Editing Lola Ridge (section)

==Political activities==
Ridge did not join any political party, but was active in radical causes. She protested against the executions of [[Sacco and Vanzetti]] in 1927, and was among those arrested that day. In the 1930s, she supported the defence of [[Thomas Mooney|Tom Mooney]] and [[Warren Billings]], who had been framed for a 1916 bombing at the [[Preparedness Day Bombing|Preparedness Day Parade]] in San Francisco.

Her actions during the demonstration in front of the prison on the day Sacco and Vanzetti were executed were described by [[Katherine Anne Porter]] in her long essay, "The Never Ending Wrong." She wrote, "One tall, thin figure of a woman stepped out alone, a good distance into the empty square, and when the police came down at her and the horse's hoofs beat over her head, she did not move, but stood with her shoulders slightly bowed, entirely still. The charge was repeated again and again, but she was not to be driven away. A man near me said in horror, suddenly recognizing her, 'That's Lola Ridge!' and dashed into the empty space toward her. Without any words or a moment's pause, he simply seized her by the shoulders and walked her in front of him back to the edge of the crowd, where she stood as if she were half-conscious. I came near her and said, 'Oh no, don't let them hurt you! They've done enough damage already.' And she said, 'This is the beginning of the end – we have lost something we shan't find again.' I remember her bitter hot breath and her deathlike face."<ref>Porter, KA (1977). The Never-Ending Wrong. Little, Brown, & Co.: 1977.</ref>

Peter Quartermain described her in the ''[[Dictionary of Literary Biography]]'' as "the nearest prototype in her time of the [[proletarian poetry|proletarian poet]] of class conflict, voicing social protest or revolutionary idealism."<ref name="ridge"/>