Bloor, Ella

Bloor, Ella (Reeve) (“Mother Bloor”)

(1862–1951) radical, labor organizer, feminist; born in Staten Island, N.Y. Married in 1881, she raised a large family while becoming a women's rights activist. After a divorce (1896), she studied at the University of Pennsylvania, remarried, and became increasingly devoted to labor and left-wing causes, joining the Socialist Party in 1902. She adopted the pen name Mrs. Richard Bloor (1906) while doing investigative reporting for Upton Sinclair. After the Russian Revolution she helped found the American Communist Party and later became a longtime member of its Central Committee (1932–48). While electioneering for party candidates in the Dakotas she married her third husband (1932); afterward she traveled in the Midwest organizing farmers and leading farmers' strikes. She lectured widely and wrote several books, including Women in the Soviet Union (1938), and a 1940 autobiography, We Are Many. In 1938 she ran unsuccessfully for governor of Pennsylvania.