Mary Elizabeth Lease (1850-1933) was a lecturer, political activist and author involved with the suffrage movement, the temperance movement and the People's Party (Populists).
After 1874, Lease moved to Wichita, Kansas with her family and in 1888, she began working with the Union Labor Party and then with the People's Party. She was known as a powerful and popular orator and the farmers of Kansas found she could put their frustrations with Wall Street into words. She is credited with causing the agrarian risings in the Midwest through her rhetoric, even though she denied that claim.
The agrarian revolts and her involvement in it became national news, and she was heavily criticized and personally attacked because of her views. Eventually the party distanced themselves from her and the Populist's Party itself was defeated in 1894.
