Series VI: Election Records, 1917-2000, inclusive

Records contained in this subseries document the United States presidential campaigns of members running on the Communist Party, USA ticket. The bulk of the series is devoted to Gus Hall's four presidential bids during the 1970s and 1980s, though some records from the campaigns of William Z. Foster, Earl Browder (1930s-40s), and Charlene Mitchell (1968) are also included. Hall's 1976 campaign with party member Jarvis Tyner as candidate for Vice President and his 1984 campaign with party member Angela Davis as his running mate are most extensively represented. Materials include correspondence, distribution materials, meeting minutes, research notes and speech drafts, and mainly focus on campaign strategic planning. Audio and video recordings of rallies and events for the Hall/Tyner and Hall/Davis presidential campaigns are also well represented in this subseries. They provide records of the Party's public efforts as well as internal Party meetings related to campaigns.

This small subseries holds records detailing Communist Party participation in and reaction to national and state elections; it also includes some materials from other minor political parties, including the American Labor and Progressive parties. Noteworthy materials include the several versions of the Communist Party election platform and a variety of distribution materials and strategic planning notes from the 1920s and 1930s. Other materials in this subseries include 2 audio recordings of regional campaign rallies, and several photographs from unidentified local campaigns.

This subseries documents the city and state public office campaigns of members of the Communist Party of New York, as well as the work of the New York Committee to Elect Communist Candidates in the 1970s. Materials originating from Charlene Mitchell's 1988 bid for United States Senator can be found in this subseries; a small amount of material from the campaigns of some well-known party members, including Benjamin Davis and Simon Gerson are also present. Transcripts of the speeches delivered by Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, Robert Minor, and Earl Browder at a 1942 election rally at Madison Square Garden are particularly notable, as are copies of distribution materials from the 1930s.