International Labor Defense records

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Description: 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 International Labor Defense (ILD) conducted national and worldwide campaigns to gather support for its cases. In 1946 the ILD merged with the Civil Rights Congress. Minutes, reports, and financial records of the national offfice of ILD. Case files for the Scottsboro case, the widely reported case of nine boys convicted of rape in Scottsboro, Ala., 1931-1936; the case of Angelo Herndon, a black communist convicted and sentenced to death for his activities as an Unemployed Council (a Communist front organization) organizer in Atlanta, 1932-1937; Tom Mooney, an Irish American labor organizer on the West Coast, 1931-1939; Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, two Italian American anarchists accused of armed robbery and murder, 1926-1930; Lucy Parsons, the mulatto wife of Albert Parsons, one of the Chicago Haymarket Square martyrs of 1886; and the case of the Gallup, N. Mex., coal mine workers, 1933-1938. Case files include correspondence, news clippings, leaflets, petitions, press releases, manuscripts for books and articles, legal documents and reports, and speeches.
Names: International Labor Defense (Creator)
Dates / Origin: Date Created: 1926 - 1946
Library locations: Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division; Shelf locator: Sc MG 8
Topics: African Americans -- Political activity; Anarchism -- United States; Communist parties -- United States; Haymarket Square Riot, Chicago, Ill., 1886; Labor -- New Mexico -- Gallup; Labor movement -- New Mexico -- Gallup; Labor unions -- Miners -- New Mexico; Sacco-Vanzetti Trial, Dedham, Mass., 1921; Strikes and lockouts -- New Mexico -- Gallup; Trials (Political crimes and offenses) -- Georgia -- Atlanta; Trials (Political crimes and offenses) -- United States; Trials (Rape) -- Alabama -- Scottsboro; Trials -- Massachusetts -- Braintree; Working class -- New Mexico -- Gallup; Working class -- Political activity -- United States; Gallup (N.M.) -- Economic conditions; United States -- Economic conditions -- 1918-1945; United States -- Social conditions -- 1918-1932; United States -- Social conditions -- 1933-1945; Herndon, Angelo, 1913-1997; Mooney, Thomas J., 1882-1942; Parsons, Albert; Parsons, Lucy E. (Lucy Eldine), 1853-1942; Sacco, Nicola, 1891-1927; Vanzetti, Bartolomeo, 1888-1927; Unemployed Councils (U.S.); Civil Rights Congress (U.S.); Communist Party of the United States of America
Genres: Documents; Photographs
Notes: Biographical/historical: For those Americans who dared to challenge the prevailing political and economic status quo, the decade of the 1920s was not a tolerant era. Although the massive repression carried out during the infamous Red Scare of 1919-1920 was not repeated during the ensuing years, many trade union activists and political radicals often found their peaceful activities disrupted and themselves arrested. Once in jail, such prisoners, frequently penniless and ignored, encountered a hostile legal system. Small defense committees might sometimes assist a fortunate individual, but, except for the fledgling American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), no comprehensive legal organization existed. Badly needed was a strong, national group that could meet the needs of such prisoners by pooling financial resources, legal strategy, and political influence. The creation of the International Labor Defense (ILD) in 1925 represented an important effort to fill that void. Until its demise in 1946, the ILD vigorously defended union members, political radicals, immigrants, and other individuals who it felt to be unjustly arrested and prosecuted. During the 1930s, the group attracted particular notoriety through its highly publicized campaigns in behalf of black prisoners, thus vividly dramatizing both southern and American racism, adding a new militancy to the civil rights struggles of the period, and introducing many Afro-Americans to Communist teachings. The ILD also provided moral and financial assistance to political prisoners and their families. Charles H. Martin, Professor of History, University of Texas at El Paso; Content: The International Labor Defense Record Group, 1926-1946, is divided into three series and several subseries. The series are: NATIONAL OFFICE - RECORDS OF HEADQUARTERS, 1929-1949; CASES, 1926-1946 and PHOTOGRAPHS. The collection offers students of black history, constitutional law, labor studies, and American radicalism an excellent opportunity to examine in detail many of the most significant campaigns undertaken by this important but controversial legal defense organization.; Content: Public access copy of this collection is Sc Micro R-981.; Content: Photographs separated to Photographs and Prints Division; Citation/reference: "Papers of the International Labor Defense; a guide compiled by Martin Schipper." Frederick, MD: University Publications of America, 1987
Physical Description: Extent: 10 linear feet; 22 microfilm reels
Type of Resource: Text; Still image
Identifiers: NYPL catalog ID (B-number): b11613581; MSS Unit ID: 20647; Universal Unique Identifier (UUID): c7603140-658c-0139-ce25-0242ac110002

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International Labor Defense records

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