Jessica Decca Mitford Portrait - Rebel Muckraker Art

Decca: The Rebel with a Cause

This dynamic portrait captures Jessica "Decca" Mitford (1917-1996), the most politically radical of the Mitford sisters and America's most famous muckraking journalist. Rejecting her aristocratic upbringing, Decca became a Communist, civil rights activist, and investigative writer whose exposés changed American society.

Jessica Mitford: From Aristocrat to Activist

Born into privilege, Jessica rebelled spectacularly—eloping at 19 with her cousin Esmond Romilly to fight fascism in the Spanish Civil War. After Esmond's death in WWII, she settled in America, joined the Communist Party, and reinvented herself as an investigative journalist whose fearless exposés of the funeral industry, prisons, and corporate America made her a household name.

A Life of Rebellion and Achievement

• The American Way of Death (1963): Her devastating exposé of the funeral industry became a bestseller and sparked nationwide reform
• Civil Rights Activism: Active in the American civil rights movement, working alongside activists in the South
• Muckraking Legacy: Continued exposing injustice through books on prisons, childbirth, and corporate malfeasance
• Family Estrangement: Broke with her Nazi-sympathizing sisters Unity and Diana, though later reconciled with Nancy and Debo

The Mitford Paradox

While sister Unity worshipped Hitler and Diana married British fascist leader Oswald Mosley, Decca fought fascism and championed the oppressed. Her life demonstrates how the same aristocratic upbringing could produce such radically different outcomes, making the Mitford story endlessly fascinating.

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