The collection has been arranged under six subject headings--three dealing with the three cases with which the Civil Rights Defense Committee was involved, and three smaller cases which appear to have been of personal interest to George Weissman, the donor of the collection and treasurer of the CRDC after 1953. Although the materials on the first three cases are of the same type, consisting of correspondence, legal materials, publicity materials, clippings, and financial records, the depth of documentation varies with each case.
Materials on the early years of the Minnesota labor case are absent; hence, information concerning the organization of the CRDC is scarce. There are, however, considerable records on the functioning of the Committee consisting of printed material, form letters, legal materials, and financial records. Scarcity of material on the Postal case suggests a lesser involvement on the part of the Committee; this portion of the collection includes a form letter, printed pamphlet, and court records. The most complete documentation in the collection concerns the Skoglund case, probably due to the fact that this case coincides with Weissman's tenure as treasurer of the CRDC. Included in this part of the collection are extensive correspondence, legal materials, newspaper clippings, publicity materials, and financial records.
The three final cases are quite small and only of tangential interest to the CRDC. The Socialist Workers Party of Michigan case of 1954 includes a photostated copy of the court stipulation. The Tan See Bou case concerns an attempt to deport an alien seaman for socialist sympathies; the materials on this case consist of correspondence to Weissman from See's California lawyer. The material on the final case consists of a letter to Weissman and a legal review of attempts to deport immigrant John Janosco in 1958.
