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Finding aid to the Louise Todd Lambert oral history, 1958-1976 (bulk
1976), MS 3520
MS
3520
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Title: Louise Todd Lambert oral history
Date (inclusive): 1958-1976
Date (bulk): 1976
Collection Identifier: MS
3520
Creator:
Lambert, Louise Todd.
Contributing Institution:
California Historical Society
678 Mission Street
San Francisco, CA, 94105-4014
(415) 357-1848
reference@calhist.org
URL: http://www.californiahistoricalsociety.org/
Physical Location: Collection is stored onsite.
Language of Material: Collection materials are in English.
Abstract: Contains a transcript and sound recording of
Lucille Kendall's 1976 interviews with Louise Todd Lambert; an interview history;
and a few miscellaneous papers, including a photocopy of Lambert's 1958 letter of
resignation from the Communist Party. The interviews document Lambert's early years
as an official for the Communist Party in California, including her participation in
major labor actions and strikes of the 1930s; her involvement in local and statewide
elections as a Communist Party candidate and campaign manager; her arrest and
imprisonment in the Tehachapi correctional institute for women (1935-1938); her
experiences "underground" as a member of the national Communist Party's reserve
leadership (1950-1955); and, finally, her resignation from the Party in 1958. The
final portion of the interview is devoted to Lambert's memories of fellow activist
Anita Whitney.
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Copyright has been assigned to California Historical Society. Materials in these
collections are protected by the U.S. Copyright Law (Title 17, U.S.C.) and may not
be used without permission of California Historical Society. Use may be restricted
by terms of CHS gift or purchase agreements, privacy and publicity rights, licensing
terms, and trademarks. All requests to reproduce, publish, quote from, or otherwise
use collection materials must be submitted in writing to the Director of Library and
Archives, North Baker Research Library, California Historical Society, 678 Mission
Street, San Francisco, CA 94105. Restrictions also apply to digital representations
of the original materials. Use of digital files is restricted to research and
educational purposes.
[Identification of item], Louise Todd Lambert oral history, MS 3520, California
Historical Society.
The original sound recording from which the Lambert oral history was transcribed is
stored separately on cassettes 31.1-31.20. Photographs have been removed to the
California Historical Society's Portrait and Photograph Collections.
Related Collections
The following oral histories were prepared by Lucille Kendall in her effort to
document the lives of women labor activists and radicals for the California
Historical Society's "Women in California Collection":
Clemmie Shuck Barry oral history, MS 3251
Dorothy Elizabeth De Losada oral history, MS 3522
Elaine Black Yoneda oral history, MS 3524
Helene Powell oral history, MS 3518
Katherine Rodin oral history, MS 3517
Marion Brown Sills oral history, MS 3525
Mildred Edmondson oral history, MS 3523
Sonia Baltrun Kaross oral history, MS 3515
Violet Orr oral history, MS 3516
The following oral histories were prepared under the auspices of "The Twentieth
Century Trade Union Woman: Vehicle for Social Change," a project of the Institute of
Labor and Industrial Relations, The University of Michigan-Wayne State
University:
Angela Ward oral history, MS 3536
Caroline Decker Gladstein oral history, MS 3025
This oral history was transcribed from ten interviews with Louise Todd Lambert
conducted by Lucille Kendall for the California Historical Society in 1976.
Communist activist Louise Todd Lambert was born in 1905 in San Francisco to German
immigrant parents. Raised in a socialist family, the young Lambert was active in the
suffrage movement, the Young Workers League, and Nature Friends. In 1929, Lambert
joined the Communist Party in California, filling the sensitive role of
organizational secretary until the mid-1940s. As a state official for the Communist
Party, Lambert participated in a number of important labor actions and strikes,
including the 1933 cotton strike in San Joaquin Valley and the 1934 San Francisco
General Strike. She was also active in local and statewide elections, running for
the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1931 and 1933, and working as a Communist
Party campaign manager during the 1934 elections. These political efforts led to
Lambert's arrest and imprisonment the following year.
In 1935, Lambert was arrested, tried, and convicted in Los Angeles on charges of
perjury for allegedly making false affidavits on petitions to put the Communist
Party on the 1934 state ballot. She was sentenced to prison at the Tehachapi
correctional institute for women, where she was incarcerated, along with other
Communist Party activists, until 1938. After she was released from Tehachapi,
Lambert resumed her work for the Communist Party in California, organizing training
schools for leadership, participating in elections, supporting the Communist Party's
newspaper, the
People's World, and serving on the
state executive committee. In 1939, she married her second husband, Communist Party
member Rudie Lambert. Lambert continued to work as organizational secretary until
the mid-1940s, when the national Party was restructured. In 1947, she was assigned a
"political action" position, and was active in efforts to put the Progressive Party
on the California ballot.
Beginning in the late 1940s, intensifying anti-communist sentiment -- and arrests of
Communist Party members, including Rudie Lambert, under the Smith Act -- created an
atmosphere of fear within the Party. In 1950, Louise Lambert was selected to serve
in the Communist Party's underground reserve leadership. For the next five years,
Lambert lived under an alias on the East Coast, separated from her husband and
family. She returned to California in 1955. In response to internal party politics
and international events, Lambert resigned from the Communist Party in 1958, signing
a joint letter of protest with other prominent members.
This oral history collection consists of a transcript and sound recording of Lucille
Kendall's 1976 interviews with Louise Todd Lambert; an interview history; and a few
miscellaneous papers, including a photocopy of Lambert's 1958 letter of resignation
from the Communist Party. The Lambert interviews were conducted under the auspices
of the California Historical Society's "Women in California Collection" as part of
an oral history project documenting the lives of women labor activists and radicals
in California.
The interviews document Lambert's personal life, Communist Party activism, and
political attitudes, from her childhood in San Francisco in the 1900s and 1910s to
her resignation from the Party in 1958. Prominent topics discussed include:
Lambert's experiences as a child growing up in a socialist German American family;
her parents' memories of the 1906 earthquake and fire; her early years as an
official for the Communist Party in California, including her participation in major
labor actions and strikes of the 1930s; her involvement in local and statewide
elections as a Communist Party candidate and campaign manager; her arrest and
imprisonment in the Tehachapi correctional institute for women (1935-1938); her
efforts on behalf of the Progressive Party in California in the late 1940s; her
experiences "underground" as a member of the national Communist Party's reserve
leadership (1950-1955); and, finally, her resignation from the Party in 1958. The
final portion of the interview is devoted to Lambert's memories of fellow activist
Anita Whitney.
In addition to discussing these events, Lambert reflects critically on the growth of
American radicalism during the Great Depression; the culture of the Communist Party
in the 1930s, '40s, and '50s; the atmosphere of fear that characterized the McCarthy
Era; the successes and failures of the Communist Party in the United States; reasons
for the Party's demise in the 1950s; and her own changing political attitudes.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
California Institution for Women (Tehachapi,
Calif.).
Communist Party of the United States of
America.
Whitney, Anita, 1867-1955.
Audiocassettes.
Communism--California.
Communism--United States.
Communists--California.
Oral histories.
Strikes and lockouts--California.