Clarina Michelson (b. April 22,1892) came from an affluent, conservative Boston family, and attended Radcliffe College. She moved to New York City, where she attended the Socialist Party's Rand School, then later joined the Communist Party, becoming a long-time activist and sometime cadre. Michelson served (1927-1933) on the board of the American Fund for Public Service, a foundation that supported labor and radical causes. In 1932 she was an Atlanta, Georgia-based Party organizer, working on the 1932 electoral campaign, and on labor and civil rights issues, including the Scottsboro case. Returning to New York, she played an important role in the Harlem section of the Communist Party, and in the League of Struggle for Negro Rights (1932-1934). In 1935 Michelson organized workers for the Department Store Section of the Office Workers Union (affiliated with the Trade Union Unity League), and for the remainder of the decade continued to work in this area after the dissolution of the TUUL. Michelson may have been a Communist Party section organizer in the 1930s and 1940s. In 1979, she was interviewed for the Tamiment Library's Oral History of the American Left Project.
From the description of Papers, 1926-1979. (New York University). WorldCat record id: 476309175
From the guide to the Clarina Michelson Papers, Bulk, 1932-1935, 1926-1979, (Bulk 1932-1935), (Tamiment Library / Wagner Archives)
