Lulu Wightman

Lulu Wightman was an American writer, speaker, and reformer active in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. She is best known today for The Menace of Prohibition, a passionate argument against the Prohibition movement and what she saw as its threat to personal freedom and democratic government.

She was also involved in religious and social work. Sources on Adventist history credit her with planting a remarkable number of churches in New York between 1896 and 1905, and later helping establish more with her husband. A museum biographical note about her daughter Ruth Wightman also says Lulu gave talks on equal rights and brought her family into free-speech demonstrations, suggesting that public advocacy was a central part of her life.

What makes her especially interesting is the mix of causes she represented: faith, reform, free speech, and civil liberty. Even in the limited records that survive, she comes across as someone unafraid of controversy and deeply committed to persuading the public.