William L. Patterson
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William Lorenzo Patterson (August 27, 1891 – March 5, 1980) was an African-American leader in the Communist Party USA and head of the
International Labor Defense The International Labor Defense (ILD) (1925–1947) was a legal advocacy organization established in 1925 in the United States as the American section of the Comintern's International Red Aid network. The ILD defended Sacco and Vanzetti, was activ ...
, a group that offered legal representation to communists, trade unionists, and African Americans in cases involving issues of political or racial persecution.


Early life

William Lorenzo Patterson was born August 27, 1891 in
San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...
,
California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...
.Staff, "Biography,
Finding Aid to the William Patterson Papers
Manuscript Division, Howard University, 2015; pg. 2.
His father, James Edward Patterson, originally hailed from the island of St. Vincent, in the
British West Indies The British West Indies (BWI) were colonized British territories in the West Indies: Anguilla, the Cayman Islands, Turks and Caicos Islands, Montserrat, the British Virgin Islands, Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados, Dominica, Grena ...
. His mother, Mary Galt Patterson, had been born a slave in the state of
Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...
and was the daughter of the organizer of a volunteer regiment of black soldiers who fought with the Union Army during the
American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states ...
. Patterson's father was a
Seventh-day Adventist The Seventh-day Adventist Church is an Adventist Protestant Christian denomination which is distinguished by its observance of Saturday, the seventh day of the week in the Christian (Gregorian) and the Hebrew calendar, as the Sabbath, and ...
missionary to
Tahiti Tahiti (; Tahitian ; ; previously also known as Otaheite) is the largest island of the Windward group of the Society Islands in French Polynesia. It is located in the central part of the Pacific Ocean and the nearest major landmass is Austra ...
and he spent extensive time there, with the rest of the family moving between the California cities of Oakland and
Mill Valley Mill Valley is a city in Marin County, California, Marin County, California, United States, located about north of San Francisco via the Golden Gate Bridge and from Napa Valley. The population was 14,231 at the 2020 United States Census, 2020 ...
, where William attended public schools. In 1911, Patterson was the first African-American graduate of
Tamalpais High School Tamalpais High School (often abbreviated as Tam) is a public secondary school located in Mill Valley, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area. It is named after nearby Mount Tamalpais, which rises almost above Mill Valley. Tamalpais High Scho ...
, in Mill Valley, California. In his yearbook, he stated an ambition "to be a second Booker T. Washington." After his graduation, Patterson supported himself working as a laborer in railroad dining cars and on boats that worked the Pacific coast. He saved up enough money to enter the
University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...
but was expelled during the years of
World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
for his refusal to participate in compulsory military training. Deciding to set his sights on becoming a lawyer, Patterson entered the
Hastings College of Law The University of California, Hastings College of the Law (UC Hastings) is a public law school in San Francisco, California. Founded in 1878 by Serranus Clinton Hastings, UC Hastings was the first law school of the University of California ...
from which he graduated in 1919."Biography," Finding Aid to the William Patterson Papers, pg. 3. He failed the California State Bar Examination, however, and decided to pursue emigration to Liberia and took a job as a cook on a mail ship to England as a means to that end. Patterson found his inquiries about Liberian emigration put off in England because of his lack of construction or practical craft skills. Determined to return to the United States, he landed in New York and gained employment as a
longshoreman A stevedore (), also called a longshoreman, a docker or a dockworker, is a waterfront manual laborer who is involved in loading and unloading ships, trucks, trains or airplanes. After the shipping container revolution of the 1960s, the number o ...
. Patterson was able to put his college degree to use by finding employment as a clerk in a law office, helping to write briefs, and studying to take the New York State Bar Examination, which he passed in 1924. Meanwhile, he married his first wife, the former Minnie Summer, and made numerous personal acquaintances associated with the booming Harlem Renaissance.


Political activism

Among Patterson's New York friends was the radical political activist Richard B. Moore, who persuaded Patterson to put his legal skills to work in the effort to prevent the execution of the Italian immigrant anarchists
Sacco and Vanzetti Nicola Sacco (; April 22, 1891 – August 23, 1927) and Bartolomeo Vanzetti (; June 11, 1888 – August 23, 1927) were Italian immigrant anarchists who were controversially accused of murdering Alessandro Berardelli and Frederick Parmenter, a ...
, who were convicted of murder in a controversial and highly-politicized
Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut Massachusett_writing_systems.html" ;"title="nowiki/> məhswatʃəwiːsət.html" ;"title="Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət">Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət'' En ...
trial. Patterson joined the Workers (Communist) Party and became head of the
International Labor Defense The International Labor Defense (ILD) (1925–1947) was a legal advocacy organization established in 1925 in the United States as the American section of the Comintern's International Red Aid network. The ILD defended Sacco and Vanzetti, was activ ...
, a communist legal advocacy organization. On August 22, 1927, he was among the 156 persons arrested for protesting the execution of immigrants
Nicola Sacco Nicola Sacco (; April 22, 1891 – August 23, 1927) and Bartolomeo Vanzetti (; June 11, 1888 – August 23, 1927) were Italian immigrant anarchists who were controversially accused of murdering Alessandro Berardelli and Frederick Parmenter, a ...
and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, both of whom were anarchists. Patterson was active in the
Civil Rights Congress The Civil Rights Congress (CRC) was a United States civil rights organization, formed in 1946 at a national conference for radicals and disbanded in 1956. It succeeded the International Labor Defense, the National Federation for Constitutional Li ...
, which succeeded the ILD. In 1951 he presented the document ''
We Charge Genocide ''We Charge Genocide'' is a paper accusing the United States government of genocide based on the UN Genocide Convention. This paper was written by the Civil Rights Congress (CRC) and presented to the United Nations at meetings in Paris in Decem ...
'' to the
United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoniz ...
that charged the
US federal government The federal government of the United States (U.S. federal government or U.S. government) is the national government of the United States, a federal republic located primarily in North America, composed of 50 states, a city within a fed ...
with
complicity in genocide Complicity in genocide is illegal under international law both for individuals, as part of international criminal law, and state parties to the Genocide Convention. The latter was first held in the Bosnian genocide case (2007) in which the Internat ...
for failing to pass legislation or prosecute persons responsible for lynching, most of whose victims were black men. After he returned from delivering the document in Paris, the
United States Department of State The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an United States federal executive departments, executive department of the Federal government of the United States, U.S. federal government responsible for the country's fore ...
revoked his passport and barred him from further travel abroad. He married Louise Thompson on September 3, 1940. A writer, she had a long association with the poet Langston Hughes, and they collaborated on a proposal for a documentary about Harlem culture.


Death and legacy

At the age of 88, Patterson died in 1980 at Union Hospital, in
the Bronx The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...
, following a prolonged illness. Patterson's papers, introduced by a five and a half page biography, are housed at
Howard University Howard University (Howard) is a Private university, private, University charter#Federal, federally chartered historically black research university in Washington, D.C. It is Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, classifie ...
.Finding Aid to the William Patterson Papers
Manuscript Division, Howard University, Oct. 1, 2015


Bibliography

* ''The Communist Position on the Negro Question''. Contributor. New York: New Century Publishers, 1947. * ''We Demand Freedom''. New York: Civil Rights Congress, 1951. * ''A People's Alternative to Mayor Wagner's Tax Program''. New York: 1963. * ''Negro Liberation: A Goal for All Americans''. New York: New Currents Publishers, 1964. * ''Ben Davis: Crusader for Negro Freedom and Socialism''. New York: New Outlook Publishers, 1967. * ''In Honor of Paul Robeson: Excerpts of a Speech by William L. Patterson''. New York: Communist Party USA, n.d.
969 Year 969 ( CMLXIX) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar, the 969th year of the Common Era (CE) and ''Anno Domini'' (AD) designations, the 969th year of the 1st millennium, the 69th ...
* ''Some Aspects of the Black Liberation Struggle: Two Lectures''. With Claude Lightfoot. New York: Black Liberation Commission, CPUSA, n.d.
969 Year 969 ( CMLXIX) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar, the 969th year of the Common Era (CE) and ''Anno Domini'' (AD) designations, the 969th year of the 1st millennium, the 69th ...
* ''We Charge Genocide: The Historic Petition to the United Nations for Relief from a Crime of the United States Government against the Negro People''. Editor. New York: International Publishers, 1970. * ''Four Score Years in Freedom's Fight: A Tribute to William L. Patterson on the Occasion of his 80th Birthday, Chicago, Illinois, October 22, 1971''. Contributor, with Claude Lightfoot. New York: New Outlook Publishers, 1972. * ''The Man Who Cried Genocide: An Autobiography''. New York: International Publishers, 1971.


References


Further reading

* Walter T. Howard, ''We Shall Be Free!: Black Communist Protests in Seven Voices''. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press, 2013.


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Patterson, William L. 1891 births 1980 deaths American communists Activists for African-American civil rights African-American lawyers 20th-century American lawyers Civil Rights Congress Tamalpais High School alumni Members of the Communist Party USA African-American communists