Wake County, NC - Bicentennial File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by Barbara Kawamoto Reprinted with permission of the News & Observer and cannot be reproduced without permission. The News and Observer December 29, 1991 Bicentennial Special/Early 20th Century Raleigh 200 By Treva Jones Once-liberal ‘South-saver’ turns conservative battler Battle was her middle name and for more than 30 years, her credo. Nell (Cornelia) Battle Lewis was an active social conscience in North Carolina in the 1920s, ‘30s and ‘40s, fighting inequality and ignorance and crusading for social justice and education through an influential newspaper column. Her column, "Incidentally," ran in The News & Observer from 1921 until her death in 1956, except for a brief period in the 1930s when she was ill and again in 1948, when she worked for The Raleigh Times. Known as "Battling Nell" in the 1920s, by the mid 1940s the liberal had changed her views and become an arch-conservative, susceptible to the fears of the McCarthy era and afraid that Communist infiltrators were involved with the state’s university system. When she celebrated the 25th anniversary of her column in 1956, she characterized the earlier "Battling Nell" as "a very, very callow, half- baked liberal" who didn’t know enough. "I was a South-saver," she said. "I wanted to lift the South up in all directions and was very critical of it in every respect." As for her early women’s rights crusades, she decided there was "too much emphasis on equality and too much aping of men" by women. She was born in Raleigh on May 28, 1893, the daughter of Richard Henry Lewis, a well-known physician and public health pioneer, and Mary Gordon Lewis, his second wife. She attended Raleigh schools and St. Mary’s College and graduated Smith College in Northampton, Mass., in 1917. After working briefly for a bank, she joined the YWCA canteen service and served the American Expeditionary Force in 1918 and 1919. She began her newspaper career at The News & Observer in 1920. She wrote general and society news stories, was literary and feature editor, and produced the column. A suffragist and feminist in the 1920s and 1930s, she was active in several organizations, including, in the 1920s, the Legislative Council, a clearinghouse for seven major women’s organizations that lobbied for passage of laws. She promoted higher education for women, addressed problems of working mothers and pushed for changes in women’s legal status. Putting her money where her mouth was, she ran for the legislature in 1928, and lost. During textile strikes in Gastonia in 1929 and 1930, she presented the laborers’ point of view. She read law and was admitted to the state bar in 1929, although she practiced only briefly and concentrated on the defense of a group of female inmates of Samarcand, the state’s women’s reformatory. She argued that the inmates, who were charged with torching a reformatory building, were mentally defective. The case prompted her to push for legal and penal reform, and piqued her concern for the mentally ill and retarded, which she pursued the rest of her life. From 1937 until 1944, and again in 1954, she taught English and Bible studies at St. Mary’s College. Over the years, her views changed. After World War II, she renounced many of her earlier efforts for social justice and reform and freedom of expression and thought. She raged against communism, sometimes confusing it with liberalism. Battling Nell died Nov. 26, 1957, apparently the victim of a heart attack that struck her just outside her home at 1514 St. Mary’s St. ============================================================== USGENWEB NOTICE: In keeping with our policy of providing free information on the Internet, data may be used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material. The electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or for presentation by other persons or organizations. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material for purposes other than stated above must obtain the written consent of the file contributor, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access. ==============================================================