Clarence Kailin

August 20, 2012

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On this date in 1914, Clarence Kailin was born in Madison, Wis. Kailin was a socialist activist who supported unions, anti-racism efforts and social justice. When he was 22, in 1936, he joined the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, a volunteer U.S. army which fought fascism in the Spanish Civil War. He later founded a group that lobbied to include African-American history in Madison schools in 1967 and was ultimately successful. He trained radio operators during World War II and worked as a photo technician at the UW–Madison department of photography for almost 18 years. Kailin was the author of the textbook A Black Chronicle (1974). He married Margaret Kailin, also nonreligious, in 1941 and they had four children, four grandchildren and five great-grandchildren. He remained a socialist until his death in 2009.

Kailin’s parents were Jewish immigrants, but Kailin lost his faith and was a self-described atheist. D. 2009

“Science answers the questions I need to know, not faith.”

— The Isthmus, Jan. 5, 2001

Compiled by Sabrina Gaylor (FFRF)