Guide to the Simon W. and Sophie Gerson Papers

  1. Resources
  2. View Resource

ArchivalResource

Guide to the Simon W. and Sophie Gerson Papers

1925-2001

http://dlib.nyu.edu/findingaids/html/tamwag/tam_330/tam_330.html

Simon W. (Si) Gerson, 1909-2004, was the longtime New York State, and later national legislative/political action director for the Communist Party, and was an advocate of proportional representation and ballot access for minor political parties, including in the 1980s-90s as a leader of the Coalition for Free and Open Elections (COFOE). He served as Confidential Examiner to Manhattan Borough President Stanley M. Isaacs, 1938-40, managed Communist election campaigns (later writing a biography Pete: The Story of Peter V. Cacchione, New York's First Communist Councilman), and organized activities in support of the Communist Party leaders indicted under the Smith Act, as was Gerson. In the 1950s he was executive editor of the Party's newspaper, the Daily Worker, and of its later successor, the Daily World. Along with his wife, Sophie Melvin Gerson, an organizer of the Gastonia Textile Strike of 1929, he was a longtime resident of and community activist in the Bensonhurst neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York. The papers contain clippings, correspondence with leading communists and political figures, published and unpublished writings including manuscripts, memorandums, newspaper columns, reviews and reports, a scrapbook and speeches, including materials relating to Cacchione's career and death, and to Gerson's several campaigns for public office, research notes and typescript drafts for several chapters of a never-completed book, "Do We Really Have Free Elections (ca. 1990)," a related manuscript by Adam Lapin, "Tweedledum and Tweedledee: The American Two Party System," Communist Party internal documents, including reports by leading figures, many relating to the communist political crises of 1956-58 and 1989-91, and minutes of and correspondence relating to COFOE and the publication Ballot Access News.

15 Linear Feet in 30 manuscript boxes, 1 record carton, 1 flat box and 1 oversize folder in a shared flat box.

eng, Latn

Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives

Information

SNAC Resource ID: 6331553

Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives

Related Entities

There are 62 Entities related to this resource.

Winter, Carl, 1906-1966

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w67h4vp0 (person)

Davidow, Mike

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6pz5h17 (person)

Thompson, Robert, 1915-

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w67m2c2d (person)

North, Joseph

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6hx1x5k (person)

North was the author of No Men Are Strangers, which Brooks had praised. From the description of Correspondence to Van Wyck Brooks, 1958. (University of Pennsylvania Library). WorldCat record id: 182786666 ...

Fine, Fred.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6s77knk (person)

Winger, Richard.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w67f0d64 (person)

This typescript, approximately 250 leaves, was compiled in 1988 by Richard Winger of San Francisco, Calif., from official election returns and the Communist Party press. From the description of Communist Party candidates for public office typescript, 1921-1986. (New York University). WorldCat record id: 479161860 Richard Winger was a prominent citizen of Jackson, Wyoming during the twentieth century and played an active role in the establishment of Jackson Hole National Monu...

Rosenhaft, Ann.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6zp7jmr (person)

Aĭzman, Garri.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6z32jpw (person)

Gerson, Sophie.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w66133bw (person)

Lapin, Adam

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6sn2bxh (person)

Alfred, Helen L.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6807mxh (person)

Communist Party of the United States of America

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6r31rnp (corporateBody)

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...

Chafee, Zechariah, 1885-1957

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6hn5zn1 (person)

Chafee was born in Providence, Rhode Island, and graduated from Brown University, where he was a member of Alpha Delta Phi, in 1907. Later, he received a law degree from Harvard University, completing his LL.B. in 1913. He was influenced by the theories of sociological Jurisprudence presented by Roscoe Pound and others at Harvard. He met Harold J. Laski, a political scientist and later a leader of the United Kingdom's Labour Party, who became a lifelong friend, there. He practiced at the law fir...

Thompson, Robert George, 1915-1966

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6b43s6n (person)

Robert George Thompson (1915-1966) fought in WWII and won the Distinguished Service Cross - the nation's second highest military award - for "extraordinary heroism." He was also a veteran of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade. Thompson was a leading spokesman for the New York State Communist Party and was convicted in 1949 of conspiring to teach or advocate the overthrow of the Government by force. After his death in 1966, his widow, Sylvia Hall Thompson, asked that he be buried in Arlington National C...

Civil Rights Congress (U.S.)

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6tb5h2q (corporateBody)

National organization established in 1946 to, among other things, "combat all forms of discrimination against ... labor, the Negro people and the Jewish people, and racial, political, religious, and national minorities." The organization folded in 1955 under pressure from the United States Attorney-General and the House Un-American Activities Committee, which accused the organization of being subversive. From the description of Civil Rights Congress records, 1946-1955. (Unknown). Wor...

Center for Voting and Democracy

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6zm3msm (corporateBody)

Nathan, Otto, 1893-1987

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6zk5wx4 (person)

Whitman, Alden

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w69c7jmr (person)

Alden Whitman (1913-1990), an American journalist and author, was best known for his work as chief obituary writer for The New York Times. From the description of Alden Whitman papers, 1935-1986. (New York Public Library). WorldCat record id: 122517621 From the guide to the Alden Whitman papers, 1935-1986, (The New York Public Library. Manuscripts and Archives Division.) ...

Minor, Robert, 1884-1952

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6gt6121 (person)

American writer, editor, artist, and illustrator; artist for The masses. Active in the Communist Party from 1919. From the description of Letter, 1923 Nov. 30, Chicago, to Art Young, New York. (University of Michigan). WorldCat record id: 34364246 Journalist, cartoonist. Minor was one of the founders of the Communist movement in the United States. From the description of Rober Minor papers, 1907-1952. (Columbia University In the City of N...

Healey, Dorothy, 1914-2006

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6x93cv6 (person)

Healey was born Dorothy Rosenblum in 1914 in Denver, CO; her mother was a founding member of the Communist Party of the United States; her parents moved to CA in 1921, and Dorothy grew up in Oakland; joined Young Communist League in 1928, and was arrested during the May Day unemployment demonstrations there in 1930; left high school in 1931 to work in a cannery in San Jose; joined the Communist Party when she turned 18; became organizer of migrant farm workers, and in 1940 was appointed a deputy...

Flynn, Elizabeth Gurley, 1890-1964

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6wn23gq (person)

Elizabeth Gurley Flynn was an agitator and organizer for the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) and a Communist Party (CP) official. Flynn was an organizer in major strikes in Lawrence, Massachusetts and Paterson and Passaic, New Jersey. She saw labor court trials as important extensions of organizing, and participated in trials in Missoula, Montana (1908), and Spokane, Washington (1909-1910). As part of her defense work she created the Workers’ Defense League, an organization to fight for th...

Manhattan (New York, N.Y.). Office of the President

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w68d3jqm (corporateBody)

Coalition for Free and Open Elections (U.S.)

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6b93d1k (corporateBody)

Daily World (New York, N.Y.).

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6432fm9 (corporateBody)

Kempton, Murray, 1917-1997

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6pr89xg (person)

BIOGHIST REQUIRED James Murray Kempton was born in Baltimore, Maryland in 1917. He became an influential American journalist, working for over 45 years in the field. Kempton wrote for the New York Post, the New York Review of Books, the World Telegram and World Sun, and finally with Newsday . He was a radio commentator for CBS as well. Kempton was a prolific writer, producing often times four columns a week, totaling more than 10,000 over the course of his career. Additionally, he was the author...

Thomas Norman Mattoon, 1884-1968

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6d50kt2 (person)

Norman Mattoon Thomas (1884-1968), was a leading American socialist, pacifist, author, and six-time presidential candidate on the Socialist Party of America ticket, between 1928 and 1948. Born in Marion, Ohio, he was a graduate of Princeton University, attended Union Theological Seminary, where he became a socialist, and was ordained as a Presbyterian minister in 1911. Thomas opposed the United States' entry into the First World War, a position that earned him the disapproval of many in his soci...

Fine, Fred.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6j83fkp (person)

Peace Publications Committee.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6r86kg0 (corporateBody)

Rodney, Lester, 1911-2009

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6qr639g (person)

Green, Gil, 1906-1997

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6gj0hfq (person)

Gil Green (1906-1997), born Gilbert Greenberg in Chicago, the son of Russian-Jewish immigrants, was a Communist youth leader in the 1930s, a member of the Communist Party's Politburo, a Smith Act defendant, and the chief (albeit unofficial) figure of a reformist current in the CPUSA through 1991. He joined the Young Workers League (later the Young Communist League) in 1924, and shortly thereafter, the CPUSA, and in 1932 became national secretary of the YCL, a position he held throughout the deca...

Winter, Carl.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6dk5rzz (person)

Epithet: Director of the Fitzwilliam Museum British Library Archives and Manuscripts Catalogue : Person : Description : ark:/81055/vdc_100000000496.0x000226 ...

Richmond, Al, 1913-1987

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6cz5xpx (person)

Al Richmond is currently the historian/museum curator for the Grand Canyon Railway museum. He has a Master of Science Degree in Natural Resources Interpretation and Quaternary Studies from Northern Arizona University. From the guide to the Al Richmond Collection, 1975-1985., (Cline Library. Special Collections and Archives Department.) ...

Alfred, Helen L.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w67z209f (person)

North, Joseph.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6pd5nqb (person)

Gerson, Sophie.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6tw0p7n (person)

Bransten, Richard, 1906-1955

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6p84ffh (person)

Douglas, William O. (William Orville), 1898-1980

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6ms3v7z (person)

Associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, and professor of law. From the description of William O. Douglas papers, 1801-1980 (bulk 1923-1975). (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 71068743 William O. Douglas was nominated to the Supreme Court by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1939. His nearly thirty-seven year tenure as a Supreme Court justice was the longest in the history of the court. From the guide to ...

Ballot Access News.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w63w51qf (corporateBody)

Cacchione, Peter V., 1897-1947

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w64f1vxc (person)

Peter V. Cacchione was (d.1947) was a New York City councilman for the Borough of Brooklyn from 1942-1947. He introduced or supported legislation supporting price ceilings on rent, food, transportation and utilities. Cacchione was a supporter of city employee wage increases and the increase of state aid for New York City, and was opposed to segregation in housing, discrimination in employment, and sales taxes. From the description of Papers, 1944-1947. (University of Minnesota, Minne...

Winger, Richard

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6bx3dxf (person)

People's weekly world (New York, N.Y.).

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w65k30qs (corporateBody)

Isaacs, Stanley M. (Stanley Myer), 1882-1962

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6qc0rhz (person)

Lawyer, politician. From the description of Reminiscences of Stanley M. Isaacs : oral history, 1950. (Columbia University In the City of New York). WorldCat record id: 309739933 From the description of Reminiscences of Stanley M. Isaacs : oral history, 1955. (Columbia University In the City of New York). WorldCat record id: 122481324 BIOGHIST REQUIRED Columbia A.B. 1903, A.M. 1904. Lawyer and municipal official. President Borough of Manhattan January 1938 - December...

Mckenney, Ruth, 1911-1972

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6028pq7 (person)

Pittman, John, 1906-1993

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6xq9hc0 (person)

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 newsp...

Gerson, Simon W.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6x6610z (person)

Simon W. (Si) Gerson, 1909-2004, was the longtime New York State, and later national legislative/political action director for the Communist Party, and was an advocate of proportional representation and ballot access for minor political parties, including in the 1980s-90s as a leader of the Coalition for Free and Open Elections (COFOE). He served as Confidential Examiner to Manhattan Borough President Stanley M. Isaacs, 1938-40, until controversy over his Party membership caused him to resign th...

American Labor Party of the State of New York

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6k69c3g (corporateBody)

Communist Party of the United States of America (New York)

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6t49nbd (corporateBody)

Adler, Irving

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6g164sr (person)

Irving Adler (1913- ), an educator, mathematician, science writer and progressive activist, was born in New York City, attended City College (B.S., 1931) and received graduate degrees in mathematics from Columbia University (M.A., 1938; Ph.D., 1961). From 1932-1952 he taught mathematics in the New York City secondary schools and was an activist in the progressive Teachers' Union, and in 1953 was the National Director of the National Council of the Arts, Sciences and Professions. In 1954 he was s...

New York (N.Y.). City Council

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6f52gbm (corporateBody)

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'...

Aizman, Garri.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6mx8fm6 (person)

Lannon, Al, 1907-1969

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6j69kdp (person)

Rosenhaft, Ann.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6nf1zbn (person)

Daily Worker (New York)

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6sp5td2 (corporateBody)

Davidow, Mike

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6rh1rwz (person)

Foster, William Z., 1881-1961

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w61r78q3 (person)

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

Sobell, Morton, 1917-2018

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w67h29k8 (person)

Morton Sobell (April 11, 1917 – December 26, 2018) was an American engineer who is known for having been convicted of spying for the Soviet Union when it was an ally of the United States during late World War II; he was charged as part of a conspiracy said to include Julius Rosenberg and his wife, and others. Sobell worked on military and government contracts with General Electric and Reeves Electronics in the 1940s, including during World War II. Sobell was tried and convicted of espionage in 1...

Jackson, James E., 1914-2007

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6r21phq (person)

A former editor of the Daily Worker and member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party, U.S.A., James E. Jackson was educated at Howard University, Goddard College and Moscow University. He contributed many theoretical articles to the literature of the communist world, especially on issues of labor, the civil rights movement and the national question as it relates to Blacks in the United States. From the description of James E. Jackson writings, 1935-1985. (New York Public Lib...