Kent, Paul Robeson, and unknown man, c.1950 |
Kent joined the Socialist
Party in 1908, but it was not until the 1930s that he became truly active
in social and political causes.
When the Spanish Civil War erupted, he was one of eight artists who set
up easels around New York City, trying to draw attention to the destruction
of Spain’s democracy.
Closest to Kent’s heart was the International Workers Order (IWO ).
Organized in 1930 as a fraternal benefit insurance company comprised of
many different ethnic lodges, the IWO provided low-cost life insurance
to its members, many of whom were recent immigrants to the United
States. Kent was elected president of the IWO in 1944.
In 1951, New York state’s Department of Insurance filed suit to have the
IWO declared a Communist front and a threat to the country. Despite
three days of eloquent testimony by Kent, who was one of only two
IWO officers who were not members of the Communist Party, the court
ordered that the organization be dissolved.
Two years later, Kent was called before U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy’s
Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. Books written by so-called
subversive authors, including Kent, were being removed from the shelves
of the State Department’s libraries overseas and then destroyed.
When Kent tried to read a prepared statement charging McCarthy with
treason, the senator said, “I’ll not hear a lecture from you, Mr. Kent. To
which Kent replied, “You certainly won’t, I get paid for my lectures.”
Kent at the opening of his war poster exhibition, 1942
(Victor Kayfetz, photographer, 1 photographic print: b&w; 20 x 24 cm.
Courtesy of the Rockwell Kent papers, ca. 1840-1993,
Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.)
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 | August XXIII, MCMXXVII, 1927
wood engraving
Bequest of Sally Kent Gorton
[P52000.9.50.1] |
 | New Masses: Sketch for Cover Illustration, September 15th, 1936 Issue, 1936
pencil on paper
Bequest of Sally Kent Gorton
[P52000.67] |
 | That Spain's Children May Live, 1937
lithograph
Gift of Sally Kent Gorton
[X1978.2.148] |
 | Workers of the World, Unite!, 1937
wood engraving
Bequest of Sally Kent Gorton
[P52000.9.49.1] |
 | Once In 2000 Years, 1938
linecut on paper
Gift of Sally Kent Gorton
[X1978.2.90] |
 | Get the Hell Out! Poster Study, 1940
pencil on paper
Bequest of Sally Kent Gorton
[P52000.87.1] |
 | Well America How About It: War Poster Study, 1942
pencil on paper
Bequest of Sally Kent Gorton
[P52000.150] |
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