946 she interviewed Mao Zedong in Yan'an, drawing the famous 'paper tigers' declaration. Expelled from the USSR as a spy in 1949, she was rehabilitated in 1955 and settled in China as an honoured 'foreign friend,' chronicling Mao's China through the Cultural Revolution. With over 30 books, she was an unmatched eyewitness to the century's great communist revolutions.
Career timeline
- 1885Born in Friend, Nebraska, daughter of a progressive Congregationalist minister
- 1908PhD in philosophy from the University of Chicago — dissertation: The Social Psychology of Prayer
- 1916–1918Elected to Seattle School Board; recalled for supporting the IWW and opposing WWI
- 1919Editor, Seattle Union Record; covered the Seattle General Strike from the inside
- 1921Travelled to USSR with AFSC famine relief; settled as Moscow correspondent for International News Service
- 1930Co-founded and edited Moscow News, the USSR's first English-language newspaper
- 1931Married Soviet agronomist Joel Shubin (d. 1942)
- 1937–1938War reporting from the Spanish Civil War and China's anti-Japanese base areas
- 1946Interviewed Mao Zedong in Yan'an; recorded the famous 'paper tigers' remark
- 1949Arrested by Soviet authorities, expelled as an 'American spy'; rehabilitated in 1955
- 1958–1970Settled permanently in China; honoured as a 'foreign friend' of Mao and Zhou Enlai
- 1970Died of a heart attack in Beijing; memorial attended by Zhou Enlai and Guo Moruo
From eyewitness of the Bolshevik Revolution to founder of the Communist Labor Party of America: an American buried at the Kremlin Wall
At the mass funeral for revolutionary martyrs in Red Square, Reed suddenly understood: the devout Russian people no longer needed priests to pray them into heaven. On earth they were building a kingdom more bright than any heaven had to offer.
American journalist and communist. He witnessed the 1917 October Revolution and wrote Ten Days That Shook the World. He co-founded the Communist Labor Party of America and served on the Comintern Executive Committee. One of the very few Americans buried at the Kremlin Wall.
Career timeline
- 1910Graduated Harvard, began journalism career in New York
- 1913Joined The Masses; first arrest covering Paterson silk strike
- 1913–1914War correspondent in Mexico — 4 months with Pancho Villa's army; published Insurgent Mexico
- 1917Witnessed the October Revolution in Petrograd; worked with the Bolshevik Foreign Commissariat
- 1919Published Ten Days That Shook the World; co-founded the Communist Labor Party of America
- 1919–1920Comintern Executive Committee member; U.S. delegate to 2nd Comintern Congress; attended Baku Congress of the Peoples of the East
The artist who turned 'Ol' Man River' into a hymn of struggle
In 1937, moved by the Spanish Civil War, he permanently changed the lyrics of 'Ol' Man River': 'But I keep laughin' / Instead of cryin' / I must keep fightin' / Until I'm dyin'. In Wales he declared: 'The artist must take sides. I have made my choice. I had no alternative.'
A world-renowned bass-baritone and actor whose 'Ol' Man River' and Othello carried him to the summit of his art even as he devoted that art to the Black freedom struggle and global anti-colonialism. After backing the Spanish Republicans and the 1949 Paris Peace Congress, he refused to renounce the Soviet Union and endured passport revocation and blacklisting through the McCarthy years, regaining his passport by Supreme Court ruling in 1958.
Career timeline
- 1915–1919Rutgers College: twice All-American, class valedictorian
- 1919–1923Columbia Law School (LL.B.) while playing in the NFL
- 1924–1928Starred in The Emperor Jones; became Harlem Renaissance star
- 1928–1939Global fame with Show Boat; first Black Othello in Britain (1930)
- 1934First USSR visit: 'Here I am not a Negro but a human being'
- 1937–1939Supported Spanish Republicans; visited International Brigades; Council on African Affairs
- 1943–1945Broadway Othello: first Black actor with white cast; record 296 shows
- 1949Paris Peace Congress speech; Peekskill riots; blacklisting began
- 1950–1958Passport revoked; HUAC; founded Freedom; Stalin Peace Prize (1952)
- 1958Passport restored (Kent v. Dulles); published Here I Stand
- 1958–1960Comeback tours: Europe, USSR, Australia, NZ; Othello at Stratford
- 1961–1963Health breakdown; recovered at Buch Clinic, East Berlin
- 1963–1976Seclusion in U.S.; died of stroke complications in Philadelphia
