Aline Davis Hays

Aline Davis Hays (April 12, 1887 – June 3, 1944), born Aline Julia Davis, was an American clothing designer, textile manufacturer, and arts promoter, president of the League of Women Shoppers, a pro-labor consumers' rights organization.

Aline Davis Hays
Aline Davis Hays, from a 1933 newspaper.
Born
Aline Julia Davis

April 12, 1887
New York, US
DiedJune 3, 1944(1944-06-03) (aged 57)
New York, US
Other namesAline Davis Fleisher
OccupationTextile designer, organizer, pacifist, arts administrator
OrganizationLeague of Women Shoppers
Known forConsumer protection advocacy
MovementWomen's poll tax repeal movement
Spouse(s)
​
​
(m. 1924)​
Children3

Early life

Aline Davis was born in New York, the daughter of Charles L. Davis and Julia Minzheimer Davis. Her parents were Jewish.[1] She attended art school as a young woman, but left to marry her first husband.[2]

Career

Aline Fleisher was a clothing designer who made theatrical costumes in New York in the 1910s.[2] She also wrote a suffrage pageant with Hazel MacKaye, which was performed at Carnegie Hall in March 1919.[3] In 1922, she was one of the three organizers of the People's Art Assembly, an experimental art show in New York City intended to make art accessible to working people, with free admission and longer hours.[4][5] She became a department store stylist in the late 1920s, and finding the available fabrics lacking, she began designing fashionable cotton prints for Ameritex-Sudanette.[2][6][7] In 1933, she explained her belief that "Every woman who has any creative talent should foster and develop it, no matter what difficulty or opposition she may encounter."[2]

In 1938, Hays was elected first president of the League of Women Shoppers, a consumer rights' organization she co-founded in 1935.[8] She was arrested in 1936, for picketing a department store accused of unfair labor practices.[9] Her name was mentioned in testimony before the House Special Committee on Un-American Activities in 1938, when political activist J. B. Matthews commented "Aline Davis Hays has supported a good many Communist-front organizations"[10] based on her leadership of the League of Women Shoppers,[11] her activities in peace and labor causes and the women's poll tax repeal movement, and her support for friends with Communist affiliation.[12] She submitted an affidavit to the committee, disputing Matthews' comments.[13]

In 1941, she was co-founder of the Citizens' Committee for Government Arts Projects.[14] She was also honorary chair of the American Peace Mobilization's New York council.[15]

Personal life

Aline Davis married Walter S. Fleisher in 1910.[16] They had two children. She married civil rights lawyer Arthur Garfield Hays in 1924, as his second wife.[17] They had a daughter, Jane.[18][19] Jane married prominent American lawyer William J. Butler.[20] She died in 1944, aged 57 years, in New York.[9][21]

References
  1. "First American Jewish Families". American Jewish Archives. Retrieved 2020-11-15.
  2. Alden, Alice (1933-09-29). "World Awaits Women with New Ideas". The Evening News. p. 21. Retrieved 2020-11-15 – via Newspapers.com.
  3. Collins, Kristin (Winter 2012). "Representing Injustice: Just as an Icon of Women's Suffrage". Yale Journal of Law and the Humanities. 191: 215, note 110.
  4. Van Doren, Harold Livingston (July 1, 1922). "An Appeal to the People". The Survey. 48: 466–467.
  5. "People's House Art Show". New-York Tribune. 1922-05-14. p. 18. Retrieved 2020-11-15 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. "Cottons: Mrs. Aline Davis Hays Resigning From Ameritex Sudanette". Women's Wear Daily. June 11, 1934. p. 10 – via ProQuest.
  7. "Cottons: Weaves And Patterns Follow Classic Tradition Of Elegance In Cottons In Ameritex-Sudanette Resort Group: Classic Elegance Is Weaves". Women's Wear Daily. September 27, 1933. p. 14 – via ProQuest.
  8. "Heads Women Shoppers; Mrs. Aline D. Hays Elected by National League". The New York Times. 1938-05-22. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-11-15.
  9. "MRS. ARTHUR G. HAYS, LAWYER'S WIFE, DEAD: Founded Shoppers' League to Aid Workers in Stores". The New York Times. June 4, 1944. p. 42 – via ProQuest.
  10. United States Congress House Special Committee on Un-American Activities (1943). Investigation of Un-American Propaganda Activities in the United States: Hearings Before a Special Committee on Un-American Activities, House of Representatives, Seventy-sixth Congress, Third Session on H. Res. 282 ... Executive Hearings ... p. 3292.
  11. Storrs, Landon R. Y. (2013). The Second Red Scare and the Unmaking of the New Deal Left. Princeton University Press. pp. 51–85. ISBN 978-0-691-15396-4.
  12. United States Congress House Special Committee on Un-American Activities (1938-1944) (1944). Investigation of Un-American Propaganda Activities in the United States: Hearings Before a Special Committee on Un-American Activities, House of Representatives, Seventy-fifth Congress. U.S. Government Printing Office. pp. 1003–1004.
  13. House, United States Congress (1938). Hearings. U.S. Government Printing Office. p. 3071.
  14. "A Finding Aid to the Citizens' Committee for Government Arts Projects records, 1941". Archives of American Art. Retrieved 2020-11-15.
  15. "N. Y. Hotels Facing Jim Crow Suits". The Chicago Defender. June 4, 1941. p. 1 – via ProQuest.
  16. "Untitled social item". The New York Times. 1910-02-20. p. 54. Retrieved 2020-11-15 – via Newspapers.com.
  17. Dowell, Chelsea (2016-12-15). "Village People: Arthur Garfield Hays". Village Preservation. Retrieved 2020-11-15.
  18. "Arthur G. Hays, 73, Champion of Civil Rights, Dies in N. Y." The Central New Jersey Home News. 1954-12-14. p. 23. Retrieved 2020-11-15 – via Newspapers.com.
  19. "Jane Butler Obituary". New York Times. May 3, 2016. Retrieved 2020-11-15.
  20. "Biographical Sketch of William J. Butler". University of Cincinnati College of Law. Retrieved 2020-11-16.
  21. "Obituaries: Mrs. Aline Davis Hays". Women's Wear Daily. June 5, 1944. p. 18 – via ProQuest.
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