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Guide to the Harold Thaxter Lumsden Collection
MS 129  
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Collection Details
 
Table of contents What's This?
  • Descriptive Summary
  • Access
  • Access Restrictions
  • Publication Rights
  • Preferred Citation
  • Processing Information
  • Biography / Administrative History
  • Scope and Content of Collection
  • Arrangement
  • Indexing Terms

  • Descriptive Summary

    Title: Harold Thaxter Lumsden collection
    Dates: 1899-1996
    Collection number: MS 129
    Creator: Lumsden, Harold Thaxter.
    Collection Size: .1 linear feet (1 box)
    Repository: African American Museum & Library at Oakland (Oakland, Calif.)
    Oakland, CA 94612
    Abstract: The Harold Thaxter Lumsden collection includes photographs, biographical material, sympathy card, and a pamphlet, We also serve: 10 per cent of a nation working and fighting for victory, related to African American workers in the San Francisco Bay Area during World War II. The collection consists of portrait and family photographs of Harold Thaxter Lumsden, a reproduction of his birth certificate, and his obituary and funeral program.
    Languages: Languages represented in the collection: English

    Access

    No access restrictions. Collection is open to the public.

    Access Restrictions

    Materials are for use in-library only, non-circulating.

    Publication Rights

    Permission to publish from the Harold Thaxter Lumsden Collection must be obtained from the African American Museum & Library at Oakland.

    Preferred Citation

    Harold Thaxter Lumsden collection, MS 129, African American Museum & Library at Oakland, Oakland Public Library. Oakland, California.

    Processing Information

    Processed by Sean Heyliger, 02/14/2014.

    Biography / Administrative History

    Black labor leader Harold Thaxter Lumsden (1899-1996) was born on November 24, 1899 in Hagley Gap St. Thomas, Jamaica to Edward Lumsden and Dorcas Thaxter. He was raised in rural Jamaica before moving to Columbia during his teenage years to live with his uncle. In 1916, he went to sea as a ship steward surviving the sinking of two merchant vessels by German U-boats before settling first in Baltimore, Maryland and then in San Francisco, California in 1921. While San Francisco, he began taking classes in 1923 at Lincoln University School of Law while working construction, eventually graduating with a law degree in 1930. Beginning in the 1930s, Lumsden worked as a labor organizer for Union Local 261, unionizing workers at Hamilton Field in 1933 and shipyard workers at Bethlehem Shipyards in Alameda and Hunters Point Naval Shipyards in San Francisco, and as a business agent with Shipyard Laborers Local #886 during World War II. Following the war, he worked as laborer in the shipyards and was elected as Local 886’s union representative to the San Francisco Labor Council and the California Federation of Labor. Lumsden served on the Executive Committee of the San Francisco Labor Council and served as recording secretary of the Shipyard Laborers Local #886 until his retirement in 1983.

    Scope and Content of Collection

    The Harold Thaxter Lumsden collection includes photographs, biographical material, sympathy card, and a pamphlet, We also serve: 10 per cent of a nation working and fighting for victory, African American workers in the San Francisco Bay Area during World War II. The collection consists of portrait and family photographs of Harold Thaxter Lumsden, a reproduction of his birth certificate, and his obituary and funeral program.

    Arrangement

    Series I. Biographical Series II. Photographs Series III. Printed material

    Indexing Terms

    The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.
    African American labor leaders.
    African American labor union members.
    World War, 1939-1945 Participation, African American.