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Organizations and Publications

Labor Youth League:

Labor Youth League (LYL) was founded in 1949 by young communists and other working class youth. The LYL was an independent Marxist-Leninist youth organization which had fraternal relations with the Communist Party (CP). The LYL made significant contributions to the building of democratic youth unity against communist paranoia spurred on by Senator Joseph McCarthy. On November 24, 1950 the LYL held its first National Convention. Paul Robeson, a fighter on behalf of African-Americans, a well-known political and cultural figure, a Communist, and a colleague of Lorraine Hansberry, addressed more than 5,000 youth in attendance. During the height of McCarthyism, when Party members all over the country were being tried and convicted on trumped-up charges of "conspiring to overthrow the U.S. Government," the LYL did all it could to continue the tradition Robeson spoke of. Fighting for peace, racial equality and democracy won the LYL the attention the Subversive Activities Control Board (SACB) and the LYL was placed on its subversive organization list in 1953. The SACB had the power to issue subpoenas and attempted to force Communist Party members, and any other organization it deemed "subversive," to register under the provisions of the infamous McCarran Act.

Paul Robeson's Freedom newsletter:

Robeson continued to speak out in public forums and through his own monthly newspaper, Freedom. Barred from all other forms of media, his own newspaper became his primary platform from 1950 to 1955. His remaining supporters encompassed the National Negro Labor Council, Council on African Affairs, and the Civil Rights Congress. The NAACP openly attacked Robeson while other black organization shunned him in fear of reprisals. Robeson felt the need for a regular medium to counter the press censorship and the campaign waged against him. He launched a weekly newspaper called Freedom in Harlem in 1950.

International Peace Congress:

Elihu Burrit organized the first International Peace Congress in 1848.The congress adopted resolutions urging limitation of armaments and the placing of a ban upon foreign loans for war purposes. Through the next decade, more congresses were convened in various cities without the development of anything new in principle or method.

The Ladder newsletter:

The Ladder was the first regularly published lesbian periodical, to have a national readership, and appeared monthly or bimonthly from October 1956 to September 1972. It grew from a 16-page mimeographed, typed newsletter to a 56-page, typeset, illustrated, little magazine. It began as the newsletter of the first known formal U. S. organization of lesbians, who called themselves "Daughters of Bilitis. The newsletter contained club news, fiction, poetry, non-fiction essays, and speeches. Through the years its contents reflected the self-image and interests of DOB members, but it retained its commitment to subscriber-submitted fiction and poetry, book reviews, and news of anything in the media containing reference to lesbians, or possible lesbians.

Daughters of Bilitis:

Founded in 1955 in San Francisco, the Daughters of Bilitis (DOB) was the first national lesbian political and social organization in the United States. As part of the " homophile movement"--as the pre-Stonewall gay rights movement was termed--DOB set a precedent for countless other organizations for lesbians and bisexual women.

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