Labor Defender. Nov. 1935. (Scottsboro Boys)
New York: International Labor Defense (ILD) Publisher, 1935. Wraps. Good. Item #022634
Photo illustrated wraps. 24 pp., including covers. Single issue of this magazine devoted to worker rights as well as other aspects of social justice, including civil rights. The ILD was the legal defense arm of the Communist Party from 1925 to the 1940s. It was at the forefront of the fight for civil rights and efforts to end lynching in the United States. This issue has a one page "letter" written by Angelo Herndon after his arrest in Georgia. Herndon was a Black labor activist who was arrested in Georgia for insurrection under a law passed during Reconstruction. He had helped to lead a large group of biracial protestors fighting for labor rights. This alarmed Georgia officials, who then had Herndon arrested. Initially convicted, his conviction was overturned by the Supreme Court in 1937. Also of note is one page devoted to three of the nine "Scottsboro Boys," with their mothers quoted regarding their plight. The case of the Scottsboro Boys became one of the most well known cases regarding civil rights and institutional racism. Some of the legal rulings set precedence for allowing Black people to serve on juries. The case brought to the public eye issues of racism in Alabama that led to wrongful convictions of the defendants. Also present in this issue is some discussion of the rise of Hitler and fascism, Mussolini, photos of prison conditions and mistreatment of incarcerated people in Georgia, etc. GOOD condition. General toning and minor soiling. Dark strip of offsetting along the rear hinge. Minor chipping and tearing along the extremities. Some creasing and curling along the edges.
Price: $250.00