Rose Pastor Stokes

American activist and writer (1879–1933)

Rose Harriet Pastor Stokes (née Wieslander; July 18, 1879 – June 20, 1933) was an American socialist activist, writer, birth control advocate, and feminist. She was a figure of some public notoriety after her 1905 marriage to Episcopalian millionaire J. G. Phelps Stokes, a member of elite New York society, who supported the settlements in New York. Together they joined the Socialist Party. Pastor Stokes continued to be active in labor politics and women's issues, including promoting access to birth control, which was highly controversial at the time. In 1919, Pastor Stokes was a founding member of the Communist Party of America and helped develop it into the 1930s. In addition to her writing on politics, she wrote poetry and plays; one was produced in 1916 by the Washington Square Players. She started her autobiography in 1924 but had not completed it at her death; it was published in 1992.

Rose Harriet Wieslander was born into an Orthodox Jewish family in Augustów, in the Russian Empire (present day Poland) on July 18, 1879, the daughter of Jacob and Hindl (later known as Anna) Wieslander.

During this time, Pastor discovered her talent for writing. Responding to a solicitation from the Yidishes Tageblatt (Jewish Daily News) for letters from Jewish workers, she submitted a letter. When it was published, she was encouraged to write more. The paper continued to publish her letters, in which she expressed her ideas about the working class. The Jewish Daily News hired her and she moved to New York in 1903. She became a columnist in the English language section, offering advice to other young women. She also wrote human interest features. The paper was published mostly in Yiddish. With a salary of $15 a week, after a couple of years, Pastor had saved enough to bring her mother and siblings from Cleveland to New York City. He gave up his mansion at 299 Madison Avenue to be closer to the work he found most satisfying, that of social projects. Stokes moved to the University Settlement on the Lower East Side, which ministered to the masses of new immigrants from Europe. It was near the Jewish Daily News. Pastor praised Stokes' ideals in her article. Soon, Pastor also became active in work of University Settlement. Her friendship with Stokes deepened, and in early 1905, they announced their engagement. The couple was married on July 18, 1905—her 26th birthday—and joined the Socialist Party of America together soon thereafter. Both Graham and Rose Stokes continued their activities on behalf of the Socialist movement. She frequently traveled around the country to speak and debate about the cause and helped picket, strike and organize for specific events. She wrote regularly for the New York Call. Graham began to devote more time to writing, but Rose continued her activism. She distributed birth control information, and frequently organized meetings with Margaret Sanger and Emma Goldman, who led efforts for women to have birth control.

In 1917, the Socialists denounced the American war program. But Graham Stokes withdrew from the party and joined the New York Army National Guard. At first Rose also left the Socialists, as she was disappointed with the party's official position on the war, endorsing "active interference with the war effort". She believed that Germany was a threat to democratic nations. Shortly she rejoined the Socialists, as she doubted whether President Woodrow Wilson's policies furthered international democracy. In 1929 she was arrested for demonstrating during a garment workers' strike. Due to her years of working with activists of the Lower East Side, she was called "Rose of the Ghetto". She was the most mentioned woman in American newspapers from 1918 to 1921.

Pastor Stokes was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1930. In 1933, she went to Germany for radiation therapy. In April 1933, friends collected funds for hospital expenses. Pastor Stokes entered Municipal Hospital in Frankfurt, Germany, on April 15, where she was operated on for cancer by Professor Vito Schmiden. While under treatment, she died in the hospital on June 20, 1933, aged 53. Her body was cremated and her ashes sent to New York, where a memorial service was held at Webster Hall. He finally abandoned the work in 1937. An "emphatic denial of that statement" was issued by Sarasohn & Son, the publishers of the Jewish Daily News, though they noted that Stokes did write for the English department of the newspaper.