Darlington Hoopes
Encyclopedia
Darlington Hoopes was the candidate of the Socialist Party of America
Socialist Party of America
The Socialist Party of America was a multi-tendency democratic-socialist political party in the United States, formed in 1901 by a merger between the three-year-old Social Democratic Party of America and disaffected elements of the Socialist Labor Party which had split from the main organization...

 for President of the United States
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....

 in the 1952
United States presidential election, 1952
The United States presidential election of 1952 took place in an era when Cold War tension between the United States and the Soviet Union was escalating rapidly. In the United States Senate, Republican Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin had become a national figure after chairing congressional...

 and 1956 presidential elections
United States presidential election, 1956
The United States presidential election of 1956 saw a popular Dwight D. Eisenhower successfully run for re-election. The 1956 election was a rematch of 1952, as Eisenhower's opponent in 1956 was Democrat Adlai Stevenson, whom Eisenhower had defeated four years earlier.Incumbent President Eisenhower...

.

Early years

Darlington Hoopes was born was born September 11, 1896 in Vale, Maryland in Harford County
Harford County, Maryland
Harford County is a county in the U.S. state of Maryland. In 2010, its population was 244,826. Its county seat is Bel Air. Harford County forms part of the Baltimore-Washington Metropolitan Area.-History:...

, the son of a farmer. He was a descendant of Joshua Hoopes, a Quaker from Yorkshire
Yorkshire
Yorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its great size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform...

, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 who had settled in Pennsylvania in 1683 to take part in William Penn
William Penn
William Penn was an English real estate entrepreneur, philosopher, and founder of the Province of Pennsylvania, the English North American colony and the future Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. He was an early champion of democracy and religious freedom, notable for his good relations and successful...

's "Holy Experiment." Young Darlington attended the public schools of Maryland until the eighth grade, and then completed his education at a Quaker boarding school in Pennsylvania, George School
George School
George School is a private Quaker boarding and day high school located on a rural campus near Newtown, Pennsylvania, USA. It was founded at its present site in 1893, and has grown from a single building to over 20 academic, athletic, and residential buildings...

, graduating in 1913. While attending George School, Darlington became a Christian Socialist.

After high school, Hoopes returned to Maryland to work on the farm of his parents. In 1914, he began his studies at the University of Wisconsin, majoring in agriculture. He also visited the Madison
Madison, Wisconsin
Madison is the capital of the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Dane County. It is also home to the University of Wisconsin–Madison....

 office of the Socialist Party in October 1914 and joined the party. Hoopes only completed one year at the University before being called back to work on his parents' new farm in Pennsylvania. He changed his career goals and decided to study the law on his own, taking correspondence courses in public speaking and law from the socialist school People's College at Fort Scott, Kansas
Fort Scott, Kansas
Fort Scott is a city in and the county seat of Bourbon County, Kansas, United States, south of Kansas City, on the Marmaton River. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 8,087. It is the home of the Fort Scott National Historic Site and the Fort Scott National...

, as well as studying during the evening for a five year period at a law office in Norristown, Pennsylvania
Norristown, Pennsylvania
Norristown is a municipality in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, northwest of the city limits of Philadelphia, on the Schuylkill River. The population was 34,324 as of the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Montgomery County...

. He passed his final Pennsylvania Bar Exam in 1921. Hoopes practiced law in Norristown from 1921 to 1927.

From 1923 Hoopes served as the Executive Secretary and Treasurer of the Socialist Party of Pennsylvania. He was also a member of the Pennsylvania state grange.

Hoopes relocated to Reading, Pennsylvania
Reading, Pennsylvania
Reading is a city in southeastern Pennsylvania, USA, and seat of Berks County. Reading is the principal city of the Greater Reading Area and had a population of 88,082 as of the 2010 census, making it the fifth most populated city in the state after Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Allentown and Erie,...

 in December, 1927 following the victory of the Socialist Party there in the November, 1927 elections. In that election J. Henry Stump
J. Henry Stump
J Henry Stump was an American Socialist politician and mayor of Reading, Pennsylvania 1927 - 1931, 1935–1939 and 1943 - 1947.-External links:...

 won the first of his three terms as Mayor of Reading, and saw the majority of Reading City Council won by members of the Socialist Party. Hoopes was hired in 1928 as an assistant city solicitor by the Stump Administration.

Political career

Hoopes' first election campaign was for judge in Berks County
Berks County, Pennsylvania
-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 373,638 people, 141,570 households, and 98,532 families residing in the county. The population density was 435 people per square mile . There were 150,222 housing units at an average density of 175 per square mile...

 (county of the city of Reading) in 1929, but he was defeated. He did win his next election, as a Socialist candidate to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives (he would be re-elected in 1934 and 1936). For his work on outlawing child labor in Pennsylvania, Hoopes was voted as the "most able legislator" by Pennsylvania journalists. Also elected with Hoopes to the legislature (in 1930, 1932, and 1934) was Lilith Martin Wilson, the first Socialist woman elected to any such body in the United States (in 1922, she had been the first woman candidate for Governor of Pennsylvania).

Hoopes had also been the Socialist vice presidential candidate in 1944, as the running mate of Norman Thomas
Norman Thomas
Norman Mattoon Thomas was a leading American socialist, pacifist, and six-time presidential candidate for the Socialist Party of America.-Early years:...

, and had also been a chairman of the party. He served in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives
Pennsylvania House of Representatives
The Pennsylvania House of Representatives is the lower house of the bicameral Pennsylvania General Assembly, the legislature of the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. There are 203 members, elected for two year terms from single member districts....

 from 1930 to 1936, at one point being voted "most able legislator" by journalists.

In both the 1952 and 1956 elections, his running mate was Samuel H. Friedman
Samuel H. Friedman
Samuel H. Friedman was a journalist and a longtime labor union activist. He twice ran unsuccessfully for Vice President of the United States on the Socialist Party of America ticket. In the 1952, the Socialist National Party Congress nominated Friedman to run along side its presidential candidate,...

. In 1952 they received 20,065 votes, in 1956 only 2,044. The 1956 election would be the last presidential election the Socialist Party contested until after it broke into three groups in 1972-1973. In 1973 Hoopes joined the reconstituted Socialist Party USA
Socialist Party USA
The Socialist Party USA is a multi-tendency democratic-socialist party in the United States. The party states that it is the rightful continuation and successor to the tradition of the Socialist Party of America, which had lasted from 1901 to 1972.The party is officially committed to left-wing...

, which resumed fielding presidential candidates and remains a small third party.

Death and legacy

Hoopes died on September 25, 1989.

Hoopes' papers reside in the special collections department of Paterno Library at Penn State University in State College, Pennsylvania
State College, Pennsylvania
State College is the largest borough in Centre County in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. It is the principal city of the State College, Pennsylvania Metropolitan Statistical Area which encompasses all of Centre County. As of the 2010 census, the borough population was 42,034, and roughly double...

.

Additional reading

  • J. Paul Henderson, Darlington Hoopes: The Political Biography of an American Socialist. Glasgow, Scotland: Humming Earth, 2005.

External links

  • Darlington Hoopes on Social Justice (on The History Channel
    The History Channel
    History, formerly known as The History Channel, is an American-based international satellite and cable TV channel that broadcasts a variety of reality shows and documentary programs including those of fictional and non-fictional historical content, together with speculation about the future.-...

    )
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