Benjamin J. Davis papers 1949-1964

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Benjamin J. Davis papers 1949-1964

http://archives.nypl.org/scm/20651

Divided into four series, Correspondence, the Smith Act Trial, Writings and Printed matter, the Benjamin J. Davis, Jr. Papers document Davis's life and political career from 1949 to the time of his death. The Correspondence series is grouped into general correspondence and condolence letters. Correspondents include William Z. Foster, fellow Smith Act defendants Eugene Dennis and Claudia Jones, Harvard Law School Dean Erwin N. Griswold, Paul Robeson, Martin Luther King, Jr., Roy Wilkins, William Patterson, Congressman Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., author Walter Lowenfels, Herbert Aptheker, Cyril Briggs, Eslanda Robeson, Communist Party members Sid Resnick and Esther Jackson, and several supporters and friends.

Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. Rare Books, Manuscripts, and Archives Section

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SNAC Resource ID: 6316942

Related Entities

There are 21 Entities related to this resource.

United States

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Idaho became a state on July 3, 1890 with post offices being established as early as 1876. From the guide to the Franklin County, Idaho Post Office Location Records, 1876-1945, (Utah State University. Special Collections and Archives) These photographs document Region 4, started in 1910, of the US Forest Service, covering Utah, Nevada, Southern Idaho, and Western Wyoming. From the guide to the US Forest Service Photograph Collection., 19...

Communist Party of the United States of America

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The Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA), a Marxist-Leninist party aligned with the Soviet Union, was founded in 1919 in the aftermath of the Russian Revolution by the left wing members of the Socialist Party USA. These split into two groups, with each holding founding conventions in Chicago in September 1919: one which established the Communist Labor Party, and a second which established the Communist Party of America. In a 1920 Joint Unity Convention, a minority faction of t...

Robeson, Paul, 1898-1976

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Born in Princeton, New Jersey, on April 9, 1898, Paul Robeson was a multitalented man whose artistic and political career spanned over four decades, from the 1920s to the 1960s. Known worldwide during the 1930s and 1940s, he fell from prominence in the 1960s because of the political controversy that surrounded him during the McCarthy era. Robeson was a talented dramatic actor whose performance of Othello in this country in 1943-44 once held the record for the ...

Jones, Claudia, 1915-1964

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Aptheker, Herbert, 1915-2003

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American Marxist author, lecturer, and apologist. From the guide to the Herbert Aptheker letter to Mrs. Doares, 1970, (The New York Public Library. New York Public Library Archives.) Noted Marxist scholar Dr. Herbert Aptheker was born in New York City in 1915. His more than thirty published books include such titles as THE ERA OF McCARTHYISM (1957), THE WORLD OF C. WRIGHT MILLS (1960), THE URGENCY OF MARXIST-CHRISTIAN DIALOGUE (1970), but he is best known for hi...

Patterson, William L. (William Lorenzo), 1890-1980

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Noted political activist, lawyer, orator, organizer, writer, and Communist from San Franicsco, Calif.; also known as "Mr. Civil Rights." He also lived in New York from the mid-1950s to 1979. From the description of William Lorenzo Patterson papers, 1919-1979 (bulk, mid-1950s-1979). (Moorland-Spingarn Resource Center). WorldCat record id: 729372659 ...

Benjamin Davis Defense Committee.

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Briggs, Cyril V. (Cyril Valentine), 1888-1966

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Lowenfels, Walter, 1897-1976

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Walter Lowenfels began working on New jazz poets in 1962 to collect a group of poems written in a "modern rhythm influenced by street sounds and other non-literary sounds of the 1960s" that would be anthologized and a select few recorded for an album. Released in 1967, the album contained readings by twenty-one poets. The anthology containing the works of over seventy poets was published in 1970 as In a time of revolution, poems from our third world. From the description of New jazz ...

King, Martin Luther, Jr., 1929-1968

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Martin Luther King, Jr. (b. January 15, 1929, Atlanta, Georgia –d. April 4, 1968, Memphis, Tennessee) was an American Baptist minister and activist who was a leader in the Civil Rights Movement. He is best known for his role in the advancement of civil rights using nonviolent civil disobedience. King helped to organize the 1963 March on Washington, where he delivered his famous "I Have a Dream" speech. In 1964, King received the Nobel Peace Prize and in 1965, he helped to organize the Selma to M...

Jackson, Esther

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Davis, Benjamin J. (Benjamin Jefferson), 1903-1964

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A prominent black attorney, Davis graduated from Amherst College in 1925, graduated from Harvard Law School in 1929, and returned to Georgia to practice law. He gained notoriety for his defense of Angelo Herndon in 1933 who had been accused of insurrection. Davis became actively involved with the Communist Party and moved to New York City in 1935 to edit the Daily Worker. In 1948, he was arrested under the Smith Act and received a five-year sentence. He was arrested again in 1962 for his partici...

Robeson, Eslanda Goode, 1896-1965

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1896 Dec.15 Born to John Goode and Eslanda Cardozo Goode in Washington, D.C., the third of three children; brothers John and Frank. Maternal grandfather was Francis Lewis Cardozo, who served as South Carolina's Secretary of State and Secretary of the Treasury during Reconstruction Days. 1912 Graduated from Urbana High School, Urbana, Illinois. ...

Foster, William Z., 1881-1961

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Chairman, United States Communist Party. From the description of Papers, 1922-1961. (Washington State University). WorldCat record id: 29853708 ...

Communist Party of the United States of America. Harlem Section

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Griswold, Erwin N. (Erwin Nathaniel), 1904-1994

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Erwin N. Griswold was born in Cleveland in 1904. He graduated in 1925 from Oberlin College with the A.B. in mathematics and the A.M. in political science. He received the LL. B. degree from Harvard University Law School in 1928 and the S.J.D. degree in 1929. From 1929 to 1934, he served in the Office of Solicitor General, returning to Cambridge in 1934. He taught on the Law Faculty of Harvard Law School from 1934 to 1967 and was Dean from 1946 to 1967. From 1967 to 1973, he was U.S. Solicitor Ge...

Wilkins,Roy, 1901-

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Communist Party of the United States of America. National Committee

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Resnick, Sidney I.

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Dennis, Eugene, 1905-1961

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New York (N.Y.). City Council

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Stanley M. Isaacs served as a Council member for Manhattan from around 1954 to 1958. From the description of Records pertaining to automobile accident compensation plans, 1957-1959. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 122484686 The New York City Council has the power to adopt local laws and reviews the service goals, performance and management of City agencies. In addition to its legislative role and oversight powers over City agencies, the Council approves the City'...