Women’s History Month: Who was Alice Beale Parsons?
In celebration and recognition of Women's History Month, the Rockford Register Star has partnered with Midway Village Museum to bring readers a local women's history fact of the day.
Visit rrstar.com or the Rockford Register Star newspaper each day throughout the month of March to read about the women who played significant roles in Rockford history.
Alice Beal Parsons was born in 1887 in Rockford. She attended Rockford High School where she was the literary editor of the school paper, “The Owl.” In 1908, she graduated from Rockford College.
After leaving Rockford, Parsons worked as a social worker in Chicago, where she formed her earliest ideas about social activism. During the infamous Palmer Raids of 1919-1920, which were undertaken to round up and deport suspected socialists and communists, she was arrested for supporting striking workers. She was successfully defended by the renowned lawyer Clarence Darrow in Rockford on a charge of “conspiring for the overthrow of the government by force and violence.”
Parsons later became a well-known writer and editor for the New Yorker, Harpers and other prominent literary publications. She is credited as a founder of the New York Liberal Party and was honored as Vice Chairman. Some of her novels include "The Insider," "A Lady who Lost," and "The World Around the Mountain." She died on April 14, 1962, in Nyack, New York.
Want to learn more about Alice Parsons? Visit Midway Village Museum online at midwayvillage.com or in person at 6799 Guilford Road, Rockford.
This article originally appeared on Rockford Register Star: Women’s History Month: Who was Alice Beale Parsons?
