Rose Pastor Stokes

Rose Pastor Stokes
Eugene V. Debs, Max Eastman and Rose Pastor Stokes in 1918.
Eugene V. Debs, Max Eastman and Rose Pastor Stokes in 1918.
Born
Rose Harriet Wieslander

July 18, 1879
DiedJune 20, 1933(1933-06-20) (aged 53)
NationalityAmerican
Occupations
  • Writer
  • Labor activist
  • Birth control advocate
Political party
Spouses
(m. 1905; div. 1925)
(m. 1929)

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.