Title:

J.R. Robertson papers, approximately 1930-1969

Creator/Contributor:

Robertson, J. R. (James Riley), -1978, creator, creator.

Collection includes some personalia; correspondence; materials relating to the ILWU, including manuals, bulletins, Bloody July Fifth memorial stamps, and materials on the perjury trial of Harry Bridges, Henry Schmidt, and J.R. Robertson; mementos of Robertson's 1963 and 1969 trips to the Soviet Union; assorted clippings, including some on the Bridges-Schmidt-Robertson trial and some of labor disturbances in New Orleans in 1938; and redacted photocopies of Robertson's FBI file (which he requested through FOIA in 1977). Also included in the collection are seven "brass checks" or "brasses." These were brass medallions used to pay the longshoremen back in the 1920s and 1930s. It was not unusual for longshoremen to be paid in these brass checks instead of in currency. In order to cash their brass checks, workers were often forced to spend some of their earnings at Prohibition era waterfront bootleg joints.

Date:

1930 (issued)

Subject:

n-us-ca

Robertson, J. R. (James Riley) -- -1978 -- Archives

Bridges, Harry -- 1901-1990

Schmidt, Henry -- 1899-

International Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union.

Labor unions -- California -- History

Labor unions and communism -- United States -- History

COLLECTION STORED, IN PART, OFF-SITE: Advance notice required for use.

J.R. Robertson papers, BANC MSS 78/90 c, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.

Photographs transferred to the Pictorial Collections of The Bancroft Library (BANC PIC 1978.032--PIC).

Related item: Memoirs and reminiscences concerning the International Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union [sound recording], 1974 (Phonotape 1132c).

Related item: Secondary leadership in the ILWU, 1933-1966 : oral history transcript / with an introduction by Germain Bulcke ; an interview conducted by Miriam F. Stein and Estolv Ethan Ward, Regional Oral History Office, 1974, 1975, 1981 (BANC MSS 84/45).

James Riley (Bob) Robertson was one of the founders and West Coast leaders of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union. He served as the organization's vice president and was, for thirty years, its chief organizer. Robertson, along with Harry Bridges and Henry Schmidt, was involved in a civil liberties case that received national attention. Robertson and Bridges acted as witnesses for Harry Bridges when he took his citizenship oath in 1945. Both made statements that Bridges was not a communist. They were later charged and convicted in a perjury trial. The conviction was reversed by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1953.

In English.

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English

Origin:

California

COLLECTION STORED, IN PART, OFF-SITE: Advance notice required for use.