Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Oral Interview Of Viena Hendrickson, Viena Johnson Hendrickson

Oral Interviews

Viena Hendrickson discussed her parent’s involvement with the socialist and workers’ movements among the Finns of northern Minnesota. She described their political and social organizations. Hendrickson also talked about her own involvement in the Socialist and Farmer-Labor parties and the latter’s eventual union with the Democratic Party. She described how women became involved in politics, especially in the Farmer-Labor Women’s Federation, and then shared her impressions of Eugene Debs, Floyd B. Olson, Elmer Benson, Henry Shipstead, Harold Stassen and Hubert Humphrey. Finally, Hendrickson discussed red baiting in the 1940s and 1950s, isolationism and her views on the United Nations.