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Guide to the Steve Nelson Oral History Project Records, 1977-1978 AIS.1978.24

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Metadata Details

Title
Records of the Steve Nelson oral history project, 1977-1978, Steve Nelson oral history project records, 1977-1978
Subject
Communist Party of the United States of America., University of Pittsburgh. Department of History, University of Pittsburgh. Department of History --Graduate students, Labor movement, Labor unions, Communism, Radicalism, Universities and colleges--Pennsylvania, Political parties--United States, Pennsylvania--Education--Universities and colleges, Pittsburgh (Pa.)--Education--Universities and colleges
Description
The Steve Nelson Oral History project was conducted in 1977-1978 by James R. Barrett and Robert L. Ruck, graduate students in the Dept. of History at the University of Pittsburgh. The interviews with Steve Nelson, one-time member of the Communist Party of the United States, radical political activist and industrial organizer, took place at his home in Truro, Maine., Records of the Steve Nelson Oral History Project, 1977-1978, AIS 1978:24, Archives Service Center, University of Pittsburgh., Deposited by James Barrett and Robert Ruck, September 1978., Steve Nelson was born in Croatia in 1893 and came to America at the end of World War I. In the early 1920s, he joined the Socialist Labor Party and also came into contact with the Young Workers' League. In Pittsburgh, he worked at Jones and Laughlin's Aliquippa Works and as a carpenter. He married Margaret Yaeger. He then moved to Detroit where he quickly became active in the Communist Party. Nelson then went to New York City where he could attend a workers' school at night. In 1929, Nelson journeyed to Chicago to head work amongst the unemployed. As the Party organizer for the anthracite region of Pennsylvania in the 1930s, Nelson worked mainly with rank and file unions and with the unemployed, helping people to organize around demands for relief and unemployment insurance. Leaving for Spain in 1937, he served as political commissar of the Abraham Lincoln Battalion of the International Brigades. Nelson fought in the Spanish Civil War until he was wounded and forced to return to the United States. He was then co-opted onto the National Committee of the Communist Party and worked as Secretary of the American League for Peace and Democracy. Nelson led the Japanese Bureau of the Party on the West Coast during the internment crisis of World War II. He also acted as the Party's Chairman in San Francisco, then in Oakland and Berkeley. Both of his children were born during these years on the West Coast. In 1945, he returned to New York to serve on the National Board of the Communist Party. As a key figure in the Party, Nelson was targeted for jail as the government sought to liquidate the Communist Party in 1950-1951. His association with J. Robert Oppenheimer led to headlines charging that Nelson was an "atomic spy." Tried twice under the Sedition Act and once under the Smith Act, he spent a year in prison before being freed on appeal. In 1957, Nelson left the Communist Party. He then assumed increasing responsibility in the Veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade and became its national commander. Nelson died in 1993., Publications based on this collection: Nelson, Steve. Steve Nelson, American Radical, University of Pittsburgh Press, 1981., Finding aid Available in repository and on Internet; http://digital.library.pitt.edu/cgi-bin/f/findaid/findaid-idx?type=simple;c=ascead;view=text;subview=outline;didno=US-PPiU-ais197824, Nelson, Steve. Steve Nelson, American Radical.
Contributor
Nelson, Steve, 1903-1993, Barrett, James R., 1950-, Ruck, Bob, 1950-, Nelson, Steve., University of Pittsburgh (depositor)
Date
1977-1978
Type
Collection, Transcripts., Interviews., Reminiscences., Audio tapes.
Format
2 (4 64
Identifier
lccn:89798996, oclc:ocm28417356, pitt:US-PPiU-ais197824
Language
eng
Relation
Steve Nelson, American Radical, http://digital.library.pitt.edu/cgi-bin/f/findaid/findaid-idx?type=simple;c=ascead;view=text;subview=outline;didno=US-PPiU-ais197824
Coverage
Pennsylvania, United States, Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh (Pa.)
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