Education
Emily Taft graduated from the University of Chicago Laboratory School and then the University of Chicago with honors in French.
United States representative politician
Emily Taft graduated from the University of Chicago Laboratory School and then the University of Chicago with honors in French.
She was the first female Democrat elected to Congress from Illinois, and her election made Illinois one of the first two states (the other was California) to have been represented by female House members from both parties. She was also a distant relative of United States. President William Howard Taft. She joined the Democratic Party because of her support for Woodrow Wilson"s push for the League of Nations.
After graduating from the University of Chicago she studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Artist
She was a working actress for two years before going to work for the League of Women Voters in 1924. While vacationing in Italy in 1935, the Douglases witnessed the aftermath of Mussolini"s invasion of Ethiopia.
Both Douglases became involved in Illinois state and local politics in the years leading up to World World War World War II After the outbreak of the war, Paul Douglas enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1942. Emily Taft Douglas ran for the Illinois at-large congressional seat in 1944, defeating Republican incumbent Stephen A. Day.
Douglas ran on a platform advocating the formation of an international alliance of countries.
In addition to working for the formation of the United Nations Douglas also sought to ban the building or use of nuclear weapons. Douglas lost her bid for re-election to the United States House of Representatives in 1946. She was appointed United States Representative to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization in 1950.
In later life Douglas was active in various Unitarian organizations.
Douglas authored several books, including: Appleseed Farm (1948), Remember the ladies. The story of great women who helped shape America (1966), and Margaret Sanger.
Pioneer of the Future (1969).
The experience convinced them that the forces of fascism represented a grave threat to the United States.
Day was a member of the isolationist wing of the Republican Party.