Clara Lemlich Papers
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Abstract
Clara Lemlich Shavelson (March 28, 1886 – July 25, 1982) was a leader of the Uprising of 20,000, the massive strike of shirtwaist workers in New York's garment industry in 1909. Later blacklisted from the industry for her labor union work, she became a member of the Communist Party USA and a consumer activist in Brooklyn, New York. The collection contains correspondence, clippings about Lemlich, a file on her death and commemoration, photocopies of a 1916 diary written in Russian and of a diary from a trip to the Soviet Union, Yiddish language clippings, a few brief writings by Lemlich, and memorabilia.
Historical/Biographical Note
Clara Lemlich Shavelson (March 28, 1886 – July 25, 1982) was a leader of the Uprising of 20,000, the massive strike of shirtwaist workers in New York's garment industry in 1909. Later blacklisted from the industry for her labor union work, she became a member of the Communist Party USA and a consumer activist in Brooklyn, New York. Born in the Ukraine to a Jewish family, she migrated to the U.S. in 2003. She became a garment worker, was elected to the executive board of Local 25 of the ILGWU (International Ladies' Garment Workers Union). Blacklisted from the garment industry, she founded the Wage Earners League, a working class suffragist organization. In 1913 she married Joseph Shavelson, and moved to Brooklyn. An early and lifelong member of the Communist Party USA, in 1929 she founded the United Council of Working Class Women (UCWCW), which led a 1935 boycott of butcher shops to protest meat prices. The UCWCW later became the Progressive Women's Councils, and was affiliated with the International Workers Order, a Communist-led ethnically based fraternal organization. After the dissolution of the IWO in 1952, Lemlich continued her activities in the Emma Lazarus Clubs, a Communist-led Jewish women's organization which she had helped to found in the 1930s, campaigning for unemployment relief, and later, tenants rights.
Arrangement
Papers are arranged alphabetically.
Scope and Contents
Contains correspondence (includes Morris Schappes), clippings about Lemlich, a file on her death and commemoration that includes several issuesof Jewish Currents, photocipies of a 1916 diary and of a diary from a 1961 trip to the Soviet Union, notebooks, several topical files, including one on the Meat Boycott of 1935, Yiddish language clippings, a few brief writings by Lemlich, union membership cards and other memorabilia, including two buttons featuring Lemlich, and throughout, printed ephemera from the Emma Lazarus Clubs. There is also one linear foot of photographs, principally of Lemlich and her family, as well as a few images from public events, some apparently dating to the 19th century, that comprise boxes 3-4 of the collection.
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Conditions Governing Access
Materials are open without restrictions.
Conditions Governing Use
Copyright (and related rights to publicity and privacy) to materials in this collection, created by Rita Margules, was not transferred to New York University. Permission to use materials must be secured from the copyright holder.
Preferred Citation
Published citations should take the following form: Identification of item, date; Clara Lemlich Papers; TAM 577; box number; folder number; Tamiment Library/Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives, New York University.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Donated by Rita Margules in 2011. The accession number associated with this gift is 2011.044.
