Grace Holmes Carlson was an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 communist politician. Born in St. Paul, Minnesota, Carlson was raised in local Catholic schools. As a leading member of the Socialist Workers Party

Socialist Workers Party (United States)

The Socialist Workers Party is a far-left political organization in the United States. The group places a priority on "solidarity work" to aid strikes and is strongly supportive of Cuba...

 she was imprisoned in 1941 under the Smith Act

Smith Act

The Alien Registration Act or Smith Act of 1940 is a United States federal statute that set criminal penalties for advocating the overthrow of the U.S...

 together with many other SWP leaders for opposing the US involvement in World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

. After her 16-month prison sentence, she became an activist for better conditions for women prisoners.

Grace Carlson was the Socialist Workers Party candidate for Senate in Minnesota in 1940, receiving almost 9,000 votes. She ran as the Socialist Workers Party vice presidential candidate in 1948 with Farrell Dobbs

Farrell Dobbs

Farrell Dobbs was an American Trotskyist and trade unionist.He was born in Queen City, Missouri where his father was a worker in a coal mine. They moved to Minneapolis, and he graduated from North High School in 1925. In 1926, he left for North Dakota to find work, but returned the following fall...

 and ran again as a U.S. House of Reperesentatives candidate for Minnesota's 5th district 1950.

She had been a professor of psychology at the University of Minnesota

University of Minnesota

The University of Minnesota, Twin Cities is a public research university located in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, United States. It is the oldest and largest part of the University of Minnesota system and has the fourth-largest main campus student body in the United States, with 52,557...

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She left the SWP in 1952 citing conflict with her Catholic

Catholic

The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...

 beliefs. James P. Cannon

James P. Cannon

James Patrick "Jim" Cannon was an American Trotskyist and a leader of the Socialist Workers Party.Born on February 11, 1890 in Rosedale, Kansas, he joined the Socialist Party of America in 1908 and the Industrial Workers of the World in 1911...

, the central leader of the SWP famously penning the article "How We Won Grace Carlson and How We Lost Her" following her resignation which focused on the extreme right wing pressures of the McCarthy period as the material basis for Carlson's departure.