Algernon Lee

Algernon H. Lee (September 15, 1873 – January 5, 1954) was an American socialist politician and educator. In addition to serving as a member of the New York City Council (then the New York City Board of Aldermen) during World War I, Lee was one of three co-authors of the controversial anti-war resolution at the 1917 St. Louis emergency convention of the Socialist Party of America. He is best remembered as the Director of Education at the Rand School of Social Science for 35 years.

Algernon Lee was born September 15, 1873, in Dubuque, Iowa, the son of a millwright and carpenter. He was educated in public schools in Fishkill, New York, and Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Lee attended the University of Minnesota from 1892 through 1897. While a university student, Lee joined the Socialist Labor Party of America (SLP), first enrolling in the party's ranks in 1895.

Lee became the Minnesota State Secretary of the Socialist Labor Party in 1898 and he edited a socialist newspaper in Minneapolis called The Tocsin. He was not long in that role, however, as he chose to leave the party during the bitter party split of 1899, joining the so-called Springfield faction of the Social Democratic Party of America. Lee moved to New York City in 1899 to work as a paid editor of The Worker, continuing in that position with its successor, The New York Call, established in 1908.

Lee was a founding member of the Socialist Party of America (SPA), established in the summer of 1901 when the two organizations calling themselves the "Social Democratic Party" joined forces at a Unity Convention held in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Lee left The Call in 1909 to join the staff of the Rand School of Social Science, an educational institute closely linked to the SPA, as its Educational Director. Lee remained in this position for the rest of his life. In May 1920, he presided over the graduation of the second-largest class ever at Rand, whose members included: John J. Bardsley, William D. Bavelaar, Annie S. Buller, Louis Cohan, Harry A. Durlauf, Clara Friedman, Rebecca Goldberg, William Greenspoon, Isabella E. Hall, Ammon A. Hennsey, Hedwig Holmes, Annie Kronhardt, Anna P. Lee, Victoria Levinson, Elsie Lindenberg, Selma Melms, Hyman Neback, Bertha Ruvinsky, Celia Samorodin, Mae Schiff, Esther T. Shemitz, Nathan S. Spivak, Esther Silverman, Sophia Ruderman, and Clara Walters.

During the first two decades of the 20th century, Algernon Lee was recognized as one of the Socialist Party's leading members. He was a frequent delegate to socialist gatherings, both national and international. In addition to attending nearly every National Convention of the SPA, Lee was elected a delegate of the party to the 1904 Amsterdam Congress, the 1907 Stuttgart Congress and the 1916 Hague Congress of the Second International. Lee was also selected to join Victor L. Berger and Morris Hillquit as delegates of the SPA to a May 1917 general conference of Socialists held in Stockholm on the question of world peace, but was blocked from attending the gathering when the trio were refused passports to travel by Secretary of State Robert Lansing, who characterized the gathering as "a cleverly directed German war move."

Lee was a consistent opponent of American entry into World War I and he, together with his political co-thinker Morris Hillquit and future Communist leader C. E. Ruthenberg was one of three co-authors of the vigorously anti-militarist St. Louis resolution at the 1917 Emergency National Convention in that city.