Oscar Ameringer
| Oscar Ameringer | |
|---|---|
| Born |
August 4, 1870 Achstetten, Baden-Württemberg, Germany |
| Died | November 5, 1943 (aged 73) Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, U.S. |
| Nationality | German |
| Occupation | Editor; Author; Political Organizer |
| Known for | Editor, American Guardian; leader and organizer, Oklahoma Socialist Party |
Oscar Ameringer (August 4, 1870 – November 5, 1943) was a German-American Socialist editor, author, and organizer from the late 1890s until his death in 1943. Ameringer made a name for himself in the Oklahoma Socialist Party as the editor of its newspaper and a prominent organizer for the party. His most famous work, The Life and Deeds of Uncle Sam, was a widely read satire of American history that sold over half a million copies and was translated into 15 languages.
Oscar Ameringer was born in Achstetten, Germany in 1870, Oscar Ameringer came to America at the age of 15. His father, a cabinet maker, had sent young Oscar to join his brother in Cincinnati, Ohio where he tried his hand as a furniture maker and musician. He joined the Knights of Labor in 1886 and the American Federation of Musicians in 1903, but soon found his way into the newspaper industry working for a union newspaper in Columbus, Ohio. This paper, called the Labor World, introduced Ameringer to the labor struggles in the South, and he was soon on the front lines of a bitter labor dispute in New Orleans, Louisiana.
After briefly organizing workers in Louisiana, Ameringer moved to Oklahoma to work for the Socialist Party. In spring of 1907, Ameringer started his first camp meeting tour of Oklahoma moving from town to town and relying on the hospitality of local farmers sympathetic to his cause. Although known for rousing speeches filled with humor and wit, Ameringer believed “something more than schoolhouse meeting, encampments and soap-box preaching was needed if the world was to be saved”.
In 1909, Ameringer along with other Socialists formed the Industrial Democrat, but the paper’s initial assignment covering a debate on a proposed amendment to weaken state power over corporations caused a fracture between Ameringer and the paper. He was fired from the editor position, only to move to the Socialist party’s new paper, the Oklahoma Pioneer.
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