Pauline "Polly" Spiegel Cowan (1913–1976) was an American civil rights activist who co-founded Wednesdays in Mississippi.
[2] Her grandfather was Joseph Spiegel and her great-uncle was Civil War Colonel Marcus M.
[1][3] She graduated from Sarah Lawrence College where she had studied under Max Lerner and Robert Staughton Lynd.
[1] She wrote an essay arguing for democratic socialism for her alumna magazine entitled "Pleading for Pink".
[4] After her husband took a job at CBS, she took up social activism, first at the Citizens Committee for Children and then the National Council of Negro Women.