International Labor Defense photographs

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Collection Data

Description: Collection consists of photographs, photomechanical prints, and negatives, many from news services such as International News Photos, collected by the International Labor Defense (ILD), documenting not only the labor and civil rights causes in which ILD was involved, but also examples worldwide of injustice and oppression occurring, with a few exceptions, during the 1920s through the mid 1940s.
Names: International Labor Defense (Creator)
Dates / Origin: Date Created: 1926 - 1946 (Approximate)
Library locations: Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Photographs and Prints Division; Shelf locator: Sc Photo International Labor Defense Collection
Topics: African Americans -- Political activity; Communists -- United States; Demonstrations -- United States; Labor movement -- United States; Labor unions -- United States; Lynching -- Southern States; Riots; Strikes and lockouts -- United States
Genres: Photographs; Postcards
Notes: Biographical/historical: The International Labor Defense (ILD) was established by the Communist Party of the United States of America as its legal defense arm in 1925 to aid labor, political prisoners, and victims of reactionary violence. Using mass demonstrations and publicity, the ILD conducted national and worldwide campaigns to gather support for its cases. In 1946 the ILD merged with the Civil Rights Congress.; Content: The collection consists of photographs, photomechanical prints, and negatives, many from news services such as International News Photos, collected by the International Labor Defense (ILD), documenting not only the labor and civil rights causes in which ILD was involved, but also examples worldwide of injustice and oppression occurring, with a few exceptions, during the 1920s through the mid 1940s. The largest section of the collection documents labor pickets, demonstrations, riots, destruction, and confrontations with police and the National Guard during strikes in the U.S. and abroad. Among those included are the General Motors Corporation Sit-Down strike of 1936 and 1937, the Auto-Lite strike in Toledo, Ohio, the Minneapolis Truck Drivers's strike, the New York City taxi-cab strike, the New York City waiters walkout, the Chicago milk strike, various coal miners strikes, and textile industry strikes in Rhode Island, Massachusetts and North Carolina. Images of other demonstrations and pickets include rent strikes, with views of evicted families on the street, relief and unemployment strikes, and most prominently, the Bonus Marchers during 1932 and 1933. Demonstrations, encampments, registration and food lines, and leader Walter Waters are among the views found in this collection. Another large section of the collection covers activities of the U.S. National Guard, various American police forces and the armed forces. Among these photographs are images of guardsmen preparing for imminent strikes - setting up sandbag barricades, bringing in tanks during the San Francisco dyers and cleaners price war, frisking strikers, fighting with strikers, policemen making arrests, loading them into police vans, guarding mill entrances and strikers injured by police violence. Visual documentation of foreign labor strikes and demonstrations as well as a wide range of other historical events are also included. Views of Hungarian refugees, Italian troops in Ethiopia, rioting in Palestine, the Spanish Civil War, fascist rallies in Italy and Germany, a Romanian royal wedding, crowds in South Africa, Belfast rioting and Chinese evacuees are just some examples. Smaller groupings of photographs include Communist demonstrations, legal cases, such as the Scottsboro Trial that contain portraits of the defense team, the defendants, their mothers, courtroom scenes, the 1931 Scottsboro parade in Harlem, union and labor leaders as well as politicians (U.S. and foreign), and lynching scenes.
Physical Description: Extent: 4.75 linear feet (19 boxes)
Type of Resource: Still image
Identifiers: Other local Identifier: Sc Photo International Labor Defense Collection; NYPL catalog ID (B-number): b11527506; MSS Unit ID: 531192; Universal Unique Identifier (UUID): 5d3c8a20-d554-013e-43c7-0242ac110003