Pittman, John
Biographical notes:
John Pittman (1906-1993), an African-American communist journalist, was born in Atlanta, graduated from Morehouse College, and received an M.A. in Economics (1930) from the University of California at Berkeley, with a thesis titled "Railroads and Negro Labor." After a brief stint at Stanford Law School, and jobs as a waiter on the Southern Pacific Railroad and as secretary to art patron Noel Sullivan, in October, 1931 he founded and served as editor of the San Francisco Spokesman (a weekly newspaper for the Bay Area African American community), which by 1934 had been renamed The Spokesman, reflecting Pittman's broader ambitions and leftward political evolution. During that year's San Francisco general strike, he lent The Spokesman's printing presses to the fledgling Communist Party newspaper, the Western Worker, resulting in their destruction by right-wing vigilantes. Then Pittman went to work for the Western Worker, becoming by 1941 the editor of its successor, the (daily) People's World. In this capacity, he appeared regularly on radio station KSAN (San Francisco) in 1941-1942.
In 1945 he covered the founding conference of the United Nations, and in 1946 received his divorce from his first wife Merle Nance Pittman. In 1947 Pittman traveled to Europe as a correspondent for the Communist Party's newspapers Daily Worker (New York) and People's World, and for the Chicago Defender, a trip made possible by progressive notables including Lena Horne, Paul Jarrico, Albert Maltz, and Dalton Trumbo, whose financial support was coordinated by Los Angeles attorney Leo Gallagher. After his return he married fellow communist Margrit Adler, a German-Jewish antifascist refugee and German-American political activist. They remained in New York until 1955, when they moved to San Francisco with their two children, Carol and John Peter. There Pittman again worked for the People's World . From 1959-1961 the Pittmans were Moscow correspondents for the CPUSA press. In 1968 Pittman came to New York to become the founding co-editor of the Daily World (the result of the merger of the Party's West and East Coast weekly newspapers). In the late 1970s Pittman went to Prague as the Party's representative on the editorial board of the World Marxist Review, returning to New York in 1987. In addition to his newspaper writings, Pittman contributed some two dozen articles to the Party's monthly journal Political Affairs, and wrote Africa Calling, Isolate the Racists: The Liberation Struggle in Southern Africa (1973), and (with Margrit Pittman) Sense and Nonsense About Berlin (1962) and Peaceful Coexistence: Its Theory and Practice in the Soviet Union (1964).
Selected Bibliography (arranged chronologically):
Railroads and Negro Labor. Thesis (M.A. in Economics)--University of California, Berkeley, Dec 1930. 92 leaves.
"A Perspective for Forging Negro-White Unity." Communist 23 (Jan, Feb 1944): 86-91, 174-181.
"The Negro People Spark the Fight for Peace." Political Affairs 25 (Aug 1946): 724-733.
"War on Korea: Point IV in Action." Political Affairs 29 (Aug 1950): 40-50.
"Africa and the United States." Political Affairs 37(Feb 1958): 48-52.
"Books in Review: The Diplomacy of World War II." Political Affairs 37 (Apr 1958): 46-53.
"The October Revolution and National Liberation." Political Affairs 46 (Nov 1967): 27-38.
"Book Reviews: Toward Eradication of Colonialism." Political Affairs 47 (Feb 1968): 90-97.
"Laos: Testing Ground of the Nixon Doctrine." Political Affairs 49 (Oct 1970): 11-19.
"Indochina's 25 Year Struggle Against U.S. Imperialism." Political Affairs 50 (Feb 1971): 1-13.
Africa Calling, Isolate the Racists: The Liberation Struggle in Southern Africa. New York: New Outlook Publishers, 1973. 31 pp.
"Arena of Class Struggle: The United Nations, Part I." Political Affairs 52 (Mar 1973): 18-29.
"Arena of Class Struggle: The United Nations, Part II." Political Affairs 52 (Apr 1973): 31-40.
"A Guiding Ideology for Anti-Racist, Anti-Monopoly Struggle." Political Affairs 52 (Aug 1973) 18-30.
"The United Nations and the Struggle for Détente." Political Affairs 53 (Oct 1974): 44-54.
"Building the Communist Press." Political Affairs 54 (Mar 1975): 24-37.
"What's New in Soviet Agriculture." Political Affairs 54 (Jul 1975): 3-20.
"Book Reviews: A Man of Heroic Mold." Political Affairs 55 (Feb 1976): 54-64.
"The Bonn Congress of the German Communist Party." Political Affairs 55 (Jun 1976): 24-34.
"From Cradle of Bourgeois Freedom to State Monopoly Capitalism." Political Affairs 55 (Jul 1976): 7-9.
"Racism and War." Political Affairs 57 (May 1978): 22-27.
"Afro-American Struggle Today - A Framework." Political Affairs 58 (Feb 1979): 14-22.
"Bulgarian Theoretical Conference: Agreement on Basic Principles." Political Affairs 58 (Mar 1979): 2-7.
"Is Socialism Applicable to the U.S?" Political Affairs 59 (Sep 1980): 12-18.
"Détente: The Only Sane Option." Political Affairs 61 (May 1982): 2-8.
"The Class Role of Affirmative Action." Political Affairs 62 (Mar 1983): 18-24.
"The American Heritage of Karl Marx." Political Affairs 62 (Oct 1983): 15-23.
"Restructuring the World Economy." Political Affairs 64 (Nov 1985): 18-24.
Pittman, John and Margrit.
Sense and Nonsense About Berlin. New York: New Century Publishers, 1962. 60 pp.
Peaceful Coexistence: Its Theory and Practice in the Soviet Union. New York: International Publishers, 1964. 156 pp.
Pittman, Margrit
"The San Francisco Peace Referendum." Political Affairs 47 (1968): 58-63.
"25 Years of the German Democratic Republic." Political Affairs 53 (Oct 1974): 55-62.
"Democracy in Czechoslovakia." Political Affairs 56 (Mar 1977): 13-18.
"Women, Children, Marriage - the Experience of Socialism." Political Affairs 61 (Mar 1982): 10-14.
"Women's Equality in the German Democratic Republic." Political Affairs 66 (Mar 1987): 14-18.
From the guide to the John Pittman Papers, Bulk, 1926-1983, 1905-1987, (Bulk 1926-1983), (Tamiment Library / Wagner Archives)
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