1. Whitney M. Young, Jr. (1921–1971) was a graduate of Kentucky State College and earned a masters degree from the University of Minnesota in 1947. He spent his professional career with the National Urban League and served as executive director from 1961 to 1971.
2. Jacob K. Javits (b. 1904) received a law degree from New York University in 1927. From 1946 to 1954 he was a U.S. representative from New York, and from 1955 to 1957 attorney general of New York. He was elected to the U.S. Senate from New York in 1957, and served until 1980.
Joseph S. Clark (b. 1901) graduated from Harvard University in 1923, and the University of Pennsylvania Law School in 1926. He commenced the practice of law in Philadelphia, and in 1952 was elected mayor of the city until 1956 when he became a Democratic senator from Pennsylvania. He held that position until 1969 when he was unsuccessful in his bid for re-election.
3. Lyndon B. Johnson (1908–1973) graduated from Southwest State Teachers College in 1930. After teaching in the public schools of Houston, Texas, he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives (1937–1949), and then to the U.S. Senate (1953–61). He was elected vice president in 1961, and upon the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963, Johnson became the thirty-sixth President. As president, Johnson secured passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Bill, and initiated the Great Society programs of the sixties. His term was marred by the unsuccessful war in Vietnam.
4. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination in employment because of race, religion, sex, or national origin.
5. Executive Order 11246 requires government contractors to follow nondiscriminatory employment practices and to take “affirmative action” to ensure that job applicants and employees are not discriminated against on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.
6. Vernon E. Jordan, Jr. (b. 1935) graduated from DePaul University and then Howard Law School in 1960. Jordan practiced law, and served in various civil rights capacities including director of the Voter Education Project of the Southern Regional Council (1964–1968), and executive director of the United Negro College Fund (1970–1971), before heading the National Urban League from 1972 to 1981. Following an attempted assassination by a deranged white supremist, Jordan resigned to practice law in Washington, D.C.
7. James D. Hodgson (b. 1915) graduated from the University of Minnesota in 1938, and did post-graduate work at the same institution and UCLA. He held several positions in industrial relations before being appointed undersecretary of labor in the cabinet of President Richard Nixon in 1969, and then secretary of labor in 1970.
Maynard H. Jackson, Jr. (b. 1938) graduated from Morehouse College in 1956, and received a J.D. degree from North Carolina Central School of Law in 1959. He founded a law firm in Atlanta, Ga., and became vice mayor of the city, before being elected mayor of Atlanta, one of a growing number of Afro-American city mayors.
Andrew Young (b. 1932) graduated from Howard University, and received a B.Div. from Hartford Theological Seminary and became a pastor in Alabama and Georgia. He became a close advisor of Martin Luther King in the civil rights movement, and became executive vice president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Young was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives from Atlanta, Ga. from 1973 to 1977, and was appointed U.S. ambassador to the United Nations from 1977–1979. After leaving that post he was elected mayor of Atlanta.
Walter G. Davis (b. 1920), an Afro-American, graduated from Columbia University in 1956, and attended law school for two years. From 1952 to 1958 he served as president of Local 290, United Transportation Service Employees, C.I.O. He became a national organizer for the UTSE in 1958, but left that post to become assistant director of the AFL-CIO Civil Rights Department (1961–1965). In 1966 he became director of the AFL-CIO Department of Education, and served on the board of directors of the A. Philip Randolph Institute.
John R. Lewis (b. 1940) received a B.A. from the American Baptist Theological Seminary in 1961, and a B.A. from Fisk University in 1967. A leading figure in the civil rights movement, Lewis served as chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (1963–1966), and has served in numerous public interest efforts. An Afro-American, he has been director of the Voter Education Project since 1970.
8. William Willard Wirtz (b. 1912) received a B.A. from Beloit College in 1933, and an LL.B. from Harvard University in 1937. He served as a professor of law from 1937 to 1942. In 1946 he became chairman of the National Wage Stabilization Board, but returned to the Northwestern University School of Law from 1946 to 1954. He advised Adlai Stevenson in his bid for the presidency in 1952, then joined his law firm. From 1962 to 1969 he served as secretary of labor under Presidents Kennedy and Johnson.
9. Eleanor Holmes Norton (b. 1938) graduated from Antioch College, and received a M.A. (1963) and a J.D. (1964) from Yale University. From 1970 to 1976 she was New York commissioner of Human Rights, and in 1977 was appointed chairperson of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
10. William Brennan (b. 1906) received his law degree from Harvard Law School in 1931, and practiced law in Newark, N.J., until 1949 when he became a judge. He served as a justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court from 1952 to 1956 when he was appointed justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. He has consistently sided with liberals in cases involving civil rights.
11. Warren E. Burger (b. 1907) received his law degree from St. Paul College of Law in 1931, and practiced law in Minnesota until 1953. He served as assistant attorney general from 1953 to 1956 when he was appointed judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C. In 1969 President Nixon appointed him Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. Burger is an advocate of judicial restraint in social reform cases.
William H. Rehnquist (b. 1924) graduated from Stanford University, and then Stanford Law School in 1952. He practiced law in Phoenix, Arizona, until 1969 when he was appointed assistant attorney general. Rehnquist held that post until 1972 when he was appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court by President Richard Nixon. His nomination was opposed by civil rights groups because he holds a limited view of the equal rights clause.
Lewis F. Powell, Jr. (b. 1907) graduated from Washington and Lee University, and received his law degree there in 1931. A specialist in securities law, he practiced in Richmond, Virginia, served in numerous public and professional capacities, and was appointed justice of the U.S. Supreme Court in 1972. He has consistently favored judicial restraint in cases involving social reform.
John Paul Stevens (b. 1920) graduated from the University of Chicago, and received a law degree from Northwestern University Law School in 1947. An authority on anti-trust law, he was appointed judge of the U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals (1970–1975), and then justice of the U.S. Supreme Court in 1975. An independent, he has sided with both liberals and conservatives on various civil rights cases.
12. “Meany” refers to George Meany. See Vol. VII, note 229.
13. In the case of University of California v. Bakke (1978) the U.S. Supreme Court held that even though universities may consider race as a factor in evaluating candidates for admission, universities may not establish fixed racial quotas. The case arose when the medical school of the University of California at Davis rejected Allan Bakke’s application while admitting members of racial minorities who had lower test scores.
14. For background on Emanuel Celler (D-N.Y.), see Vol. VI, note 52.
15. Hubert H. Humphrey, Jr. (1911–1978) graduated from the University of Minnesota in 1939, and earned a Masters Degree from Louisiana State University in 1940. From 1945 to 1948 he served as mayor of Minneapolis, and was elected U.S. Senator from Minnesota from 1948 to 1964, and 1971 to 1978. He was elected to one term of vice president in 1964, and was the unsuccessful presidential nominee of the Democratic Party in 1968. Humphrey was considered a strong defender of civil rights, and a friend of organized labor.
16. Thomas H. Kuchel (b. 1910), a graduate of the University of Southern California, and U.S.C. law school in 1935, held several state offices in California before his election as a Republican to the U.S. Senate from 1953 to 1969. Kuchel took a liberal position on civil rights.
17. Leverett Saltonstall (1892–1979), a graduate of Harvard University, and Harvard Law School in 1917, served in several state posts prior to his election as governor of Massachusetts on the Republican ticket (1938–1944). From 1944 to 1967 he served as U.S. senator from Massachusetts and voted as a moderate liberal on civil rights issues.
18. Ronald Reagan (b. 1911) graduated from Eureka College in 1932, and became a sports announcer and actor. From 1947 to 1952 he was president of the Screen Actors Guild. A Republican, he served as governor of California from 1967 to 1974, and in 1980 was elected president of the United States.
19. John F. Kennedy (1917–1963), a graduate of Harvard University, served as a representative in the U.S. House from Massachusetts from 1947 to 1953. He was elected to the U.S. Senate and served from 1953 to 1960, when he became a successful candidate for U.S. president. His administration was committed to the disestablishment of racial segregation.
20. For background on President Richard M. Nixon, see Vol. VII, note 227.
Gerald R. Ford, Jr. (b. 1913) graduated from the University of Michigan, and received a law degree from Yale University in 1941. He practiced law in Grand Rapids, Michigan, until 1949 when he was elected to the U.S. House. He served in the House until 1973 when he became vice president. Upon the resignation of Richard Nixon in 1974, Ford became president of the United States, serving out the remainder of Nixon’s term. He failed to be elected to his own full term.
21. James Earl Carter, Jr. (b. 1924) graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1947. He was elected to the Georgia State Senate from 1963 to 1967, and then governor of Georgia from 1971 to 1975. In 1977 he successfully fought for the Democratic nomination for the presidency, and defeated Gerald Ford for that office.
22. David Stockman, a one-time congressman from Michigan, became President Ronald Reagan’s director of the Office of Management and Budget. The reference to “supply-siders” relates to the notion that the economy will be better stimulated from the supply, rather than the demand, side.
23. For background on President Herbert Hoover, see Vol. VI, note 51.
24. For background on Frank R. Crosswaith, see Vol. VI, note 135.
25. For background on Roy Wilkins, see Vol. VII, note 5.
26. For background on President Dwight D. Eisenhower, see Vol. VII, note 205.
27. For background on the Ku Klux Klan, see Vol. II, pp. 183–239.
28. For background on Joseph E. Curran, see Vol. VII, note 63.
29. For background on James B. Carey, see Vol. VII, note 220. For Willard S. Townsend see Vol. VII, note 33. For A. Philip Randolph, see Vol. V, note 111.
Thurgood Marshall (b. 1908) graduated from Lincoln University and Howard Law School in 1933. As chief counsel of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Marshall argued numerous important civil rights cases before the U.S. Supreme Court. He was appointed judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals Second Circuit (1961–1965), and U.S. solicitor general (1965–1967) before taking a seat on the U.S. Supreme Court.
30. For background on President Harry S. Truman, see Vol. VII, note 181. Boris Shishkin was an economist and legislative consultant of the AFL, and then the AFL-CIO.
31. “Operation Dixie” was launched in 1946 by the CIO to organize southern industries.
32. George Leon-Paul Weaver (b. 1912), an Afro-American, attended Roosevelt University and Howard University Law School during World War II. He was a member of the CIO Relief Commission in 1941–1942, and was appointed assistant to the secretary-treasurer of the CIO from 1942 to 1955. From 1955 to 1958 he served as executive secretary of the AFL-CIO. In 1961 he served as a special assistant to the U.S. secretary of labor, and as assistant secretary of labor for international affairs in 1969. That year he became special assistant to the director-general of the International Labor Organization, Geneva, Switzerland. See also, Vol. VII, pp. 374–75.
33. For background on Milton P. Webster, see Vol. VI, note 44.
34. For background on Chandler Owen, see Vol. V, note 110.
35. For the March on Washington Movement referred to here, see Vol. VII, pp. 251–62.
36. Anna Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962) married President Franklin Roosevelt in 1905, and was First Lady from 1933 to 1945. A champion of the underprivileged and minorities, she distinguished herself in their service, was a representative to the United Nations General Assembly in 1945, 1949–1952, and 1961–62, and served as chairperson of the Commission on Human Rights.
37. For background on David J. McDonald, see Vol. VII, note 47.
38. For background on Charles S. Zimmerman, see Vol. VII, note 204.
39. For background on Walter P. Reuther, see Vol. VII, note 190.
40. For background on Samuel Gompers, see Vols. IV and V.
For Jeremiah Grandison, see Vol. IV, p. 3.
41. For background on Arthur J. Goldberg, see Vol. VII, note 195.
42. Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) graduated from Morehouse College in 1948, Crozier Theological Seminary in 1951, and received a Ph.D. from Boston University in 1955. As pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama, he came to national prominence by leading the successful Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955–1956. Founder of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, King played the leading role in the struggle to desegregate southern institutions. In 1964 he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his work, but was assassinated by a white racist in 1968.
43. NAM refers to the National Association of Manufacturers, a conservative business organization.
44. Charles A. Hayes (b. 1918), a member of the Amalgamated Meat Cutters and Butcher Workmen, became vice president of that organization in 1968. An Afro-American, Hayes also served as director of District 12, MCBW, as director of District 1, United Packinghouse, Food and Allied Workers of America, from 1954 to 1968, and as vice president of Operation Push in 1972.
45. For background on George M. Harrison, see Vol. VII, note 184.
46. For background on the Marshall Plan, see Vol. VII, notes 181 and 219.
47. Frank W. Schnitzler (b. 1904) of Newark, N.J., a member of the Bakery and Confectionery Workers International Union, became secretary-treasurer of the AFL-CIO from 1953 to 1969, when he retired with emeritus status.
48. Eugene Frazier (b. 1905) moved from his birthplace of Birmingham, Alabama, to Chicago, Illinois, and became vice president of the United Transport Service Employees, CIO.
Lee W. Minton (b. 1911), a member of the Glass Bottle Blowers Association, was elected to its executive board in 1938, became union treasurer in 1945, vice president in 1946, and from 1946 to 1971 he served as president of the GBBA. In 1956 Minton became AFL-CIO vice president and member of the executive council.
Richard F. Walsh (b. 1900) of Brooklyn, New York, was elected president of Local 4, International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees and Moving Picture Operators from 1924 to 1937. In 1934 he became a vice president of the union, and in 1941 was elected its president. Walsh became an AFL-CIO vice president and executive council member in 1955.
Albert J. Hayes (b. 1900) of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, rose through the ranks of the International Association of Machinists to become president in 1949, a position he held until 1965 when he retired. As president he led the IAM back into the AFL, and served as AFL vice president and executive council member.
Ralph Helstein (b. 1908) graduated from the University of Minnesota Law School in 1934, and served as general council for the United Packinghouse Workers of America before becoming president in 1946. He also served as an AFL-CIO vice president and executive council member. When the Amalgamated Meat Cutters and Butcher Workmen absorbed the UPWA in 1968, Helstein became president of the union for one term before he retired in 1969.
Joseph D. Keenan (b. 1896) of Chicago, Illinois, was a member of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, and rose through the ranks to become IBEW secretary in 1955. Considered a premier labor politician, Keenan also served as secretary of the Chicago Federation of Labor, director of Labor’s League for Political Education (AFL), and was elected secretary-treasurer of the AFL Building and Construction Trades Department, 1951–1954.
Emil Mazey (b. 1913), an international representative for the United Automobile, Aircraft, and Agricultural Implement Workers, organized Briggs Local 212 in 1937 and served as local president until 1941. He transferred his loyalties to the United Automobile Workers, however, and became a co-director of UAW Region I, a member of the UAW executive board, UAW secretary-treasurer, and acting president in 1948.
James A. Suffridge (b. 1909) was chief executive officer of an Oakland, California, local of the Retail Clerks International Protective Association, before becoming president of the state RCIA, and international president in 1944. Suffridge also served as an AFL-CIO vice president, and as vice president of the Union Label Department before he retired in 1968.
David Sullivan (1904–1976) immigrated to the United States from Ireland in 1925, and settled in New York City. One of the founders of New York Local 32B of the Building Service Employees International Union in 1934, Sullivan served in various local posts, became international vice-president of the BSEIU in 1941, and international president from 1960 to 1971 when he retired. He also severd as an AFL-CIO vice president and executive council member.
49. Taft-Hartley Act was passed June 23, 1947. Also known as the Labor-Management Relations Act, it reflected the anti-labor sentiment of the post-war period. The Act passed over the veto of President Truman. It regulated the following labor activities: 1) banned the closed shop; 2) allowed employers to sue unions for broken contracts and damages during strikes; 3) established the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service and required employers to submit a 60 day notice for termination of contract; 4) authorized the U.S. Government to obtain injunctions imposing a cooling off period of 80 days on any strike imperiling the national health or safety; 5) required unions to make public their financial statements; 6) forbade union contributions to political campaigns; 7) ended the check-off system for union dues; 8) required union leaders to take an oath that they were not communists.
Landrum-Griffin Act was passed September 14, 1959. Also known as the Labor Management Reporting and Disclosure Act, it was designed to eliminate gangsterism, racketeering, and blackmail in labor organizations. In addition it included the following provisions: 1) contained a Bill of Rights for union members which provided for freedom of speech and assembly; 2) guaranteed union members the right to elect their officials; 3) revised the ban on secondary boycotts under the Taft-Hartley Act to prohibit unions from inducing an employer or employee to stop doing business with another firm or handling its goods and to extend the secondary boycott prohibitions to all unions.
50. Cleveland L. Robinson (b. 1914) was born in Jamaica, and after immigrating to the U.S., became secretary-treasurer of District 65, United Auto Workers of New York and New Jersey. He is one of the founders and a past president of the Distributive Workers of America, a founder and president of the National Negro Labor Council, and a founder and first vice president of the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists. He also served as a labor advisor to Martin Luther King, and was administrative chairman of the 1963 March on Washington.
51. For background on Matthew Woll, see Vol. VI, note 72. For David Dubinsky, see Vol. VI, note 136. For William Green, see Vol. VI, note 52.
52. C.O.R.E. is the acronym for Congress of Racial Equality, a civil rights organization founded in 1942 by James Farmer at the University of Chicago. Its tactics included sit-ins and freedom rides. In the late-1960s it changed from an integrationist organization to one of militant self-determination.
53. James C. Petrillo (b. 1892) of Chicago, Ilinois, learned to play the trumpet at Hull House, joined the American Musicians Union, and became its president from 1914 to 1917. Defeated for reelection, he joined the American Federation of Musicians and by 1932 had become a member of the AFM national executive board. In 1940 he was elected president of the AFM, and served as an AFL-CIO vice president from 1958 to 1962.
54. For background on Clarence M. Mitchell, see Vol. VI, note 186.
55. Jack T. Conway (b. 1917) graduated from the University of Chicago in 1940. A member of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, he became executive director of the union in 1975. Conway also served as director of the Industrial Union Department, AFL-CIO, as president of Common Cause, and as deputy director of the Office of Equal Opportunity.
56. Andrew J. Biemiller (1906–1982) graduated from Cornell University in 1926, and served as an organizer for the Wisconsin State Federation of Labor and the Milwaukee Federation of Trade Councils from 1932 to 1942. In 1936 he was elected to the Wisconsin State Assembly as a Socialist-Progressive, and then won a seat in the U.S. House in 1945–46, and again in 1949–1950. He became the chief lobbyist for the AFL-CIO, the position he held upon retirement in 1978.
Donald Slaiman (b. 1919) of New York graduated from the University of Buffalo, was a member of the Newspaper Guild, and became deputy director of Organizations and Field Service of the AFL-CIO in 1974. He also served as assistant director of the Civil Rights Department from 1964 to 1974.
Jerry Wurf (1919–1981) was an organizer for the New York Hotel and Restaurant Employees before becoming an organizer for the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees after World War II. He became executive director of AFSCME District Council 37 in 1959, and vice president of the AFL-CIO Industrial Union Department. Wurf served as president of AFSCME from 1964 to 1981.
Wilbur Daniels (b. 1923) graduated from City College of New York, and New York University Law School in 1950. He became executive vice president of the International Ladies’ Garment Workers Union in 1973, and served as a member of the board of directors of the New York Urban Coalition, and of the executive committee, New York City Manpower Board from 1970 to 1973.
57. Murray H. Finley (b. 1922) graduated from the University of Michigan in 1946, and Northwestern Law School in 1949. A member of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers, he became general president of the union in 1972, AFL-CIO vice president in 1973, and served on the board of directors of the A. Philip Randolph Institute.
58. Arthur F. Burns (b. 1904), an economist born in Austria, taught at Rutgers and Columbia universities, and for many years was associated with the National Bureau of Economic Research. He served as an economic advisor to Presidents Eisenhower and Nixon, and as chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System from 1970 to 1978.
59. Benjamin L. Hooks (b. 1925) graduated from Howard University in 1944, and took his law degree from DePaul University in 1948. An Afro–American, Hooks practiced law in Memphis, Tennessee, until 1966 when he became county judge. Hooks also became a Baptist pastor in Memphis and Detroit from 1956 to 1964, and 1964 to 1972 respectively. In 1972 he was appointed a member of the Federal Communications Commission (1972–1978), and in 1977 became the executive director of the National Associaton for the Advancement of Colored People.
60. Proposition 13 was a ballot initiative approved by voters in California in June, 1978 to reduce property taxes about 57%. The measure went into effect July 1, 1978 but was immediately challenged by school districts, educational groups, counties and cities. They argued that the proposition was unconstitutional based on the equal protection clause (inequitable treatment of property owners). The proposition was also challenged on the grounds that it was not restricted to one topic. The California Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the legislation on September 22, 1978. It was estimated that local governments lost approximately 7 billion dollars in property tax revenue. The proposition was attacked by civil rights groups for its disasterous effect on social welfare programs.
61. Joseph Lane Kirkland (b. 1922) graduated from the Merchant Marine Academy and worked as a seaman before joining the AFL’s research staff in 1948. In 1953 he became director of the AFL Social Security Department, and served as executive assistant to George Meany, president of the AFL-CIO. Kirkland became secretary-treasurer of the AFL-CIO in 1969, and when Meany retired in 1979, became president of the federation.
62. Thomas R. Donahue graduated from Manhattan College in 1949, and took his law degree from Fordham in 1956. A member of Local 32 B of the Service Employees International Union, he was appointed assistant secretary for labor management relations, U.S. Department of Labor, from 1967 to 1969. From 1969 to 1973 he served as executive secretary and first vice president of the SEIU, then became executive assistant to the president of the AFL-CIO in 1973.
Frederick D. O’Neal (b. 1905), Afro-American actor and director, co-founder of American Negro Theater (New York 1940) was elected international president of the Associated Actors and Artists of America in 1970, and had served as president of the Actors Equity Association when he became president emeritus in 1973. O’Neal also was an AFL-CIO vice president, and chairman of the AFL-CIO Civil Rights Committee.
63. Eugene T. (“Bull”) Connor was the police commissioner of Birmingham, Alabama, during the spring of 1963 when civil rights demonstrations led to the incarceration of Martin Luther King. A staunch segregationist, Connor turned loose K-9 dogs, fire hoses, and police clubs against the civil rights demonstrators in a fashion which shocked the nation.
64. For background on Michael J. Quill, see Vol. VII, note 14.
65. For background on John L. Lewis, see Vol. VI, note 68 and note 126.
66. Joseph L. Rauh, Jr. (b. 1911) graduated from Harvard University in 1932, and Harvard Law School in 1935. He served as vice chairperson of Americans for Democratic Action, and on the board of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and as general counsel for the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights. From 1969 to 1972 Rauh acted as general counsel for Miners for Democracy, a reform group within the United Mine Workers of America.
67. John C. Stennis (b. 1901), a graduate of Mississippi State University, and the University of Virginia Law School in 1928, he immediately entered Mississippi politics. Stennis was elected to the state House of Representatives, became a judge, and was elected U.S. senator from Mississippi in 1947. A Democrat, he strenuously resisted the civil rights measures of the Kennedy and Johnson administrations.
Richard B. Russell (1897–1971) took his law degree from the University of Georgia in 1918 and entered politics. He was a state assemblyman from 1921 to 1930, governor of Georgia from 1930 to 1933, and Democratic U.S. senator from Georgia from 1933 to 1971. Russell was a major foe of civil rights reforms, and led numerous filabusters against such reforms.
68. The original document is incomplete.
69. Andrew F. Brimmer (b. 1926) graduated from the University of Washington, and received a Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1957. A member of the Board of Governors of the U.S. Federal Reserve System since 1966, Brimmer, an Afro-American, had served in various positions including a professorship at Harvard, and in Business Economic Research at DuPont Company.
70. For background on Marcus Garvey, see Vol. VI, note 32. For background on W. E. B. Du Bois, see Vol. IV, note 136.
71. For background on Executive Order 8802, see Vol. VII, p. 210.
72. John H. Rousselot (b. 1927), a graduate of Principia College, 1949, was a congressman from California from 1961 to 1963, and from 1970 to 1983. The owner of a public relations firm, Rousselot was an arch-conservative in politics, a member of the John Birch Society, and fought to have another California congressman, Thomas H. Kuchel, removed from office for being too liberal.
73. Ross R. Barnett (b. 1898) graduated from Mississippi College in 1922, and the University of Mississippi Law School in 1926. He practiced law in Jackson, Mississippi, and made two unsuccessful bids for governor before winning the office in 1959. An adamant segregationist, he forcefully resisted desegregation, perhaps attracting the most attention in 1962 for his role in attempting to prevent James Meredith from becoming the first Afro-American to enroll in the University of Mississippi.
James O. Eastland (b. 1904) was educated at the University of Mississippi (1922–1924), Vanderbilt University (1925–1926), and the University of Alabama (1926–1927). He entered the practice of law in Mississippi, and was elected to the state House of Representatives from 1928 to 1932. In 1941 he was appointed to the U.S. Senate to fill an unexpired term, and subsequently won election to the Senate from 1943 to 1978. An arch-opponent of desegregation, Eastland opposed all civil rights reforms, including the acts of 1964, 1965, and 1968.
74. Paul Hall (1914–1980) was one of the founding members of the Seafarers International Union of North America in 1938, became its first vice president in 1948, and president in 1957. He also served as president of the AFL-CIO Maritime Trades Department, and an AFL-CIO vice president in 1962.
75. For background on Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., see Vol. VII, note 36.
Luigi Antonini (1883–1968) was born in Italy, immigrated to New York, and founded Local 89 International Ladies’ Garment Workers Union in 1919. From 1934 to 1968 he served as vice president of the international. Antonini was active politically. He was a founder of the Liberal Party in New York, served as state chairperson of the American Labor Party, and was president of the Italian-American Labor Council.
76. Herbert Zelenko (b. 1906) graduated from Columbia College in 1926, and Columbia Law School in 1928. He was appointed assistant U.S. attorney in 1933–1934, and elected to the U.S. House of Representatives from New York from 1954 to 1962.
77. Louis D. Brandeis (1856–1941) received his law degree from Harvard University in 1878 and conducted private practice in Boston until 1916, when President Woodrow Wilson appointed him to the U.S. Supreme Court. As a justice from 1916 to 1939, Brandeis was aligned with Justices Holmes and Cardozo in supporting social reforms.
78. Douglas A. Fraser (b. 1916) immigrated to the United States from Scotland. In 1943 he was elected president of Local 227, United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America. He rose through the ranks of the union as administrative assistant to UAW president Walter Reuther, co-director of UAW Region 1-A in 1959, vice president in 1970, and UAW president from 1977 to 1983. As president of his union, Fraser was a member of the AFL executive council.
79. The John Birch Society is an ultraconservative organization founded in 1958 by Robert Welch, Jr., a retired businessman. The society has actively campaigned for U.S. withdrawal from the United Nations, repeal of social security and the income tax, and withdrawal of recognition of the Soviet Union, among other right-wing causes.
80. Rosa Parks (b. 1913) attended Alabama State College, and became active in the Montgomery NAACP. Her refusal to give up her seat on a Montgomery city bus to a white passenger triggered her arrest, and the Montgomery Bus Boycott which resulted in the desegregation of city buses in 1956. For her action she has come to be known as “the Mother of the Modern Civil Rights Movement.”
81. For background on Joseph R. McCarthy, see Vol. VII, note 206.
82. SNCC is the acronym for Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, a civil rights organization founded in 1960. It was particularly effective in desegregating lunch counters in the South. By 1966, under the leadership of Stokely Carmichael, SNCC changed its orientation from integration to militant self-determination. After 1969 it became virtually defunct.
83. Malcolm X (1925–1965), born Malcolm Little, served six years in prison from 1946 to 1952. In prison he became a Black Muslim and, after his release, joined the New York Muslim Temple. He soon became the leading minister in the national organization, but resigned in 1964 because of personal and ideological differences between himself and Elijah Muhammad, the leader of the Muslims. Malcolm X adopted a black nationalist and confrontational approach, rather than withdrawal which characterized the Muslims, and Malcolm had great appeal among the black urban masses. He was assassinated on February 21, 1965.
CPUSA refers to the Communist Party of the U.S.A.
84. The Black Panther Party was organized in October 1966 in Oakland, Ca., by Bobby Seale and Huey Newton. They spearheaded a revolutionary movement which departed from the nonviolent philosophy of the civil rights movement, and appealed to the poor black urban ghetto dweller. Self-defense and self-determination for the black community became their watchwords, and they often referred to themselves as “the children of Malcolm X.” The Panthers were Marxists as well, and frequently quoted the works of Mao Tse-Tung, Lenin, and Marx. Numerous confrontations between police and Panthers in the big cities resulted in many of them being jailed or killed.
85. The Attica prison riot occurred Sept. 9–13, 1971 at New York State’s maximum-security facility near Buffalo. The revolt involved 1,000 inmates who seized control of the prison taking 38 guards and employees. On Sept. 13 state troopers and prison guards took the prison by force, killing 29 prisoners and 10 hostages in the process. An investigation criticized the state’s methods.
86. James Forman (b. 1929) graduated from Roosevelt University in 1951, taught school in Chicago, and became executive secretary of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee from 1964 to 1968, and director of International Affairs in 1969. He was the author of the “Black Manifesto” calling for reparations to blacks for past wrongs, and wrote The Making of Black Revolutionaries (1972).
87. For background on Joseph V. Stalin, see Vol. VII, note 201.
88. Ho Chi Minh (Nguyen That Thanh, 1890–1969), organized the Indochinese Communist Party in 1930, and later the Vietminh. He led a guerrilla war against the Japanese during World War II, and assisted in the liberation of Hanoi in 1945. After the war he became president of the Independent Republic of Vietnam in 1945, but relinquished the title in 1955 when the country was split, and became the leader of North Vietnam. He led the nation through two wars with France and the United States for political reunification. He was regarded as the embodiment of an independent, unified Vietnam.
89. Henry A. Kissinger (b. 1923) received a Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1954. A naturalized U.S. citizen born in Germany, he became a professor of government at Harvard specializing in foreign relations until 1969. In that year he was appointed President Richard Nixon’s director of the National Security Council (1969–1975). From 1973 to 1977 he served as Nixon’s secretary of state, winning the Nobel Peace Prize in 1973 for his role in bringing an end to the Vietnam War.
90. George C. Wallace (b. 1919) received his law degree from the University of Alabama in 1942, and was appointed assistant attorney general of Alabama in 1946–1947. From 1947 to 1953 he served in the state legislature, and as a state judge from 1953 to 1958. Wallace was elected to the Governor’s Office for several terms: 1963–1966, and 1971–1979. He was a candidate for president on the American Independent Party ticket in 1968, and a candidate in the Democratic presidential primary in 1972, and 1976.
91. Cyril Lionel Robert James (c. 1901), a prominent West Indian scholar active in the Pan-African movement, and the struggle to decolonize the West Indies and Africa, came to the U.S. in the 1960s and attracted a following of young radical scholars. A marxist, James is the author of numerous books, one of the best known of which is The Black Jacobins, Toussaint L’Ouverture and the San Domingo Revolution (1938).
92. Frank E. Fitzsimmons (1908–1981), a member of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen, and Helpers of America, rose through the ranks to become vice president and member of the Executive Board in 1961. In 1967 he become president of the Teamsters, and held that office until 1981 when he was forced to resign under charges of fraud.
William Anthony (“Tony”) Boyle (b. 1904–1984)) attended schools in Montana and Idaho and then became a coal miner. He was elected president of United Mine Workers of America District 27 (Montana), and held that position until 1948 when he became a regional director for the CIO and UMWA District 50. From 1948 to 1960 he was John L. Lewis’ assistant, and UMWA vice-president, 1960–1963. He was acting president of the UMWA from 1962–1963, and elected international president in 1963. He was opposed for the UMWA presidency in 1969 in a close, bitter election by Joseph Yablonski who was murdered shortly thereafter, and Boyle was defeated by Arnold Miller in 1972. Subsequently, Boyle was convicted for ordering the murder and sentenced to life in prison.
Cornelius J. Haggerty (1894–1971) served as president of Local 42, International Union of Wood, Wire, and Metal Lathers in California. From 1937 to 1943 he served as president of the California State Federation of Labor, and then as secretary from 1943 to 1960. He became vice president of the International, and president of the AFL-CIO Building and Construction Trades Department in 1960.
93. Jesse M. Unruh (b. 1922) graduated from the University of Southern California in 1948, and was elected to the California Assembly for 1954–1970. He was Southern California manager of John F. Kennedy’s presidential campaign in 1960, and chairperson of Robert Kennedy’s California presidential campaign in 1968. In 1970 he was an unsuccessful candidate for governor of California. Organized labor considered him an unreliable supporter.
For George Wallace, see note 90.
Spiro T. Agnew (b. 1918), 39th vice president of the U.S. (1969–1973), resigned from office when he was fined for income tax evasion. Born in Baltimore, he received a law degree from the University of Baltimore in 1947, practiced law in that city, and became active in local politics. A reform Republican, he was elected chief executive of predominantly Democratic Baltimore County in 1962. Democrats also helped elect him governor of Maryland in 1966. In 1968 Richard Nixon tapped him as his running mate. While vice president he made numerous controversial speeches denouncing the press, liberals, and college students and faculty.
For Joseph McCarthy, see note 81. For Ronald Reagan, see note 18.
Richard J. Daley (1902–1976) took a law degree at DePaul University in 1933. He was elected as a Democrat to the Illinois House of Representatives in 1936–1938, and the state Senate in 1939–1946. From 1950 to 1955 he served as clerk for Cook County, and was elected mayor of Chicago from 1955 to 1976. He was one of the most powerful city bosses in American history.
94. For background on Plessy v. Ferguson, see Vol. IV, p. 298.
95. This sentence is incomplete in the original.
96. Jesse Jackson (b. 1941) graduated from North Carolina A&T College in 1964, and received a D.D. from the Chicago Theological Seminary in 1966. Jackson was active in the civil rights movement, and in 1967 was appointed national director of SCLC’s Operation Breadbasket by Dr. Martin Luther King. Later he became national president of Operation PUSH. In 1984 he became the first serious contender for the presidential nomination of the Democratic Party.
James Farmer (b. 1920) graduated from Wiley College in Texas, and received a B.D. from Howard University in 1941. Farmer was the founder of the Congress of Racial Equality in 1941, and became National Chairman from 1941 to 1944, and national director from 1961 to 1966. He also served as race relations secretary of the Fellowship of Reconciliation from 1941 to 1945, and as program director of the NAACP from 1959 to 1961. He helped plan the Freedom Rides of 1961, and has served in numerous other public capacities.
97. “Mr. Hayes” refers to Charles Hayes. For Hayes see note 44.
98. Operation PUSH refers to the organization founded by Jesse Jackson in Chicago. The acronym stands for People United to Save Humanity, and is involved in various programs to assist poor blacks.
99. Ralph Metcalf (b. 1910), a graduate of Marquette University, and the University of Southern California, was a member of the 1931 and 1936 U.S. Olympic track teams. He was director of the Department of Civil Rights Commission on Human Relations in Chicago from 1945 to 1949, and alderman from 1955 to 1971. In 1970 he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, serving until 1979. He openly broke with Mayor Richard Daley over the issue of police brutality concerning the death of two members of the Black Panther Party in Chicago in 1969.
100. Operation Breadbasket was founded by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 1967 to assist in the distribution of care to poor, primarily black people in need of food.
101. Paul H. Douglas (1892–1976) received a Ph.D. from Columbia University in 1921. He was a professor of economics at several universities, and received the Sidney Hillman Award in 1957. From 1949 to 1966 he served as Democratic senator from Illinois.
102. George S. McGovern (b. 1922) received a Ph.D. from Northwestern University in 1953, and was a professor of history. After serving as a congressman from South Dakota, he became U.S. senator from 1963 to 1981. He was the unsuccessful Democratic candidate for president in 1972, and an unsuccessful candidate for the Democratic nomination for president in 1984.
Sargent Shriver (Robert Sargent, Jr., b. 1915) received a law degree from Yale University in 1941, and was assistant editor of Newsweek in 1945–1946. A brother–in-law of President John Kennedy, Shriver was appointed director of the Peace Corps in 1961, and director of the Office of Economic Opportunity from 1964 to 1968. He was ambassador to France in 1968–1970, and Democratic candidate for vice president in 1972.
103. Edward Todd was appointed Midwest director of the Textile Workers Union of America in 1966, and served on the executive board of the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists.
104. Nelson Jack Edwards (1923?–1974) of Detroit, Michigan, was a member of the United Auto Workers for thirty-seven years, and the first black vice president of the UAW. He was murdered in a Detroit bar following an argument with another patron.
105. Hilton E. Hanna (b. 1907) was born in the West Indies, immigrated to the United States, and received degrees from Talladega College (1933), and the University of Wisconsin (1949). A member of the Amalgamated Meat Cutters and Butcher Workmen, he became international vice president and executive assistant to the MCBW president, and international secretary-treasurer in 1972. Hanna also was president of the Eugene V. Debs Foundation, and president of the Madison, Wisconsin, Urban League, 1969–1972.
106. William L. Clay (b. 1931) graduated from St. Louis University in 1953, and entered city politics. He served as business agent for AFSME from 1961 to 1964, and as Democratic committeeman of the 26th Ward. He was active in the NAACP and CORE, and helped to open many unions to blacks before being elected to the U.S. House of Representatives.
107. Horace Julian Bond (b. 1940) of Atlanta, Georgia, graduated from Morehouse College in 1971. The son of the prominent black scholar, Horace Mann Bond, Julian has served in numerous public capacities, and was a founder of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in 1960. He is best known for having been elected to the Georgia House of Representatives in 1966 but barred, elected again and barred. After the third election in 1967 he was seated and still holds that post.
108. “Zieglers, Hartovans, Erlichmans, Schultzes, Kissingers, Klines” refers to President Richard Nixon’s White House assistants some liberals characterized as “Nixon’s Gestapos.”
109. James McGregor Burns (b. 1918) graduated from Williams College in 1939, and received a Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1947. He joined the faculty of Williams College in 1941, and remained there throughout his professional career with several periods of public service. A prominent author, his books include Roosevelt: The Lion and the Fox (1956), John Kennedy: A Political Profile (1960), and Roosevelt: The Soldier of Freedom (1970). He won the 1971 Pulitzer Prize, and the National Book Award in History.
110. E. Franklin Frazier (1894–1962) received a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 1931. He was director of the Atlanta School of Social Work from 1922 to 1927, professor of Sociology at Fisk University (1927–1954), and chairperson of the Department of Sociology at Howard University from 1934 to 1959. His books include: The Negro Family in Chicago (1932); The Free Negro Family (1932); The Negro Family in the United States (1939); Negro Youth at the Crossroads (1940); The Negro in the United States (1949); Race and Culture Contacts in the Modern World (1957); Black Bourgeoisie (1957); The Negro Church in America (1964).
111. For background on Benjamin (“Pitchfork Ben”) Tillman, see Vol. III, note 60.
112. Michael J. Mansfield (b. 1903–1972) graduated from the University of Montana in 1933, and received a M.A. from the same institution in 1934. After working as a mining engineer, and as a professor of history at U.M. (1933–1942), he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives (1943–1953), and then to the U.S. Senate (1953–1976). A Democrat, Mansfield was majority leader of the Senate from 1961 to 1976. In 1977 he was appointed ambassador to Japan.
Edward M. Kennedy (b. 1932) graduated from Harvard University in 1954, and received a law degree from the University of Virginia in 1959. The youngest brother of President John F. Kennedy, he entered politics, and in 1962 was elected U.S. senator from Massachusetts. He is one of the most liberal senators on civil rights issues.
Rupert Vance Hartke (b. 1919) graduated from Evansville College, and received a law degree from Indiana University. He practiced law in Evansville, Indiana, from 1948 to 1958. He also was elected mayor of Evansville from 1956 to 1958 before his election to the U.S. Senate in 1958, where he served until 1976. In 1972 he was a candidate in the Democratic presidential primary. He was an opponent of the Vietnam war.
Philip Hart (1912–1976) graduated from Georgetown University, and received a law degree from the University of Michigan in 1937. He practiced law in Michigan until 1955 when he ws elected Lt. Governor, a post he held until he was elected to the U.S. Senate, 1959–1976. He was instrumental in shaping Democratic legislation on civil rights.
Howard M. Metzenbaum (b. 1917) graduated from Ohio State University, and OSU Law School in 1941. A native of Cleveland, he served in the Ohio House of Representatives 1943–1946, and in the Ohio State Senate 1947–1950. In 1974 he was elected as a Democrat to the U.S. Senate, where he is considered a strong supporter of civil rights, and a friend of organized labor.
Edmund Muskie (b. 1914) graduated from Bates College, and received a law degree from Cornell University in 1939. He practiced law in Waterville, Maine, until 1955 when he was elected governor. From 1959 to 1980 he served as U.S. senator from Maine, and was appointed secretary of state in 1980. He was the unsuccessful Democratic nominee for president in 1968.
113. For background on Philip Murray, see Vol. VII, note 34.
114. Peter Bommarito (b. 1915) of Detroit, Michigan, a member of the United Rubber, Cork, Linoleum and Plastic Workers of America, rose through the ranks to become international president of the URW in 1966. He has also served as vice president of the AFL-CIO, and as vice president of its Industrial Union Department.
115. Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) of India practiced law in Bombay, and in South Africa between 1893 and 1915. He gained international fame as the leader of protests against British colonial rule in India, and spent most of his adult life working for Indian independence through nonviolent acts of civil disobedience. One year after independence was achieved in 1947 he was assassinated.
116. Anatoly B. Scharansky (b. 1948) graduated from the Moscow Physical-Technical Institute in 1972, and was employed at the Oil and Gas Research Institute. A major figure in the struggle of Russian Jews to emigrate from the Soviet Union, he was denied a visa, and convicted of treason and espionage in 1978. He was sentenced to three years of prison and ten years of forced labor. Scharansky’s case received wide publicity during President Carter’s campaign to improve human rights in the world.
117. Iorwith W. Abel (b. 1908) of Magnolia, Ohio, helped to organize the first CIO local at Canton Timken Roller Bearing Co. in 1936, and participated in the “Little Steel” strike in 1937. In 1942 he became director of the Canton District of the United Steelworkers of America. He was elected secretary-treasurer of the United Steelworkers of America, and then president of the union in 1965. A vice president of the AFL-CIO, he became president of the Industrial Union Department in 1968.
118. William W. Scranton (b. 1917) received a B.A. from Yale University in 1939, and an LL.B. from Yale Law School in 1946. He was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania in 1961–1963, and as governor of Pennsylvania 1963–1967. He held numerous special appointments under Presidents Johnson and Nixon.
119. Wade H. McCree, Jr. (b. 1920) graduated from Fisk University in 1941, and received a law degree from Harvard Law School in 1948. He served as a commissioner on the Workmen’s Compensation Commission from 1948–1954, and as judge on the Wayne County, Michigan, Circuit Court 1954–1961. From 1961 to 1966 he served as a justice on the U.S. District Court, and was appointed to the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in 1966.
Charles C. Diggs, Jr. (b. 1922) graduated from Wayne State University in 1946, and the Detroit College of Law in 1952. From 1951 to 1954 he was a state senator to the Michigan House from Detroit, and in 1955 he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. He is a founder and past chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus.
120. Rule 22 of the U.S. Senate required 2/3 of the total Senate body to limit and to close debate. After the merger of the AFL-CIO the federation supported a curb on filibustering by “strongly supporting” a change in Rule 22 to require 1/2 of the Senators to vote to close debate.
121. For background on Wayne L. Morse, see Vol. VII, note 119.
122. Ken Bannon (b. 1914) of Scranton, Pennsylvania, became vice president of the United Auto Workers in 1970. He had served as a member of the UAW International Executive Board, and as director of the UAW National Ford Department, and as an organizer in Detroit prior to this position.
123. Ronald V. Dellums (b. 1935) graduated from San Francisco State in 1960, and earned an M.A. from the University of California in 1962. An Afro-American, he entered politics and served on the Berkeley City Council, 1967–1971, before being elected to the U.S. House of Representatives from California’s 8th District in 1971.
124. For background on Robert F. Wagner, see Vol. VII, note 136.
125. Richard J. Hughes (b. 1909) received a law degree from the New Jersey Law School in 1931. He served as assistant U.S. district attorney in New Jersey from 1939 to 1945, as Mercer County judge, 1948–952, and as New Jersey Superior Court judge, 1952–1959. He became governor of New Jersey in 1962, and held that post until 1970. In 1973 he became chief justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court, serving until 1979.
126. Peter J. Brennan (b. 1918) of New York, a member of the Brotherhood of Painters, Decorators and Paperhangers of America, became president of the Construction Trades Council of Greater New York in 1957, and vice president of the New York State AFL-CIO. He was criticized by civil rights leaders for discriminatory hiring practices in the New York Building Trades, and organized New York construction workers support for President Nixon’s Vietnam war policies. Nixon appointed him U.S. Secretary of Labor in 1972.
127. Harry Van Arsdale, Jr. (b. 1905) of New York was a member of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. From 1933 to 1968 he was business manager of Local 3, New York, and became president of the Greater New York Central Trades and Labor Council in 1957. After successfully organizing the New York City Taxi Drivers Union in 1965, he became president of Local 3036. He also served as treasurer of the IBEW, and was a member of the executive board of the Building and Construction Trades Council.
128. For background on Robert C. Weaver, see Vol. VI, note 25.
129. Gordon M. Freeman (b. 1896) was international vice president of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.
Peter T. Schoemann (b. 1893) was a member of the United Association of Journeymen and Apprentices of the Plumbing and Pipe Fitting Industry of the United States and Canada who rose through the ranks to become president of the union. From 1955 to 1972 he served as vice president of the AFL-CIO, and was a member of its Committee on Education.
Edward J. Leonard (b. 1904), a member of the Operative Plasterers and Cement Masons’ International Association of the United States and Canada, became president of the union from 1958 to 1970.
John H. Lyons (b. 1919), a graduate of the Missouri School of Mines, and a member of the International Association of Bridge and Structural Iron Workers, became president of the union in 1961.
Hunter P. Wharton (b. 1900), a member of the International Union of Operating Engineers, became its president in 1962, and served as an AFL-CIO vice president.
Thomas F. Murphy (b. 1910), a member of the Bricklayers, Masons and Plasterers International Union of America, rose in the organization to the position of president in 1966. He also became vice president of the Union Label and Service Trades Department, AFL-CIO, in 1974.
Peter Fosco was president of the 60,000-member Laborers International Union of North America. He was a staunch supporter of the Nixon Administration, and President Nixon presented him with the Columbus Day Man of the Year Award in 1972.
Lawrence M. Raftery (b. 1895), a member of the International Brotherhood of Painters and Allied Trades of the United States and Canada, became its president between 1957 and 1965.
Wilbur D. Mills (b. 1909) attended Harvard Law School (1930–1933), and became a county and probate judge in Arkansas. From 1939 to 1977 he was elected U.S. Representative from Arkansas, and served as chairman of the powerful Ways and Means Committee from 1957 to 1974. Personal indiscretions and alcoholism prompted his party to strip him of power.
James Haughton (b. 1930) received a B.A. from City College of New York, and an M.A. from New York University. He helped organize the Negro-American Labor Council, and became identified as a militant champion of black construction workers, leading protests against builders, unions, and the government for more equal opportunity for blacks on construction sites in New York. Working out of his headquarters at the Harlem Unemployment Center, in 1969 he was involved in negotiations to hire more minorities at the building site of the World Trade Center in New York City.
130. Walter E. Williams (b. 1936) of Philadelphia, Pa., received a B.A. from California State University, and a Ph.D. in economics from UCLA in 1972. A professor of economics, Williams is one of the few black conservatives in that fraternity.
131. Leon J. Davis (b. 1912) was born in Russia and immigrated to New York where he attended Columbia School of Pharmacy (1927–1929), and became a pharmacist. He helped organize and became president of District 1199, National Union of Hospital and Health Care Employees, an affiliate of the Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Union. He also served as international vice president of RWDSU. In 1981 he resigned as president of NUHHCE, and as president of 1199 in 1982.
132. For background on Herbert H. Lehman, see Vol. VII, note 143.
Moe Foner (b. 1915), executive secretary of Local 1199, National Union of Hospital and Health Care Employees, retired and was granted emeritus status in 1983. He is also deeply involved in the cultural program maintained by 1199.
133. James Baldwin (b. 1924), a prominent Afro-American novelist, was active in the civil rights movement during the 1960s. Among his numerous works are: Go Tell It on the Mountain (1953); Notes of a Native Son (1955); Giovanni’s Room (1958); Nobody Knows My Name (1960); Another Country (1962); The Fire Next Time (1963); Going To Meet the Man (1966); Tell Me How Long the Train’s Been Gone (1968); No Name in the Street (1972); One Day When I Lost (1973); If Beale Street Could Talk (1974); The Devil Finds Work (1976); Just Above My Head (1979); one play, Blues for Mr. Charlie (1964), and numerous articles.
134. For background on Norman Thomas, see Vol. VI, note 52.
William F. Ryan (1922–1972) received a law degree from Columbia University, and was assistant district attorney in Manhattan from 1950 to 1957. He was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives from New York in 1961 and served in that post until 1972. A liberal, he backed most of the civil rights bills which came before Congress. He was an early proponent of a permanent civil rights commission, and fought hard to end segregation in interstate travel.
135. For background on Frederick Douglass, see Vol. I, notes 8, 12, and 21.
136. Bella S. Abzug (b. 1920) of New York graduated from Hunter College in 1942, and took a law degree from Columbia University in 1945. She has practiced law since then, except for the period from 1971 to 1977 when she was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives from New York. She practiced labor law in the 1950s, became known as an outspoken opponent of the Vietnam war, and a flamboyant feminist.
137. Len Seelig was an organizer for 1199 in New York and Connecticut, and a vice president of the union. On October 3, 1971 he was killed in an automobile accident at age 41.
138. Robert E. McNair (b. 1923) graduated from the University of South Carolina in 1947, and received a law degree from U.S.C. in 1948. He entered politics as a Democrat, and was elected state representative 1951–1962, It. governor of South Carolina 1962–1965, and governor 1965–1971. After leaving office he continued to practice law, and sat on the board of directors of several corporations.
139. Ossie Davis (b. 1917) attended Howard University (1935–1938) and became an actor and writer. In 1948 he married actress Ruby Dee, and they have worked closely since then. He has acted on stage, film, television, and radio. He was writer, director, and actor in the film Purlie Victorious, and wrote the screenplay for Cotton Comes to Harlem (1969). He was closely associated with the civil rights movement and its leaders.
Ruby Dee (b. 1923) graduated from Hunter College in 1945 and became an actress on stage, film, television, and radio. She won the Obie Award in 1971, and the Drama Desk Award in 1974 among other honors. She also wrote Glowchild, and Uptight.
140. Ralph D. Abernathy (b. 1926) graduated from Alabama State College in 1950, received an M.A. in sociology from Atlanta University in 1951, and was ordained a Baptist minister in 1948. He organized numerous civil rights demonstrations during the 1950s and 1960s, and initiated the Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955. He was organizer, secretary-treasurer, vice president, and president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.
141. Strom Thurmond (b. 1902) was born in Edgefield, South Carolina, and received a B.S. from Clemson University in 1923. After teaching for several years during the twenties, he was admitted to the bar and practiced law during the thirties. He was elected to the South Carolina state senate from 1933 to 1938, and became a circuit judge from 1938 to 1946, with several years break in his tenure while serving in the armed forces. From 1947 to 1951 he served as governor of South Carolina, and became a U.S. senator in 1954. A staunch states rights conservative, he became known for his resistance to the civil rights movement.
L. Mendel Rivers (1905–1970) attended the College of Charleston, and law school at the University of South Carolina. He commenced to practice law in Charleston in 1932, and was elected to the state House of Representatives from 1933 to 1936. In 1936 he was elected to the U.S. Congress from South Carolina where he served until his death. He was a political ally of Strom Thurmond and resisted the civil rights movement.
142. Dorothy I. Height (b. 1913) of Richmond, Virginia, received the B.S. and the M.S. degrees from New York University. She began her career with the YWCA in 1937, and rose through the ranks to become director of the Center for Racial Justice (YWCA). In 1957 she became national president of the National Council of Negro Women.
143. Shirley Anita St. Hill Chisholm (b. 1924) graduated from Brooklyn College, and received an M.A. from Columbia University. She became a congresswoman from the 12th Cong. Dist. of New York, and in 1972 became the first woman to ever actively run for the presidency. She is the author of two books: Unbought and Unbossed (1970), and The Good Fight (1973).
John Conyers (b. 1929) of Detroit, Michigan, graduated from Wayne State University in 1957, and received a law degree from that institution in 1958. He has served in the U.S. House of Representatives since 1964. He clashed with the Nixon administration in 1969 over extending the 1965 Voting Rights Act, and over Nixon’s Vietnam war politics. Conyers also served as general counsel for the Trade Union Leadership Council.
Carl B. Stokes (b. 1927) graduated from the University of Minnesota in 1954, and received a law degree from Cleveland-Marshall Law School in 1956. From 1958 to 1962 he was assistant prosecutor of Cleveland, and served in the Ohio House of Representatives from 1962 to 1967. Stokes was elected mayor of Cleveland in 1967 and served until 1971, the first black mayor of a large American city.
144. For Harriet Tubman, see Vol. VII, note 70. For Sojourner Truth, see Vol. II, note 86. For Rosa Parks, see note 80.
Fannie Lou Hamer was forty-four when she learned about SNCC at a meeting on voter registration in 1962. Born the youngest of twenty children of black sharecroppers in Sunflower County, Mississippi, she joined the organization and became a stalwart and able staff member. She was arrested while attempting to register to vote in Indianola, and while in jail she was beaten so severely that she never completely recovered from her injuries.
145. Fred R. Harris (b. 1930) received a B.A. degree from the University of Oklahoma, and an LL.B. in 1954 from the same institution. From 1956 to 1964 he served in the Oklahoma State Senate, and was elected to the U.S. Senate from Oklahoma in 1964 serving until 1972. He is the author of two books on politics, and is a professor of political science at the University of New Mexico.
Ralph W. Yarborough (b. 1903) received a law degree from the University of Texas in 1927. He became assistant attorney general of Texas, 1931–1934, and then a district judge, 1936–1941. In 1957 Texans elected him to the U.S. Senate where he served until 1971. In 1975 he became a professor of political science at the University of Texas.
Edward W. Brooke (b. 1919) graduated from Howard University in 1941, and received a law degree from Boston University in 1948. He served as the attorney general of Massachusetts from 1963 to 1967, and was elected to the U.S. Senate from 1967 to 1979, the first Afro-American to gain a seat in that body in the 20th century.