Clarence Senior

Clarence Ollson Senior (1903–1974) was an American socialist political activist best remembered as the National Executive Secretary of the Socialist Party of America during the 1930s. Originally a protégé of Presidential candidate Norman Thomas, during the inner-party fight of the 1930s, Senior became an active supporter of the so-called "Militant" faction. After resigning his post late in 1936, Senior returned to graduate school, becoming a widely published academic specializing on the affairs of Puerto Rico and other nations of the Caribbean.

Clarence Ollson Senior was born in 1903.

He attended the University of Kansas, where he was active in the Student League for Industrial Democracy, the current incarnation of the Intercollegiate Socialist Society headed by Harry W. Laidler. Senior worked his way through high school and college, performing a variety of jobs, including work as a mechanic, night watchman, truck driver, shipping clerk and working in a soap factory.

Upon graduation from Kansas, Senior had become associated with the League of Kansas Municipalities before moving to join the Cleveland Federation of Teachers in Cleveland, Ohio.

In 1927, Senior joined the Socialist Party of America. Historian Bernard K. Johnpoll indicates that Senior was an acolyte of rising Socialist Party star Norman Thomas even in these early days, representative of the sort of middle class intellectuals which Thomas sought to bring into the party.

Senior spent three months in Europe in 1928 studying workers' education on behalf of the Adult Education Association. While in Europe, Senio attended a conference of the War Resisters' International and was a delegate to the World Youth Peace Congress held in the Netherlands.

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