Thyra Edwards papers

Biographical/historical note

Thyra J. Edwards was born in 1897 and grew up in Houston, Texas, where she began her career as a school teacher and social worker. She later moved to Gary, Indiana and then to Chicago, where she worked as a social worker at the Abraham Lincoln Centre. In addition to social work, Edwards also worked as a journalist, labor organizer, and advocate for women's and civil rights. In the 1930s and 1940s, Edwards wrote about international affairs for black newspapers, including the Chicago Defender, and became an open supporter of the Communist Party and publicly supported the Loyalists in the Spanish Civil War. In 1938, she organized an ambulance tour of the U.S. to raise money for the American Medical Bureau to Aid Spanish Democracy and the North American Committee to Aid Spanish Democracy In her role as a journalist, she traveled to Europe, Mexico, and the Soviet Union. During World War II, Edwards married Murray Gitlin, an official with the philanthropic organization United Jewish Appeal. After World War II, Edwards moved to New York City. She spent the last five years of her life in Italy. Edwards died in 1953 at the age of 56.