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the rector of The Episcopal Church of the Ascension. Under Oilman's direction,
the Forum became the center for liberal and left debate in Baltimore. She also
became involved in labor causes, and, in 1924, she acted as the Maryland chair of
the women's division of Robert LaFollette's Progressive Party presidential bid. She
went back to school, and at the age of 57 received a bachelor's degree from Johns
Hopkins; Broadus Mitchell was one of her professors.
By 1929, when she finally took formal membership in the Socialist Party, she
had previously visited the Soviet Union and spoken with Socialist leaders
throughout Europe. By 1930, when she ran for governor on the Socialist Party
ticket - the first of many Socialist candidacies — she had became the most famous
Socialist in town. She was also active on the national scene, as a member of the
board of the League for Industrial Democracy, and was close, both in Baltimore
and nationally, to many of the younger, more militant Socialists. Her home was a
stopover point for Socialist leaders from all over the United States and the world,
including her friend Norman Thomas.^9 She also frequently entertained social
activists of lesser fame including grass-roots organizers, sometimes giving the place
to live for extended periods. As Broadus Mitchell described her, she
was short of stature, nervous and ejaculatory in speech, equally at ease with
a British cabinet member and the humblest worker. She wore with the same
grace a floppy flowered hat at a garden party and a tight turban on a
Socialist Party platform. "
Oilman's radicalization did not negate her religious commitment, but
accentuated it. She remained a devout Episcopalian throughout her life, and the
Christian Social Justice Fund that she organized with several other Christian
radicals helped finance a variety of progressive causes in the Baltimore area. Her
connections with all facets of the white social liberal community — from bourgeois
philanthropists, to intellectuals, to social workers, to religious liberals — was
unmatched. To again quote Broadus Mitchell: "Elisabeth Oilman was the center of
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