Minutes of the National Board Meeting, International Labor Defense [with] Facts and Issues in the "Gainesville Case" [memorandum]

New York: International Labor Defense, 1944. A remarkable organizational document from the International Labor Defense from their national board meeting held on October 9, 1944 at 23 West 26th St., New York. Participants included a Mr. Larke (unidentified by us), Ida Guggenheimer, Rosa Baron, Herman Rosenfeld, Samuel A. Neuberger, J. Louis Engdahl ("Mr. Englander"), Louis Colman, Thelma Dale, Benjamin Davis, Robert Williams Dunn, and a Mr. Shapiro (possibly Harry Shapiro).

Agenda items included a summation of the Gainesville Case (aka, Florida Scottsboro Case), in which the ILD defended three black men accused of raping a white woman (all three were executed); Fisher-Loury Case (aka, Army Scottsboro Case), in which the ILD defended two black Army men, Frank Fisher, Jr. and Edward R. Loury, who received life sentences for raping a French woman; the ILD's resolution on the death of Wendell Wilkie; information on a fund and publication in honor of ILD executive secretary Anna Damon who died in 1944; the group's financial statement for July-Sept.; and a motion to postpone the ILD's 1944 national conference due to the war. These minutes are followed by a memorandum, "Facts and Issues in the "Gainesville Case."

The International Labot Defense was a radical left legal organization and Communist front group founded in 1925 to defend Communists, African Americans, and other progressive activists accused of a variety of crimes. They defended, fundraised, and published a magazine, Labor Defender, and in 1946 they merged with the National Federation for Constitutional Liberties to found the Civil Rights Congress.

Corner-stapled 11" x 8 ½” sheets, mimeographed to rectos only, 6 pp. (each document 3 pp.). Creasing and edge wear, some faint soiling to the first page. Very scarce. Item #13865

Price: $250.00