Justice, Not Charity: Luna Kellie and Great Plains Populist Reform, 1890–1901

Within the populist movement of the 1880s and 1890s, the Farmers' Alliance was known for its encouragement of women's participation. Luna Kellie took advantage of such opportunities. The only elected female state officer of the Nebraska Alliance, Kellie was a self-taught journalist, editor, and publisher who conducted a grassroots reform campaign from the family's farmhouse near Heartwell, Nebraska. This article analyzes Kellie's worldview and how she put it into practice. It focuses on the gendered dimensions of her work and legacy while also emphasizing her ideological connections with other Great Plains reformers such as Kansas Populist senator William Peffer.