April 1, 1911: J. Stitt Wilson, Socialist Mayor of Berkeley, Elected
April 1 1911, J. Stitt Wilson, a member of the Socialist Party of America, was elected mayor of Berkeley.
A Christian socialist who advocated for a social revolution to establish “ownership by the whole people of the basic equipment of land and machinery,” Stitt Wilson had been a member of utopian cooperative groups before becoming mayor.
His 2-year tenure as mayor, while far from revolutionary, saw him take on powerful local real estate interests; he once famously remarked that a “laundryman is more valuable to the community than a real estate man.” Stitt Wilson was also a staunch advocate of women’s suffrage.
Associated with the “right wing” of the Socialist Party, Stitt Wilson left the SPA over its opposition to American entry in World War I. Shortly before he died, he participated in Upton Sinclair’s 1934 End Poverty In California (EPIC) campaign.
