Dorothy Parker: Civil Rights Advocate Before It Was Cool
Always ahead of her time
Most people are familiar with Dorothy Parker as the 1920s bon vivant who presided over the Algonquin Round Table like the Queen she was. Her “flapper verse” and her effortlessly witty banter defined an era and inspired generations of young women to become writers.
*Raises hand*
Despite this, we love Dorothy anyway.
During her writing career, she reviewed books for The New Yorker and served as a drama critic for Vanity Fair. Dorothy also authored hundreds of poems and short stories, plays, and screenplays. She was nominated for an Oscar twice for her screenplays “A Star is Born” and “The Little Foxes.”
So, not surprisingly, most people remember Dorothy in her 1920s incarnation as a writer and poet. Fewer are aware of her lifelong commitment to civil rights.
In the ’30s and ’40s, Parker became increasingly vocal about social justice in the United States, or the lack thereof. She was a strong supporter of human rights issues internationally as well.
Dorothy's first taste of injustice was as a child of privilege. She was painfully aware of the gap between the uptown life she enjoyed and the hopelessness of the working poor. Dorothy remembered her personal…
