Guide to the B. D. Amis Papers, 1930-2004

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Guide to the B. D. Amis Papers, 1930-2004

1930-2004

http://dlib.nyu.edu/findingaids/html/tamwag/tam_355/tam_355.html

B. D. Amis (1896-1993), was an African-American Communist and labor union organizer. He was a leader of the American Negro Labor Congress, the League of Struggle for Negro Rights, and the National Negro Congress, three Communist Party-inspired popular front organizations. He was a Party organizer for District Six, headquartered in Cleveland. He then moved to Philadelphia, where he was an organizer for the Steel Workers Organizing Committee and chairman of the Philadelphia Committee for the Defense of Ethiopia, and went on to organize Catering Industry Employees Union, Local 758, an African-American local within the Hotel and Restaurant Employees and Bartenders International Union (AFL), serving as Secretary-Treasurer of both organizations, ca. 1939-1942. The collection consists mostly of published and unpublished writings, many of them written for the <i>Daily Worker</i>, for the monthly journal, <i>Communist</i>, or for the international Communist movement weekly, <i>International Press Correspondence</i> (aka <i>Inprecorr</i>). Also included are reports to various Communist Party national and local bodies, most of which are concerned with the struggle for African-American civil rights and the Communist Party's positions on civil rights issues. There are also clippings by and about Amis, correspondence, including a letter from African-American Communist leader Benjamin J. Davis, radio speeches, copies of photographs of Amis and of political meetings, and collective bargaining agreements signed by Amis.

2 Linear Feet (2 boxes)

eng, Latn

Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives

Information

SNAC Resource ID: 6331573

Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives

Related Entities

There are 11 Entities related to this resource.

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...

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

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w69z9r6g (person)

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...

Hotel Employees & Restaurant Employees International Union. Local 20

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w60k6pww (corporateBody)

League of Struggle for Negro Rights (U.S.)

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6qv8kx4 (corporateBody)

Communist Party of the United States of America (Penn.).

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6jv57wv (corporateBody)

Catering Industry Employees Union. Local 758.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6b14pdf (corporateBody)

Philadelphia Committee for the Defense of Ethiopia.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6vn9wwz (corporateBody)

American Negro Labor Congress

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6n33t8d (corporateBody)

Hotel and Restaurant Employees' International Alliance

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6hj3g8h (corporateBody)

National Negro Congress (U.S.)

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w61w00bk (corporateBody)

The National Negro Congress was established in 1936 to "secure the right of the Negro people to be free from Jim Crowism, segregation, discrimination, lynching, and mob violence" and "to promote the spirit of unity and cooperation between Negro and white people." It was conceived as a national coalition of church, labor, and civil rights organizations that would coordinate protest action in the face of deteriorating economic conditions for blacks. Executive secretaries were John P. ...

Amis, B. D. (Benjamin DeWayne), 1896-1993

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w63s6qw9 (person)

B. D. (B. DeWayne) Amis, 1896-1993, was an African-American Communist Party USA and labor union organizer. Amis was born in Chicago and by 1928 was president of the NAACP branch in Peoria, IL, when the Communist Party invited him to come to New York. Amis became a member of the National Committee of the Communist-inspired American Negro Labor Congress, and also wrote articles for the Daily Worker, the party newspaper. In 1930, Amis became general secretary of the Communist-inspired ...