Browder, Earl Russell (1891-1973), helped organize the Communist Party in the United States, and served as its general secretary from 1930 to 1944. He was the Communist candidate for president of the United States in 1936 and 1940. He lost his rights as a citizen in 1941 when he served a prison term for falsifying his passport. The Communist Party expelled him in 1946, accusing him of deserting to capitalism. He wrote In Defense of Communism (1949).
Browder was born in Wichita, Kansas. He became an active member of the Socialist Party when he was 15 years old.
