Norwegian Americans

NORWEGIAN AMERICANS. Norwegian immigrants who flocked to the United States in the middle and later nineteenth century took a somewhat less prominent role than Danes and Swedes in urban districts such as Chicago, where a Scandinavian Socialist Federation, and later a Scandinavian Communist Federation, were centered and published their various organs. Norwegians were more prominent in the farmer-labor politics of Minnesota and the Dakotas of the 1910s–1920s. The legends of Marcus Thrane, Norwegian founder of Scandinavian socialism (and for a short time a prominent leader of Chicago socialists), and of playwright Henrik Ibsen lived on in the minds of new generations.

The waves of immigrants after World War I were not as politically oriented as their predecessors, but the Depression of the 1930s impoverished them terribly. By 1930–1931, a Scandinavian Workers Club was founded in Brooklyn, New York, and a socialistic newspaper, Ny Tid, published in the Swedish, Danish, and Norwegian languages. The leading figures were mostly self-trained intellectuals. Along with the press, Norwegian socialists provided a lively chorus, a classical orchestra, gymnastics facilities, and a clubhouse atmosphere for their unemployed supporters. For several years, a school and recreation club were maintained on Staten Island. Some of the most ardent activists enrolled in the Abraham Lincoln Brigade and were killed in Spain. After a final phase of activity, notably in the peace movement as the Norwegian Labor Club, the group dissolved.

Granhus, Odd-Stein, “Socialist Dissent Among Norwegian Americans: Emil Lauritz Mengshoel, Newspaper Publisher and Author” Norwegian-American Studies. Vol. 33: pp. 27-72. NAHA Online. https://www.naha.stolaf.edu/pubs/nas/volume33/vol33_02.htm