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James E. Jackson and Esther Cooper Jackson Papers

Call Number

TAM.347

Dates

1917-2018, inclusive
; 1937-1992, bulk

Creator

Jackson, James E., 1914-2007 (Role: Donor)
Jackson, Esther Cooper (Role: Donor)

Extent

37.50 Linear Feet in 26 record cartons, 5 manuscript boxes, 1 half manuscript box, 6 oversize flat boxes, 1 small flat box, 1 small box, and 2 flat file folders
10 sound tape reels

Language of Materials

Materials are in English.

Abstract

James E. Jackson (1914-2007) and Esther Cooper Jackson (1917- ) are African American communists and civil rights activists, best known for their role in founding and leading the Southern Negro Youth Congress (1937-48). James Jackson was head of the Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA) Louisiana state organization in 1946, and was a Party organizer in the automobile industry in Detroit from 1947-50. He then moved to New York, becoming the Southern Director for the Communist Party. In 1951 he was indicted under the Smith Act, and became a fugitive until 1955. He later served as the Communist Party's Educational Director and as International Affairs Secretary, retiring in 1991. Esther Cooper Jackson served as Executive Secretary of the Southern Negro Congress from 1942-1946. She also co-founded and served as the managing editor from 1961-86 of Freedomways, an influential African American political and cultural quarterly. The papers contain clippings of articles by and about Jackson; correspondence of both Esther Cooper and James E. Jackson, including the Jacksons' voluminous World War II correspondence with each other; James Jackson's lectures, research notebooks, speeches, and writings and subject files. Also included are correspondence, internal documents and printed ephemera pertaining to the Southern Negro Youth Congress, and to Freedomways, legal and other materials pertaining to the Smith Act indictments of James Jackson and other communists as well as Communist Party internal documents.

Historical/Biographical Note

James E. Jackson (1914-2007) and Esther Cooper Jackson (1917- ) are African American communists and civil rights activists, best known for their role in founding and leading the Southern Negro Youth Congress (1937-1948). Both were raised in middle-class families with histories of civil rights activism. James Jackson, Sr. was a druggist in Richmond, Virginia. Raised in Arlington, Virginia, Esther Cooper's father was a lieutenant in the U.S. army, and her mother worked in the U.S. Forestry Service during World War I and later became actively involved in the Arlington, Virginia chapter of the NAACP and in local school desegregation campaigns. James Jackson graduated from Virginia Union University in 1934, and at Howard University (the alma mater of his parents) graduated from the College of Pharmacy in 1937. After attending Dunbar High School in Washington D.C., Esther Cooper graduated from Oberlin College in 1938, then completed her master's degree at Fisk University in 1940, writing as her thesis Negro Women Domestic Workers in Relation to Trade Unionism. James Jackson joined the Communist Party in 1931, and Esther Cooper joined in 1939. The couple met in 1939 (they married in 1941) when Jackson was staying at Fisk while working for Ralph Bunche as an investigator for what would become Gunnar Myrdal's An American Dilemma: The Negro Problem and Modern Democracy (1944).

The Southern Negro Youth Congress, a communist-led popular front organization, conceived at the first National Negro Congress in 1936, held its first annual conference, organized by James Jackson and Ed Strong, in Richmond, in February, 1937. Jackson and Cooper played leading roles throughout the SNYC's first decade, as indicated by its letterhead from 1946, where Cooper is the Executive Secretary, Jackson the Special Projects Director, and their fellow-communists and close friends Louis and Dorothy Burnham were, respectively, Organizational Secretary and Educational Director. In 1938 Jackson helped lead the successful organizing of the United Tobacco Stemmers and Laborers Union Local 279 in Richmond. In 1939 the SNYC moved is headquarters to Birmingham, Alabama, with its large concentration of African American industrial workers. Under is slogan "Freedom, Equality, Opportunity," the SNYC campaigned for the full range civil, economic, political, and social rights for African Americans. Activities and issues included, in addition to supporting labor organizing (including domestic workers), campaigns against lynching, police brutality and the poll tax, for the right to vote and an end to segregation, for an end to employment discrimination (sometimes via consumer boycotts), and during World War II, for enforcement of the U.S. Fair Employment Practices Committee's resolution 8802 barring discrimination in war industries. The SNYC also published the periodical Cavalcade: The March of Southern Youth, and supported educational and cultural activities, including "People's Theaters." The SNYC held its last conference in 1948, and the pressure of Cold War anti-communism led to its subsequent dissolution. However, SNYC members went on to play important roles in the civil rights movement of the 19650s-60s, including E.D. Nixon, and several became elected officials.

Jackson entered the army in 1943 and served in the Burma theatre for some eighteen months, attainting the rank of sergeant, and during which time he and Esther corresponded daily. In the fall of 1945, Esther attended the World Youth Congress in London, where she met W.E.B. Du Bois, beginning a close association with the Jacksons culminating in his decision to join the Communist Party in 1961. In 1946 Jackson became State Chairman of the Communist Party of Louisiana. In 1947 the Jacksons moved to Detroit, where they shared a house with future Detroit mayor Coleman Young, and where James Jackson began work as a Party organizer among the autoworkers, while Esther Cooper Jackson was active in the local branches of the Progressive Party and of the Civil Rights Congress, another popular front organization. In 1951 the Jacksons moved to New York and James was named Southern Director of the Communist Party. Later that year he was indicted under the Smith Act (charged with advocating the overthrow of the U.S. government) and went underground to avoid arrest, while Esther Cooper Jackson worked for the National Committee to Defend Negro Leadership and the Families of Smith Act Victims. Emerging five years later, Jackson was sentenced to prison, although he did not serve time as the Smith Act was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.

Thereafter, James Jackson served as a full-time Party official, including as a member of its leading Political Bureau, and as Education Director and as International Affairs Secretary, in which capacity he traveled throughout the Communist countries and elsewhere. Meanwhile, Esther Cooper Jackson helped found in 1961 the influential African American political and cultural quarterly, Freedomways, and served as its editor throughout its publication, from 1961 to 1986. James Jackson retired in 1991, in the aftermath of the 1991 split in the CPUSA.

Sources:

Jackson, Esther Cooper. This Is My Husband: Fighter for His People, Political Refugee. (New York: National Committee to Defend Negro Leadership, 1953).Kelley, Robin D.G. 'Southern Negro Youth Congress.' In Encyclopedia of the American Left, pp. 737-9. (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1992).

Arrangement

The files are organized into sixteen series:
I, Biographical Material and Memorabilia
II, Clippings
III, Communist Party Materials
IV, Correspondence
V, Freedomways (Esther Cooper Jackson)
VI, Esther Cooper Jackson Papers
VII, Lectures
VIII, Notebooks
IX, Smith Act Materials
X, Southern Negro Youth Congress Materials
XI, Speeches
XII, Subject Files
XIII, Writings, Published
XIV, Writings, Unpublished
XV, Writings by Others
XVI, Unprocessed Accretions
The folders in the various series/subseries are arranged alphabetically or chronologically.

The files are organized into sixteen series: I, Biographical Material and Memorabilia
II, Clippings
III, Communist Party Materials
IV, Correspondence
V, Correspondence, Army
VI, Freedomways (Esther Cooper Jackson)
VII, Esther Cooper Jackson Papers
VIII, Lectures
IX, Notebooks
X, Smith Act Materials
XI, Southern Negro Youth Congress Materials
XII, Speeches
XIII, Subject Files
XIV, Writings, Published
XV, Writings, Unpublished
XVI, Writings by Others
The folders in the various series/subseries are arranged alphabetically or chronologically.

Scope and Content Note

The papers contain clippings (articles by and about Jackson), correspondence of both Esther and James Jackson, including the Jacksons' voluminous World War II correspondence with each other, James Jackson's lectures (typescripts and audiocassettes), research notebooks, speeches, and writings (published and unpublished), subject files, correspondence, internal documents and printed ephemera pertaining to the Southern Negro Youth Congress (SNYC), and to Freedomways, legal and other materials pertaining to the Smith Act indictments of Jackson and other communists, Communist Party internal documents, many of a programmatic nature, and memorabilia and other biographical materials. Individuals represented in the collection include: Carl Bloice, Lloyd Brown, Dorothy and Louis Burnham, Angela Davis, Benjamin Davis, Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, Eugene and Peggy Dennis, Shirley Graham Du Bois, W.E.B. Du Bois, Martin Duberman, Viriginia Durr, William Z. Foster, Simon Gerson, Gus Hall, Ollie Harrington, Hosea Hudson, Alphaeus Hunton, Pablo Neruda, John Pittman, Pete Seeger, Edward Strong, Alice Walker, Mary Helen Washington, Jim West, Robert Williams, Henry Winston, and Carl Winter.

Additional materials donated in 2015 contain records relating to James E. Jackson and Esther Cooper Jackson's personal and professional careers from the 1950s to 2000s. These materials consist of papers, photographs, and audio recordings related to the Jacksons' work with Freedomways, the Daily Worker, SNYC, and James Jackson's speaking engagements.

Subjects

Conditions Governing Access

Materials are open without restrictions.

Conditions Governing Use

Any rights (including copyright and related rights to publicity and privacy) to the majority of materials in this collection held by James Jackson and Esther Cooper Jackson were transferred to New York University in 2005 by James and Esther Cooper. Permission to publish or reproduce materials in this collection must be secured from the Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archive. Please contact tamiment.wagner@nyu.edu. Copyright (and related rights to publicity and privacy) to James Jackson's and Esther Cooper Jackson's World War II correspondence are held by Esther Cooper Jackson, after her death copyright transfers to her heir Kathryn Jackson. Permission to publish or reproduce materials to which she holds copyright must be secured from the copyright holder. Please contact the Tamiment Library for assistance with contacting Esther Cooper Jackson.

Preferred Citation

Identification of item, date; James E. Jackson and Esther Cooper Jackson Papers; TAM 347; box number; folder number; Tamiment Library/Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives, New York University.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

James and Esther Jackson sent a gift of their papers in 2006. A flier and news release pertaining to the National Committee to Defend Negro Leadership found in repository were added to the collection in 2014. In 2015, Esther Jackson donated an additional four boxes of papers, photographs, and audio recording related to her and James Jackson's personal and professional lives. In 2016 Esther Jackson donated additional photographs and clippings concerning the Southern Negro Youth Congress. Plaques sound reels, objects, and posters were donated in May and June of 2018. The accession numbers associated with this collection are 2006.009, NPA.2006.077, 2014.040, 2015.063, 2016.021, 2018.140, 2018.141, and 2019.019.

Audiovisual Access Policies and Procedures

Access to some audiovisual materials in this collection is available through digitized access copies. Researchers may view an item's original container, but the media themselves are not available for playback because of preservation concerns. Materials that have already been digitized are noted in the collection's finding aid and can be requested in our reading room. Materials not yet digitized will need to have access copies made before they can be used. To request an access copy, or if you are unsure if an item has been digitized, please contact tamiment.wagner@nyu.edu with the collection name, collection number, and a description of the item(s) requested. A staff member will respond to you with further information.

Separated Material

Photographs were separated to the James E. and Esther Cooper Jackson Photographs Collection (PHOTOS 221). Audio cassettes were separated to the James E. Jackson Audiocassettes (OH 057). Original drawings by Ollie Harrington were separated to the Non Print Department.

Three folders of assorted artifacts and ephemera were separated to the Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives General Ephemera and Artifacts Collection.

Collection processed by

Peter Meyer Filardo and Aniko Szucs, 2006

About this Guide

This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on 2023-08-20 16:30:39 -0400.
Using Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language: Finding aid is in English

Processing Information

Collection was reboxed in December 2011. The current finding aid reflects the changes made. A copy of the old finding aid is available upon request.

Additional material found in the repository was added to the collection in 2014. Materials donated in 2015 and 2016 were added to the collection as Series XVI: Accretions. Documents from this donation were originally grouped by donor. Materials have been rehoused and boxes condensed, but original groupings of materials were maintianed.

In June 2017, archivists located a box of materials with accession number NPA 2006.077, indicating these materials were separated from TAM 347. These materials have now been reincorporated into the collection.

Revisions to this Guide

June 2017: Jasmine Larkin added Series XVI: Separated Materials, Box 30, to the finding aid.
November 2017: Updated by Megan O'Shea to prepare one item for a move to offsite art storage in winter 2017
December 2018: Updated by Rachel Searcy to reflect 2018 accretions
February 2019: Updated by Rachel Searcy to reflect 2019 accretions found in repository
February 2023: Updated by Rachel Mahre to state some audio materials have been digitized and are accessible to patrons

Repository

Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives
Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives
Elmer Holmes Bobst Library
70 Washington Square South
2nd Floor
New York, NY 10012