Research Catalog

Title

Frank R. Crosswaith papers, 1917-1965 (bulk 1923-1939)

Author

Crosswaith, Frank Rudolph, 1892-1965.

Supplementary Content

Finding Aid

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

2 lin. ft.

Summary

The Frank R. Crosswaith Papers document aspects of his involvement as a labor leader and socialist and consist primarily of Crosswaith's speeches; scrapbooks containing papers regarding his activities, particularly the Socialist Party and the Negro Labor Committee; and news clippings. Biographical information and papers documenting dinners held in his honor are included.

Subjects

• African American labor leaders
• African American orators
• Socialists > United States
• Negro Labor Committee
• Harlem Labor Center (New York, N.Y.)
• Crosswaith, Frank Rudolph, 1892-1965
• Harlem Labor Committee (New York, N.Y.)
• Speeches
• Socialist Party (U.S.)
• Labor unions > United States > Organizing
• African American labor union members
• African Americans > Employment

Genre/Form

Speeches

Note

• Photographs transferred to the Photographs and Prints Division.
• Additional papers pertaining to Frank Crosswaith and the Negro Labor Committee are in the Frank Crosswaith Papers.

Source (note)

• Parrish, Richard
• Parrrish, Beatrice

Biography (note)

• Frank R. Crosswaith was a lifelong socialist, a labor union organizer, editor, and socialist candidate for several New York State offices. During the 1920's and 1930's, he was one of the most effective organizers of black workers in New York City.

Processing Action (note)

• Surveyed
• Processed

Call Number

Sc MG 100

OCLC

NYPW93-A174

Author

Crosswaith, Frank Rudolph, 1892-1965.

Title

Frank R. Crosswaith papers, 1917-1965 (bulk 1923-1939)

Biography

Frank R. Crosswaith was a lifelong socialist, a labor union organizer, editor, and socialist candidate for several New York State offices. During the 1920's and 1930's, he was one of the most effective organizers of black workers in New York City.

Born in St. Croix, Crosswaith immigrated to this country at age thirteen. He attended the Rand School of Social Science, a labor and socialist school, and later became a lecturer there. In 1922 he was secretary of the People's Educational Forum in New York City where liberals of national importance addressed black audiences. He was known as the Socialist Party's foremost black orator.

In 1925 Crosswaith founded and served as executive secretary of the American Federation of Labor Trade Union Committee for Organizing Negro Workers. He worked with most of the unions that had blacks in their industries, including elevator operators, barbers, mechanics, laundry workers, and motion picture operators. This committee was succeeded in 1934 by an independent orgainization, the Harlem Labor Committee, of which he served as chairman for many years. This organization, which appealed to black and white workers, was active in seeking higher wages, better working conditions, and improved fringe benefits. Crosswaith was also chairman of the Negro Labor Committee in 1935, which sought to organize unorganized black workers and to lend its support to unions engaged in organizing and strike activities among black workers. The Committee maintained the Harlem Labor Center, established in 1935, which served as a headquarters for trade unions in Harlem.

Crosswaith was also well-known for his work as a special organizer for the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters (1925-1928). Additionally, for over thirty years, he was on the staff of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union. He was also one of the organizers of the original March on Washington Movement (1941) under A. Philip Randolph. As a socialist organizer and lecturer for the League for Industrial Democracy and later as a national organizer for the ILGWU in the 1930's, Crosswaith travelled across the United States addressing multiracial labor groups, college students, and other groups, discussing labor and socialist issues.

Finding Aids

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Research Call Number

Sc MG 100