Courtesy Special Collections library, University of Washington. WPU members present initiative 172 petition and 145,841 signatures in 1948. A chief target of the red hunters, he was indicted in 1952 under the Smith Act but took his own life before the trial concluded. One of a number of secret Communists to gain prominence in Washington state, he also served in the state legislature.

William Pennock became President of the Washington Pension Union and presided over it during its years of greatest influence. Within a few years the WPU will claim to have 30,000 members (Sunday News, November 13, 1937). As reported above, more than 1,100 delegates attended 1940 convention of the WCF(February 8, 1940).Ħ80 delegates attend the first convention of what will become the Washington Pension Union (WPU) in 1937. The WCF nominated candidates for state and local offices, functioning as a leftwing caucus within the Democratic Party.

The Civil Rights Congress gained its membership and influence as a result of its connection to the Washington Commonwealth Federation and the Washington Pension Union. See 'Revels Cayton: African American Communist and Labor Activist' by Sarah Falconer. This city council demonstration attracted considerable attention. Revels Cayton, grandson of Mississippi reconstruction Senator Hiram Revels and son of Horace and Suzie Revels Cayton, joined the CP in the early 1930s and led its organizing efforts in Seattle's African-American community. For more on Washington CP and 1930s civil rights politics see Race and Civil Rights: The '30s & '40s by Shelley Pinckney Voice of Action, a Seattle weekly published by the Party ran this woodcut by artist Richard Correll in its Februissue.

The CP had been an active champion of civil rights since the early 1930s. Washington's Cold War red scare began late in 1947 when the Republican controlled legislature authorized Albert Canwell to investigate the activities of Communists (January 22, 1948). Courtesy Museum of History and Industry.Īs the Red Scare got underway, the New World, a Seattle weekly published by the Communist Party, joined the Civil Rights Congress in denouncing the House UnAmerican Activites Committee (February 5, 1948). Picketers denounce discriminatory hiring and service policies at Atlas Grocery Store (Yesler at 14th) in 1947 demonstration organized by the Ship Scalers Union and Communist Party.

Court of fives book