Description
Transcript and sound recording of Lucille Kendall's
1976 interviews with Violet Orr, including a brief interview with Violet's husband
Paul Orr; an interview history; and one folder of Orr family papers and photographs,
dated from 1919 to 1976. The interviews document Violet Orr's childhood and
marriage; her trip with Paul Orr to the Soviet Union in the 1920s; her activities as
a Communist Party organizer in the 1930s and '40s in California, including her
involvement in the San Francisco laundry workers' union and work for the radical
newspaper, the
People's World; and the Orrs'
experiences during the post-war Red Scare.
Background
Communist and peace activist Violet Orr was born in San Francisco in 1904. She spent
her childhood in San Francisco, Iowa, Oregon, and finally Palo Alto, graduating from
Stanford University. She married Paul Orr in 1926, and together they traveled to the
Soviet Union, living there for two years, from 1928 to 1930. Active in the Friends
of the Soviet Union, the Orrs joined the Communist Party in 1932. As a Communist
Party activist, Violet Orr filled many positions in Northern and Southern
California: as an organizational secretary in Oakland in the early 1930s; a
candidate for the California State Assembly from Richmond (1934); a laundry worker
and labor organizer in San Francisco (1935-1937); and an advertising and circulation
manager of the People's World in San Francisco and
Los Angeles (1937-1946). Throughout this period, she played an energetic role in
California's radical print culture, not only as a manager of the People's World, but also as a founder of the San
Francisco laundry workers' newspaper, the Shake Out;
a contributor to the Western Worker; and a leafleteer
among Richmond refinery workers. During the 1934 General Strike, the Orrs' Point
Richmond home was ransacked by vigilantes.
Extent
Transcript: 2 folders (0.1
linear feet); Tapes: 15 audiocassettes
Restrictions
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Street, San Francisco, CA 94105. Restrictions also apply to digital representations
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educational purposes.
Availability
CHS is not taking appointments for research at this time. Please check the Library's website updates: https://californiahistoricalsociety.org/collections/north-baker-research-library/