Lucy Perkins Carner (November 30, 1886 – February 20, 1983) was an American sociologist, civil rights activist and pacifist. She was a national executive of the YWCA, and held national roles in peace organizations, including the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom.

Lucy Perkins Carner
A white woman with short dark wavy hair, wearing a collared shirt
Lucy Perkins Carner, from a 1925 newspaper
Born(1886-11-30)November 30, 1886
DiedFebruary 20, 1983(1983-02-20) (aged 96)
Germantown, Pennsylvania
Occupation(s)Sociologist, activist, pacifist

Early life and education

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Carner was born in York, Pennsylvania,[1] the daughter of Albert Bigelow Carner and Mary Hannah Perkins Carner. Her father taught mathematics and was active as a Presbyterian elder and trustee in York.[2]

Carner graduated from Bryn Mawr College in 1908,[3] and earned a master's degree in sociology from Columbia University in 1924,[4] with a thesis paper titled "Unionizing New York City Women Office Workers."[5] She also studied at the University of Chicago and the London School of Economics in the 1930s.[6][7]

Career

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"Miss Lucy P. Carner is one of the outstanding leaders of the professional staff of the National Board of the Y.W.C.A.," reported a Pennsylvania newspaper in 1936.[6] She was executive secretary of the National Industrial Department and of the National Service Division of the Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA).[8][9][10] She was based in Chicago from 1937 to 1952, as head of the education and recreation divisions of the Welfare Council of Metropolitan Chicago.[11][12] After 1952, she lived in Philadelphia, where she was an adjunct professor at her alma mater, Bryn Mawr College.[13]

Carner served on the boards of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom,[14][15] American Friends Service Committee, the Fellowship of Reconciliation, the War Resisters League, and the United World Federalists. She was a member of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the National Women's Trade Union League of America,[16] and the NAACP. She was blacklisted as a speaker by the Daughters of the American Revolution.[17] She participated in sit-ins with the Congress on Racial Equality in the 1940s. Into her eighties, she was active in protests against war.[4][13]

Publications

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  • "Religious Perplexities" (1923)[18]
  • "Color is Irrelevant" (1941)[19]
  • The First One Hundred Years of the Young Women's Christian Association of Germantown, 1870-1970
  • The Settlement Way in Philadelphia (1964)
  • "Jane Addams, Incorrigible Democrat" (1965)[20]

Personal life

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Carner was a Quaker. She moved into a Quaker retirement home in Germantown, Pennsylvania in 1972, and she died there in 1983, at the age of 96. Her papers are in the Swarthmore College Peace Collection.[13]

References

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  1. ^ Williams, J. S. (2017-05-16). "Lucy Perkins Carner". Women In Peace. Retrieved 2023-12-26.
  2. ^ "Pay Tribute to Prof. A. B. Carner". The York Daily. 1915-07-19. p. 2. Retrieved 2023-12-26 – via Newspapers.com.
  3. ^ Bryn Mawr College (1908). Class of 1908 (yearbook). Special Collections Bryn Mawr College Library. Bryn Mawr, PA: Bryn Mawr College. p. 107 – via Internet Archive.
  4. ^ a b Primm, Sandy (1978-05-15). "A Deliberate Life: Lucy Perkins Carner". Friends Journal. pp. 5–7. Retrieved 2023-12-26.
  5. ^ Libraries, Columbia University (1923). Essays for the Master's Degree. p. 5.
  6. ^ a b "Y. W. C. A. Drive Opens on Sunday". Standard-Speaker. 1936-03-21. p. 17. Retrieved 2023-12-26 – via Newspapers.com.
  7. ^ "Chicagoans Start Early on Summer Treks to Europe". Chicago Tribune. 1935-04-14. p. 90. Retrieved 2023-12-26 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. ^ "Vesper Service to Open Drive; Miss Lucy Carner of National Y.W. Board Speaker for Meeting". The Plain Speaker. 1936-03-20. p. 13. Retrieved 2023-12-26 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. ^ Carner, Lucy P. (October 15, 1926). "Working Girls Talk it Out". The Survey. 57 (2): 81–82.
  10. ^ "Life Pictured as an Adventure: 'We Can Get on Magic Carpet' Says Miss Lucy Carner at YWCA Banquet". Lancaster New Era. 1926-03-06. p. 13. Retrieved 2023-12-26 – via Newspapers.com.
  11. ^ "Educators Told to Meet Human Relations Issue". Chicago Tribune. 1952-04-22. p. 45. Retrieved 2023-12-26 – via Newspapers.com.
  12. ^ "Recreational Institute Mar. 15". Wilkes-Barre Times Leader, the Evening News. 1956-03-09. p. 2. Retrieved 2023-12-26 – via Newspapers.com.
  13. ^ a b c "Collection: Lucy Perkins Carner Collected Papers". Swarthmore College Peace Collection. Retrieved 2023-12-26.
  14. ^ "Miss Lucy Carner to Be Speaker at Event Wednesday". The Bristol Daily Courier. 1961-09-11. p. 8. Retrieved 2023-12-26 – via Newspapers.com.
  15. ^ "Women's Peace Group Terms Draft Law Unfair, Urges Repeal". The Gazette and Daily. 1966-05-03. p. 1. Retrieved 2023-12-26 – via Newspapers.com.
  16. ^ National Women's Trade Union League of America (1919). Proceedings ... Biennial Convention of the National Women's Trade Union League of America. The Convention. pp. 40, 42, 76.
  17. ^ Nielsen, Kim E. (2001). Un-American Womanhood: Antiradicalism, Antifeminism, and the First Red Scare. Ohio State University Press. p. 147. ISBN 978-0-8142-0882-3.
  18. ^ Carner, Lucy P. (August 1923). "Religious Perplexities". The World Tomorrow. 6 (8).
  19. ^ Carner, Lucy P. (October 1941). "Color is Irrelevant". Opportunity. 19 (10): 292–294.
  20. ^ Carner, Lucy Perkins (September 1965). "Jane Addams, Incorrigible Democrat". The Rotarian. 107 (3): 40–43.