'''John Llewellyn Lewis''' (1880-1969) was a long-time leader of the [[United Mine Workers]] [[American labor unions|labor union]] and founder of the [[Congress of Industrial Organizations]]. He was the most prominent union leader in the U.S. after the death of [[Samuel Gompers]] in 1924. Lewis dominated the coal miners union (the United Mine Workers, [[UMW]]), 1920-1960, and created the [[Congress of Industrial Organizations]] (CIO) in the 1930s. A leading liberal, he played a major role in helping [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] win a landslide in 1936, but as an isolationist broke with Roosevelt in 1940 on foreign policy. [[Image:Lewis46b.jpg|thumb|280px|Lewis in 1946, a slumbering volcano. [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,934696,00.html Read ''Time'' story]]]
Lewis was known as an a brutally effective and aggressive fighter and strike leader who gained high wages for his membership while steamrolling over his opponents, including the United States government. Lewis was one of the most controversial and innovative leaders in the history of labor, gaining credit for building the industrial unions of the [[CIO]] into a political and economic powerhouse to rival the [[AFL]], yet was widely hated as he called nationwide coal strikes damaging the American economy in the middle of World War II. His massive leonine head, forestlike eyebrows, firmly set jaw, powerful voice and ever-present scowl thrilled his supporters, angered his enemies, and delighted cartoonists. Coal miners for 40 years hailed him as the benevolent dictator who brought high wages, pensions and medical benefits, and damn the critics.
==Early career==