Editing Mark Rothko (section)

==Migration from Russian Empire to the U.S.==
Fearing that his elder sons were about to be drafted into the [[Imperial Russian Army]], Jacob Rothkowitz emigrated from Russian Empire to the United States. Mark, then known as Markus, remained in Russian Empire with his mother and elder sister Sonia. They arrived as immigrants, at [[Ellis Island]], in late 1913. From there, they crossed the country, to join Jacob and the elder brothers, in [[Portland, Oregon]]. Jacob's death, a few months later, of [[colon cancer]],<ref name=":0" /> left the family without financial support. Sonia operated a cash register, while Markus worked in one of his uncle's warehouses, selling newspapers to employees.{{sfn|Breslin|1993|p=21–22,24,32}} His father's death also led Rothko to sever his ties with religion. After he had mourned his father's death for almost a year at a local synagogue, he vowed never to set foot in one again.<ref name=":0" />

Rothko started school in the United States in 1913, quickly accelerating from third to fifth grade. In June 1921, he completed the secondary level, with honors, at [[Lincoln High School (Portland, Oregon)|Lincoln High School]] in [[Portland, Oregon]], at age 17.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Mark Rothko {{!}} The Oregon Encyclopedia |url=https://oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/rothko_mark_1903_1970_/#.XjsijyMwj-k |access-date=February 5, 2020 |website=www.oregonencyclopedia.org |language=en}}</ref>
He learned his fourth language, English, and became an active member of the Jewish community center, where he proved adept at political discussions. Like his father, Rothko was passionate about issues such as workers' rights and contraception.{{citation needed|date=February 2018}} At the time, Portland was a center of revolutionary activity in the U.S. and the region where the revolutionary syndicalist union [[Industrial Workers of the World]] (IWW) was active.{{citation needed|date=September 2021}}

Having grown up around radical workers' meetings, Rothko attended meetings of the IWW, including such speakers as the radical socialist [[Bill Haywood]] and the [[Anarchism|anarchist]] [[Emma Goldman]],{{sfn|Breslin|1993|p=34–42}} where he developed strong oratorical skills he later used in defense of [[Surrealism]]. With the onset of the [[Russian Revolution]], Rothko organized debates about it. Despite the repressive political atmosphere, he wished to become a labor [[union organizer]].{{citation needed|date=September 2021}}

Rothko received a scholarship to [[Yale]]. At the end of his first year in 1922, the scholarship was not renewed, and he worked as a waiter and delivery boy to support his studies. Rothko was more an [[autodidact]] than a diligent pupil: <blockquote>One of his fellow students remembers that he hardly seemed to study, but that he was a voracious reader.{{sfn|Ashton|1983|p=10}}</blockquote>

Rothko and a friend, [[Aaron Director]], started a satirical magazine, ''The Yale Saturday Evening Pest'', that lampooned the school's stuffy, [[bourgeois]] tone.<ref>Stigler, Stephen M., "Aaron Director Remembered". 48 J. Law and Econ. 307, 2005.</ref> Finding Yale to be elitist, and racist, at the end of his sophomore year, Rothko dropped out, never returning until he was awarded an honorary degree 46 years later.{{sfn|Breslin|1993|p=47–42}}