Finding aid to the Elaine Black Yoneda oral history, 1976-1977, MS 3524
Finding aid prepared by Jaime Henderson
California Historical Society
2011
678 Mission Street
San Francisco, CA, 94105-4014
(415) 357-1848
reference@calhist.org
Title: Elaine Black Yoneda oral history
Date (inclusive): 1976-1977
Collection Identifier: MS
3524
Creator:
Yoneda, Elaine Black, 1906-1988
Extent:
1.0 folder
Contributing Institution:
California Historical Society
678 Mission Street
San Francisco, CA, 94105-4014
(415) 357-1848
reference@calhist.org
URL: http://www.californiahistoricalsociety.org/
Abstract: Contains a transcribed copy of Lucille Kendall's
interview with left-wing activist Elaine Black Yoneda, which began in February 1976
and ended in June 1977. The interview covers Yoneda's involvement with the
International Labor Defense, International Longshoremen's Association's Defense
Committee, the Communist Party, and various labor and civil rights
movements.
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[Identification of Item], Elaine Black Yoneda Oral History, MS 3524, California
Historical Society.
The original sound recording from which the Yoneda oral history was transcribed is
stored separately on cassettes 26.1-26.14.
Elaine Black Yoneda Papers, MS 3057
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 Barry Oral History, MS 3251
Helene Powell Oral History, MS 3518
Katherine Rodin Oral History, MS 3517
Louise Lambert Oral History, MS 3520
Marion Brown Sills Oral History, MS 3525
Mildred Edmondson Oral History, MS 3523
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 an interview with Elaine Black Yoneda
conducted by Lucille Kendall for the California Historical Society in 1976-1977.
Elaine Black Yoneda was born in Manhattan, New York, in 1906 to Russian Jewish
immigrants who were members of the Communist Party. When she was a child, Yoneda's
family relocated San Diego, California, where her father ran a dry goods store and
Elaine attended local public schools.
Yoneda married her first husband in Los Angeles in 1925. The couple produced Yoneda’s
only daughter, Joyce, in 1927. In 1931 Yoneda took a job with the International
Labor Defense office as a clerical worker. She quickly became a leader within the
ILD after witnessing many violations of civil rights by the Los Angeles Red Squad.
With the ILD Yoneda was active in organizing meetings and demonstrations for labor
and civil right causes. One of her duties was to bail out individuals who had been
jailed for their participation in strikes and demonstrations. She bailed out
Japanese American demonstrator Karl Hama Yoneda in 1931 and by the mid-1930s they
were married. The couple relocated to San Francisco and had a son, Thomas, in
1939.
Throughout the 1930s Yoneda remained active in the civil rights, labor, and union
movements. She joined the Communist Party and became active in the International
Longshoremen’s Association’s Defense Committee, educating striking workers about
their rights should they be arrested. Yoneda became known as the “Red Angel” for her
work in defending union members and labor demonstrators in the San Francisco
waterfront and general strike of 1934. She was also nicknamed “Tiger Girl” for her
participation on behalf of striking agricultural workers in Salinas, California.
Yoneda’s political work throughout the 1930s culminated with her running for the San
Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1939. She was defeated.
Upon the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941, Yoneda’s husband was sent to the internment
camp in Manzanar, California. Yoneda and her son relocated to Southern California
while her husband volunteered intelligence for the United States while interned.
The family eventually was reunited and returned to San Francisco, where Yoneda
remained active in union, civil rights, and labor movements. She remained involved
with a variety of labor organizations, including the International Longshore and
Warehouse Union’s Women’s Auxiliary and the Office Workers Union, and various civil
rights cases, including the Wilmington Ten. Yoneda persevered in her devotion to
political activity up until her death in May 1988, attending a longshoremen’s rally
the day before she died of a heart attack.
This oral history collection consists of a transcribed copy of Lucille Kendall’s
1976-1977 interview with labor and civil rights activist Elaine Black Yoneda; and an
interview history. The Yoneda interview was 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 bulk of the Yoneda interview covers her involvement with the International Labor
Defense, the International Longshoremen’s Association’s Defense League, her
activities as a member of the Communist Party, and her participation in a variety of
labor and agricultural strikes and civil rights movements. The interview also covers
topics in Yoneda’s personal life, such as her two marriages, her relationship with
her children, her family life, and growing up in a Russian Jewish family in Southern
California. Yoneda also discusses her experience in an interracial marriage and the
role and treatment of women in the labor movement.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Communist Party of the United States of America
(Calif.).
International Labor Defense.
International Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's
Union.
International Longshoremen's
Association.
Employee rights.
General Strike, San Francisco, Calif., 1934
Interracial marriage.
Oral histories.
Strikes and lockouts--California.
Women labor leaders--California.