Biography
Walter Lowenfels was a poet and journalist whose activism was tightly linked to labor and anti-racist politics. A member of the Communist Party USA, he edited the Pennsylvania edition of the Daily Worker and used reporting and poetry to spotlight working-class struggles and civil-rights campaigns in and around Philadelphia.
His political work led directly to arrest and prosecution during the height of McCarthy-era Smith Act enforcement. In the early hours of July 29, 1953, federal agents raided his cabin and arrested him on a conspiracy charge under the Smith Act, and he was held during the proceedings at Holmesburg Prison. He was convicted in 1954, but the case later unraveled in appellate litigation; his conviction was overturned and he was released. Afterward, Lowenfels returned to writing and remained active in peace and anti-war organizing, including high-profile protest activity during the Vietnam era.
The dictionary records New York City as Lowenfels’s birthplace, describes him as an author, editor and poet, and records First World War service. Its May 10, 1897 birth date and July 7, 1976 death date corroborate the dates already recorded here; it gives no additional custody details.
Jacob Rader Marcus, editor, and Judith M. Daniels, associate editor, The Concise Dictionary of American Jewish Biography, printed page 403 (PDF page 403).
