Frank Rudolph Crosswaith (1892–1965) was a longtime
socialist
Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the e ...
politician and activist and
trade union
A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits ( ...
organizer in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
who founded and chaired the
Negro Labor Committee, established on July 20, 1935 by the Negro Labor Conference.
[
]
Background
Frank R. Crosswaith was born on July 16, 1892 in
Frederiksted
Frederiksted is both the town and one of the two administrative districts of St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands. It is a grid-planned city, designed by surveyor Jens Beckfor, originally to 14x14 blocks but built 7x7 to enhance the island commerce in ...
,
St. Croix
Saint Croix; nl, Sint-Kruis; french: link=no, Sainte-Croix; Danish and no, Sankt Croix, Taino: ''Ay Ay'' ( ) is an island in the Caribbean Sea, and a county and constituent district of the United States Virgin Islands (USVI), an unincor ...
,
Danish West Indies
The Danish West Indies ( da, Dansk Vestindien) or Danish Antilles or Danish Virgin Islands were a Danish colonization of the Americas, Danish colony in the Caribbean, consisting of the islands of Saint Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, Saint Thomas ...
(the island was sold to the United States in 1917 and became part of the
U.S. Virgin Islands). His parents were William I. Crosswaith and Anne Eliza Crosswaith. He emigrated to the United States in his teens. While finishing high school, he worked as an elevator operator, porter and garment worker. He joined the elevator operators' union and when he finished high school, he won a scholarship from the socialist ''
The Jewish Daily Forward
''The Forward'' ( yi, פֿאָרווערטס, Forverts), formerly known as ''The Jewish Daily Forward'', is an American news media organization for a Jewish American audience. Founded in 1897 as a Yiddish-language daily socialist newspaper, '' ...
'' to attend the
Rand School of Social Science
The Rand School of Social Science was formed in 1906 in New York City by adherents of the Socialist Party of America. The school aimed to provide a broad education to workers, imparting a politicizing class-consciousness, and additionally served a ...
, an educational institute in New York City associated with the
Socialist Party of America
The Socialist Party of America (SPA) was a socialist political party in the United States formed in 1901 by a merger between the three-year-old Social Democratic Party of America and disaffected elements of the Socialist Labor Party of Ameri ...
.
[
]
Career
Crosswaith founded an organization called the Trade Union Committee for Organizing Negro Workers in 1925, but this work went by the wayside when Crosswaith accepted a position as an organizer for the fledgling Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters
Founded in 1925, The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters (BSCP) was the first labor organization led by African Americans to receive a charter in the American Federation of Labor (AFL). The BSCP gathered a membership of 18,000 passenger railwa ...
. Crosswaith maintained a long association with union head A. Philip Randolph, serving with him as officers of the Negro Labor Committee in the 1930s and 1940s.
In the early 1930s Crosswaith worked as an organizer for the International Ladies Garment Workers Union
The International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union (ILGWU), whose members were employed in the Clothing#Gender differentiation, women's clothing industry, was once one of the largest trade union, labor unions in the United States, one of the firs ...
, which became one of the major supporters of the Negro Labor Committee.
Political career
In 1924, he ran on the Socialist
Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the e ...
ticket for Secretary of State of New York
The secretary of state of New York is a cabinet officer in the government of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York who leads the New York State Department of State, Department of State (NYSDOS).
The current secretary of state of New York ...
, and in 1936
Events
January–February
* January 20 – George V of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Emperor of India, dies at his Sandringham Estate. The Prince of Wales succeeds to the throne of the United Kingdom as King E ...
for Congressman-at-large. He ran also for the New York City Council
The New York City Council is the lawmaking body of New York City. It has 51 members from 51 council districts throughout the five Borough (New York City), boroughs.
The council serves as a check against the Mayor of New York City, mayor in a may ...
in 1939 on the American Labor ticket.
Crosswaith was elected to the governing executive committee of the American Labor Party
The American Labor Party (ALP) was a political party in the United States established in 1936 that was active almost exclusively in the state of New York. The organization was founded by labor leaders and former members of the Socialist Party of ...
in New York in 1924.
In 1934, Crosswaith co-founded and chaired the Harlem Labor Committee (HLC), which he tried to align with the American Federation of Labor
The American Federation of Labor (A.F. of L.) was a national federation of labor unions in the United States that continues today as the AFL-CIO. It was founded in Columbus, Ohio, in 1886 by an alliance of craft unions eager to provide mutu ...
(AFL), then seeking African American members.[
]
Labor career
Crosswaith was an anti-communist and believed that the best hope for black workers in the United States was to join bona fide labor unions just as the best hope for the American labor movement was to welcome black workers into unions in order to promote solidarity and eliminate the use of black workers as strike breakers. He believed strongly that "separation of workers by race would only work to undermine the strength of the entire labor movement." Crosswaith spent much of his energy in the late 1930s and early 1940s battling a rival labor organization called the Harlem Labor Union, Inc., which was run by Ira Kemp and had a black nationalist philosophy. He accused Kemp of undermining the interests of black workers by signing agreements with employers that offered them labor at wages below union rates.
Crosswaith also worked with A. Philip Randolph during World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
in organizing the March on Washington Movement
The March on Washington Movement (MOWM), 1941–1946, organized by activists A. Philip Randolph and Bayard Rustin was a tool designed to pressure the U.S. government into providing fair working opportunities for African Americans and desegregating ...
, which was called off when President Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the ...
agreed to sign Executive Order 8802
Executive Order 8802 was signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on June 25, 1941, to prohibit ethnic or racial discrimination in the nation's defense industry. It also set up the Fair Employment Practice Committee. It was the first federal ac ...
, which prohibited racial discrimination in defense industries.
Death
Frank R. Crosswaith died in 1965.[
]
Legacy
Crosswaith was known as the "Negro Debs" (after Eugene V. Debs
Eugene Victor "Gene" Debs (November 5, 1855 – October 20, 1926) was an American socialist, political activist, trade unionist, one of the founding members of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), and five times the candidate of the Soc ...
).[
"Crosswaith, a Socialist, sought to ally African American workers with white workers under the banner of class. Thus, he opposed African American leaders who believed in racial alliance alone."][
Additional information on Crosswaith may be found in the Negro Labor Committee Records held by the ]Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture
The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture is a research library of the New York Public Library (NYPL) and an archive repository for information on people of African descent worldwide. Located at 515 Malcolm X Boulevard (Lenox Avenue) b ...
in New York City.
Works
* ''True Freedom for Negro and White Labor'' with Alfred Baker Lewis and Norman Thomas
Norman Mattoon Thomas (November 20, 1884 – December 19, 1968) was an American Presbyterian minister who achieved fame as a socialist, pacifist, and six-time presidential candidate for the Socialist Party of America.
Early years
Thomas was the ...
(1936)
* ''Negro and White Labor Unite for True Freedom'' with Alfred Baker Lewis (1942)[
]
References
External links
* Cornelius L. Bynum, "The New Negro and Social Democracy during the Harlem Renaissance, 1917-37," ''Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era,'' vol. 10, no. 1 (Jan. 2011), pp. 89–112
In JSTOR
* Irwin M. Marcus, "Frank Crosswaith: Black Socialist, Labor Leader, and Reformer," ''Negro History Bulletin,'' vol. 37 (1974), pp. 287–288.
* John Howard Seabrook, ''Black and White Unite: The Career of Frank R. Crosswaith.'' PhD dissertation. Rutgers University, 1980.
* John C. Walter, "Frank R. Crosswaith and the Negro Labor Committee in Harlem, 1925-1939," ''Afro-Americans in New York Life and History,'' Vol. 3, No. 2 (July, 1979), pp. 35–49.
A Soldier of Black Labor - Frank Crosswaith
{{DEFAULTSORT:Crosswaith, Frank Rudolph
1892 births
1965 deaths
Socialist Party of America politicians from New York (state)
People from Saint Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands
American people of United States Virgin Islands descent
International Ladies Garment Workers Union leaders
American Labor Party politicians
African-American trade unionists
20th-century African-American people