{{Short description|American writer and activist (1886–1973)}} thumb|right|Witherspoon's passport photo, 1923 '''Frances May Witherspoon''' (July 8, 1886 – December 16, 1973) was an American writer and activist, co-founder with Tracy Dickinson Mygatt of the War Resisters League, and executive secretary of the New York Bureau of Legal Advice, a forerunner of the American Civil Liberties Union.
==Early life and education== Frances May Witherspoon was born in 1886, in Meridian, Mississippi, the daughter of law professor and Congressman Samuel Andrew Witherspoon, and his wife, Susan E. May.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=egYqAAAAYAAJ&dq=%22Fannie%20May%20Witherspoon%22%20Meridian&pg=PA24 "Death of Hon. Samuel A. Witherspoon," Proceedings in the House of Representatives (December 6, 1915): 24.]</ref> She graduated from Bryn Mawr College in 1909. After some years as a suffrage and labor organizer in Pennsylvania, she and Mygatt moved to New York City in 1913.<ref>[https://www.newspapers.com/clip/2565213/suffrage_campaign_in_pennsylvania_1912/ "Suffragettes Begin Campaign for Votes," ''Delaware County Daily Times'' (September 28, 1912): 2.] via Newspapers.com {{open access}}</ref>
==Career and activism== In New York City Witherspoon and Mygatt joined the Woman's Peace Party, and together edited their publication, ''Four Lights''.<ref>Erika Kuhlman, "'Women's Ways in War': The Feminist Pacifism of the New York City Woman's Peace Party," ''Frontiers'' 18(1)(1997): 80-100.</ref><ref>Mark Van Wienen, "'Women's Ways in War': The Poetry and Politics of the Woman's Peace Party, 1915-1917," ''Modern Fiction Studies'' 38(3)(Fall 1992): 687-714.</ref> They also organized the Socialist Suffrage Brigade, and edited an issue of ''The Call'' about suffrage.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=6Hn_yq4kxZwC&dq=Frances%20M.%20Witherspoon&pg=PA15 Frances H. Early, ''A World Without War: How U. S. Feminists and Pacifists Resisted World War I'' (Syracuse University Press 1997): 15.] {{ISBN|0815627645}}</ref>
During the first World War, Witherspoon worked with various peace organizations, and lobbied in Washington against U. S. involvement in the war.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=LL2xKWcAkp0C&dq=Frances%20M.%20Witherspoon&pg=PA296 Justus D. Doenecke, ''Nothing Less than War: A New History of America's Entry into World War I'' (University Press of Kentucky 2011): 296.] {{ISBN|0813130026}}</ref> She was a founding officer of the Anti-Enlistment League in 1915.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=69ajKczIdH8C&dq=Frances%20M.%20Witherspoon&pg=PA11 Scott H. Bennett, ''Radical Pacifism: The War Resisters League and Gandhian Non-Violence in America, 1915-1963'' (Syracuse University Press 2003): 11.] {{ISBN|081563028X}}</ref> In 1917, she co-founded the New York Bureau of Legal Advice with attorney Charles Recht, to assist conscientious objectors, draft resisters, and war protesters.<ref>[http://dlib.nyu.edu/findingaids/html/tamwag/tam_044/bioghist.html Guide to the New York Bureau of Legal Advice Records, Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives.]</ref><ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=69ajKczIdH8C&dq=%22New%20York%20Bureau%20of%20Legal%20Advice%22%20ACLU&pg=PA34 Scott H. Bennett, ''Radical Pacifism: The War Resisters League and Gandhian Non-Violence in America, 1915-1963'' (Syracuse University Press 2003): 34.] {{ISBN|081563028X}}</ref> She was anonymous author of a pamphlet, ''Who Are the Conscientious Objectors?'' published in 1919.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=6Hn_yq4kxZwC&dq=Frances%20M.%20Witherspoon&pg=PA219 Frances H. Early, ''A World Without War: How U. S. Feminists and Pacifists Resisted World War I'' (Syracuse University Press 1997): 219, note 35.] {{ISBN|0815627645}}</ref>
Witherspoon and Mygatt continued with peace work after the war, as members of the Women's Peace Union, and as founders of the War Resisters League in 1923.<ref>[https://www.proquest.com/hnpnewyorktimes/docview/119739929/6407D7E17A3A4ABFPQ/1 "Frances Witherspoon, 87, of War Resisters League," ''New York Times'' (December 18, 1973): 44.]</ref> They were charter members of the Episcopal Pacifist Fellowship when it was founded in 1939. In 1961 they were recognized jointly with the WRL Peace Award.
Witherspoon and Mygatt co-wrote two Biblical novels, ''The Glorious Company'' (1928) and ''Armor of Light'' (1930), and a play about Vincent van Gogh, ''Stranger Upon Earth'', among other literary collaborations.<ref>[https://www.proquest.com/hnpnewyorktimes/docview/104511880/29AC81AC20264A55PQ/7 P. W. Wilson, "The Saints Step Out of their Stained-Glass Windows: Tracy Mygatt and Frances Witherspoon Employ Feminine Intuition to Humanize and Revitalize the Acts of the Apostles," ''New York Times'' (July 22, 1928): 51.]</ref><ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=fdCzDt666RMC&dq=%22Stranger%20Upon%20Earth%22%20Van%20Gogh&pg=RA1-PA42 Alfred H. Barr, ''Vincent Van Gogh'' (Routledge 1967): 42.] {{ISBN|0714620394}}</ref>
In her eighties, Frances Witherspoon organized a campaign among Bryn Mawr alumnae against the Vietnam War.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=gAn7G3qeZukC&dq=Bryn%20Mawr%20Vietnam%20Witherspoon&pg=PA101 Bettina Aptheker, ''Tapestries of Life: Women's Work, Women's Consciousness, and the Meaning of Daily Experience'' (University of Massachusetts Press 1989): 101]. {{ISBN|0870236598}}</ref>
==Personal life and legacy== Witherspoon lived and worked with Tracy D. Mygatt for over sixty years, in New York City, and later in Brewster, New York and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=RfXGJBB1HvoC&dq=Mygatt%20witherspoon%20buried&pg=PA481 James B. Lloyd, ''Lives of Mississippi Authors, 1817-1967'' (University Press of Mississippi 1981): 481.] {{ISBN|0878051392}}</ref> The pair were active in the Episcopal Church.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=UuhVB9xuHFsC&dq=Mygatt%20Witherspoon%20Episcopal%20Pacifist%20Fellowship&pg=PT408 Andrew Preston, ''Sword of the Spirit, Shield of Faith: Religion in American War and Diplomacy'' (Anchor 2012).] {{ISBN|140007858X}}</ref> They died within a month of each other, in late 1973, in Philadelphia; Witherspoon was 87 years old.<ref>[https://www.proquest.com/hnpnewyorktimes/docview/119718551/6407D7E17A3A4ABFPQ/6 "Tracy Mygatt Dies; Led War Resisters," ''New York Times'' (November 24, 1973): 34.]</ref> The couple's papers were donated to the Swarthmore College Peace Collection.<ref>[http://www.swarthmore.edu/library/peace/DG051-099/dg089MygattWitherspoon.htm Tracy D. Mygatt and Frances M. Witherspoon Papers, DG 089, Swarthmore College Peace Collection.]</ref>
==External links== * [http://archives.tricolib.brynmawr.edu/resources/scpc-dg-089_1 Tracy D. Mygatt and Frances Witherspoon Papers], in the [https://www.swarthmore.edu/peace-collection Swarthmore College Peace Collection], Swarthmore College
==References== {{reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Witherspoon, Frances M.}} Category:American pacifists Category:American women writers Category:American women in World War I Category:1886 births Category:1973 deaths Category:People from Meridian, Mississippi Category:Bryn Mawr College alumni Category:Socialist Party of America politicians from New York (state)