Yoneda, Elaine Black, 1906-1988

Radical activist and labor organizer, of San Francisco, Calif.

From the description of Elaine Black Yoneda papers : photocopies, 1931-1974 (bulk 1931-1939). (California Historical Society). WorldCat record id: 122368962

Elaine Black Yoneda was a member of the Communist Party and a labor leader active in organizing and demonstrating for union, labor, and civil rights. Yoneda held various positions in left wing organizations, including the International Labor Defense, the International Longshoremen's Association, and the International Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union. She participated in various labor strikes, including the 1934 General Strike in San Francisco, California. Yoneda was also part of an interracial marriage with her husband, Japanese American Karl Hama Yoneda.

From the description of Elaine Black Yoneda oral history, 1976-1977. (California Historical Society). WorldCat record id: 726953154

Biographical Notes

Rose Elaine Buchman was born in Connecticut to Nathan Buchman and Mollie Kvetnay, who had met as child laborers in a Russian match factory. Elaine was raised in a predominantly Jewish section of Brooklyn, New York, in a strongly pro-labor (and non-religious) environment. In 1920, the family moved to the San Diego area and in 1924 to Los Angeles. A "spoiled and ornery child," Elaine did not realize till age 15 that her parents actively supported the Russian revolution and related causes --which were apparently of no interest to the teenager. She quit high school in her senior year and took her first job with an elegant residential hotel, where Elaine maintained her own sartorial elegance while the world protested the convictions of Tom Mooney, Warren Billings, J.B.McNamara, Sacco and Vanzetti.

At the urging of her parents, Elaine attended a meeting of the Young Workers League. There she met Edward Francis Russell, Jr., also the child of a labor activist. Neither young person was interested in the movement. They married in 1925. In 1927, daughter Joyce Russell was born.

Intending to go on to dinner and a show, Ed and the 23-year-old Elaine agreed to meet another couple at a demonstration of the unemployed. The demonstration was the first time Elaine saw the Los Angeles "Red Squad" in action, or that her (second) husband-to-be, Karl "Hama" Yoneda, caught sight of her. In answer to a police inquiry, Elaine quickly changed Ed's nickname, Blackie, into a surname; thus, Elaine "Black" came into being.

On March 6, 1930, she went to observe a demonstration, part of a national day of protest over unemployment. She saw police brutalize an elderly woman, learned that the International Labor Defense would defend the woman, and went to offer herself as a witness. Despite Elaine's testimony as to the woman's innocence, the garment worker was convicted. Following this experience in court, Elaine joined the International Labor Defense. In 1931, she took a job with ILD. The next day, "Karl Hama" was arrested and beaten by the police. According to Rainieri:

On the third day after the demonstration, "Red" Hynes [Squad Captain] called the ILD and said, "Come and pick up the Jap, he's dying anyway." Elaine...rushed to the jail, posted bail, and took the badly-injured Hama to a doctor. "He was a bloody mess," Elaine said...The meeting in jail marked the first time that Elaine and Karl exchanged words...He was intrigued...and wrote her a poem while in jail...

Elaine soon became ILD district secretary and, shortly thereafter, she joined the Communist Party. She proudly maintained party membership until her death in 1988, a fact of enduring interest to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. As uncertain situations arose with police, Elaine used a number of aliases, including "Betsy Ross." She was involved in ILD activity surrounding a number of agricultural strikes: cotton workers in Tulare, grape workers in Lodi, apple workers in Santa Rosa. Elaine was active in the ILD prisoner support program and made monthly visits to prisoners who included Tom Mooney, Jim McNamara, and others arrested under Criminal Syndicalism laws. See Series, " Labor Trials/Bail/Defense."

By this time, Elaine had separated from Ed Russell and was living in San Francisco with Karl. They took part in the waterfront activities of 1934. She had an appointment to meet Nick Bordoise when he and Howard Sperry were killed in a police attack on "Bloody Thursday," July 5, 1934. The General Strike followed.

In her fight against the Criminal Syndicalism legislation, Elaine was arrested at the Dolores Park rally of March 1935. She made court appearances with Leo Gallagher and George Anderson. Later that year she was involved with the Lumber and Sawmill Workers Strike in Eureka. Prior to the Dolores Park trial, Karl and Elaine took a train (separate cars, because of the Mann Act) to Washington state, where they could be legally married.

Among Elaine's activities in the late 30s were participation in the Free Tom Mooney movement, National Scottsboro Week, the Angelo Herndon appeal, the Salinas Lettuce Strike, and Spanish Civil War relief. Supported by the Communist Party, Elaine in 1939 ran with Archie Brown ("Black and Brown") for San Francisco Supervisor. Her platform called for free day nurseries, low cost housing, an anti-racism stance, protection of civil rights, and protest against the "Imperialist War" gathering in Europe. The two candidates lost.

After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, Karl and 2-year-old Tommy (named for Tom Mooney) were to be interned; Elaine was not included in the order because she was white. Her daughter Joyce, from her marriage with Ed Russell, was sent to live with Elaine's parents. Elaine insisted on remaining with Karl and baby Tom when they were shipped to Manzanar. The account of those days may be found in her testimony, and Karl's, before the Commission on Wartime Relocation. See Series, "Japanese American Wartime Relocation." After Karl was accepted in the U.S.Army, Tommy and Elaine returned to San Francisco. She and her husband began a diligent and revealing correspondence. See Series, "Correspondence," Folders labeled, "Letters to Karl, 1942-43," and "...1944-45."

After the war, the family bought a chicken ranch near Petaluma. When a Sonoma chapter of the Civil Rights Congress was formed in 1947, Elaine became chair. During the Cold War years, the Yonedas continued their usual political activities; and the FBI continued its surveillance. In 1960 the farm was sold and the Yonedas returned to San Francisco. Elaine was active with ILWU Auxiliary No. 16. She served as officer and regional and international delegate. Karl's mother lived in Hiroshima, and the couple were particularly active in the "Ban the Bomb" and other peace movements. Elaine pursued equal-pay issues, spoke at Negro History Week, celebrated People's World benefits, supported striking workers, etc. She became a member of Local 29, AFL-CIO Office and Professional Employes Union (and picketed ILWU).

The Yonedas took part in annual pilgrimages to the site of the Manzanar internment camp. With the Japanese American Citizens League and others, they successfully campaigned for the repeal of Title 2 (emergency detention) of the McCarran Internal Security Act. Rainieri writes that "Elaine's last major work before her death was participation in the campaign for Redress-Reparations for incarcerated Japanese Americans." Elaine Black Yoneda died in San Francisco in 1988. Many tributes from family, friends, and colleagues may be found in the Series "Articles, Clippings, Remembrances."

From the guide to the Elaine Black Yoneda Collection, ca. 1900-1991 (Predominantly 1930-1988), (San Francisco State University. Labor Archives & Research Center)

Biographical Information

Elaine Black Yoneda was born in Manhattan, New York, in 1906 to Russian Jewish immigrants who were members of the Communist Party. When she was a child, Yoneda's family relocated San Diego, California, where her father ran a dry goods store and Elaine attended local public schools.

Yoneda married her first husband in Los Angeles in 1925. The couple produced Yoneda’s only daughter, Joyce, in 1927. In 1931 Yoneda took a job with the International Labor Defense office as a clerical worker. She quickly became a leader within the ILD after witnessing many violations of civil rights by the Los Angeles Red Squad. With the ILD Yoneda was active in organizing meetings and demonstrations for labor and civil right causes. One of her duties was to bail out individuals who had been jailed for their participation in strikes and demonstrations. She bailed out Japanese American demonstrator Karl Hama in 1931 and by 1933 they were married. The couple relocated to San Francisco and had a son, Thomas, in 1939.

Throughout the 1930s Yoneda remained active in the civil rights, labor, and union movements. She joined the Communist Party and became active in the International Longshoremen’s Association’s Defense Committee, educating striking workers about their rights should they be arrested. Yoneda became known as the “Red Angel” for her work in defending union members and labor demonstrators in the San Francisco waterfront and general strike of 1934. She was also nicknamed “Tiger Girl” for her participation on behalf of striking agricultural workers in Salinas, California. Yoneda’s political work throughout the 1930s culminated with her running for the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1939. She was defeated.

Upon the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1942, Yoneda’s husband was sent to the internment camp in Manzanar, California. Yoneda and her son relocated to Southern California while her husband volunteered intelligence for the United States while interned.

The family eventually was reunited and returned to San Francisco, where Yoneda remained active in union, civil rights, and labor movements. She remained involved with a variety of labor organizations, including the International Longshore and Warehouse Union’s Women’s Auxiliary and the Office Workers Union, and various civil rights cases, including the Wilmington Ten. Yoneda persevered in her devotion to political activity up until her death in May 1988, attending a longshoremen’s rally the day before she died of a heart attack.

From the guide to the Elaine Black Yoneda oral history, 1976-1977, (California Historical Society)