University of Arkansas, Fayetteville ScholarWorks@UARK Theses and Dissertations 12-2020 "Some Kind of Socialist:" Lee Hays, the Social Gospel, and the Path to the Cultural Front Elizabeth Withey University of Arkansas, Fayetteville Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.uark.edu/etd Part of the History of Religion Commons, Labor History Commons, Social History Commons, and the United States History Commons Citation Withey, E. (2020). "Some Kind of Socialist:" Lee Hays, the Social Gospel, and the Path to the Cultural Front. Theses and Dissertations Retrieved from https://scholarworks.uark.edu/etd/3932 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by ScholarWorks@UARK. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@UARK. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. “Some Kind of Socialist:” Lee Hays, the Social Gospel, and the Path to the Cultural Front A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in History by Elizabeth Withey Stephen F. Austin State University Bachelor of Arts in Music and History, 1981 Stephen F. Austin State University, Master of Arts in Music, 1983 December 2020 University of Arkansas This thesis is approved for recommendation to the Graduate Council. —————————————————— Michael Pierce, Ph.D. Thesis Director —————————————————— ——————————————— Robert Cochran, Ph.D. Jeannie Whayne, Ph.D. Committee Member Committee Member —————————————————— Richard Sonn, Ph.D. Committee Member Abstract In 1939, with sixty-five dollars and twenty pages of Commonwealth Labor songs, Lee Hays, youngest son of a Methodist minister, hitchhiked thirteen hundred miles from Mena, Arkansas, to New York City where he found stardom in the Folk Revival movement, first, as a founder of the Almanac Singers then the Weavers.