Don Henry, A JayHawk
His Time at KU
In 1935, Donald E. Henry entered the University of Kansas as a freshman (Schamel). Between 1936 and 1939, the Spanish Civil War captured the world’s attention as a struggle for democracy.
Identification Card
Henry was a principled activist who went to Spain, along with his friend and fellow KU student Kenneth Graeber, in June 1937 (following an advertised rally for the Loyalist cause held in the Kansas Union) to fight for the ideals for which he had struggled during his time at KU – these core principles included pacificism, political activism, civic engagement, an anti-war stance, and a commitment to socialism (Sacrifice for Spain).
Campus Defender
Henry was involved in various campus organizations – the American Student Union (ASU), the YMCA, and the KU Peace Action Group (University Daily Kansan) – and an active leader in each – he created a petition (Picture of Petition) with signatures of 650 students for the abolition of the requirement of purchase exemption slips (University Correspondence), conducted a poll with the ASU, and supported the reception of a presidential candidate in Lawrence (University Daily Kansan).
Before Henry came to KU, he had been an extremely active member of his own community, spending much of his time with the church, being a Boy Scout, as well as a member of the Hi-Y Club (a club affiliated with the YMCA designed for high schoolers) and his high school debate team. Even before his exposure to the variety of organizations at KU, Henry had already built the foundations for a high level of civic engagement (Schamel).
Picture of Petition
A principled activist standing for pacifism, political activism, civic engagement, anti-war opposition, and a commitment to socialism
Political Activist
In 1936, there was a tense political environment due to the upcoming presidential elections between the incumbent Franklin D. Roosevelt, the Kansan Alfred Landon, and the socialist Norman Thomas; in the same year, Henry served as the head of the Campus Problems Commission for the YMCA. The YMCA, along with the Thomas-for-President Club, helped bring Thomas to Lawrence – Henry was on a committee focused on financing the publicity of Thomas’s speech. Thomas was prohibited from speaking on campus, so he spoke at a church in Lawrence (University Daily Kansan).
Henry also founded a local unit of the ASU and was elected its president in 1936. The central tenets of the ASU were very similar to Henry’s: opposing war, enforced military training, and discrimination of any kind, and a strict stance against fascism. Demonstrating Henry’s civic engagement, the ASU conducted a presidential election poll, against the urging of other student organizations and some KU administrators. Although Henry was a socialist, as president of the ASU, he declined to sponsor the Dove (the campus’s radical leftist magazine) because he thought it was vital to gain the support of his less radical peers on campus – he simply wanted to grow his organization, underlining his devotion to peace and antifascism (University Daily Kansan).
His Path to Spain
Henry was also a member of the KU Peace Action Group, an organization composed of leftists and pacifist Christian students. Henry was elected to the group’s Forums Committee and in October 1936, Henry created a forum on the “Spanish Revolution for the near future,” emphasizing his early interest in Spain. With the organization, Henry requested an all-University convocation on November 11 with a program and a speaker to commemorate Armistice Day (University Daily Kansan).
Sacrifice for Spain
The University Daily Kansan, the campus newspaper, published a series of five articles about the Spanish Civil War was published, motivating Henry to support the Loyalist cause. The articles exposed the Spanish Catholic Church for its corruption (it “had become little less than a leech sucking blood from the people”) and Franco’s brutal fascist movement. One article published exposed Franco’s movement as “extremely unpopular with the bulk of the people,” emphasizing the Loyalist bias and the extent to which the article influenced Henry.