Summary Information
George L. Weissman Papers
1955-1958
Mss 77
0.2 c.f. (1 archives box)
Wisconsin Historical Society (Map)
Research materials of a writer on labor and civil rights issues consisting of correspondence, printed copies of articles and other materials concerning Donald L. West, a fundamentalist minister who promoted unionization of textile workers in Dalton, Georgia, and who was subsequently attacked as a communist.
English
http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-mss00077 ↑ Bookmark this ↑
Biography/History
In 1956 George L. Weissman, a freelance writer on labor and civil rights issues, wrote a series of articles on the Rev. Donald West of Dalton, Georgia. Previously a Congregational minister, in 1954 West had joined a small fundamentalist sect known as the Church of God of the Union Assembly. This church was unique among the many poor white sects in northwest Georgia in its advocacy of unionism, Negro rights, and its practice of a form of apostolic economic communism. In 1955 West took over the editorship of the church paper, The Southerner, and began a campaign to organize the Dalton textile workers. The mill owners reacted by firing the Union church members and launching an attack upon West after an investigation revealed that West had been a member of the Communist party during the 1930's. Alerted by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Textile Workers Union of America, Weissman went to Dalton to interview West on the situation. The resulting series of four articles describe the conflict of issues released in Dalton as a result of West's campaign - anti-communism, anti-Semitism, anti-unionism, as well as racial and class antagonisms. Ultimately West was forced to resign from the church and to leave Dalton. With Weissman's assistance, West began publication of a short-lived successor to The Southerner called The New Southerner which was dedicated to improving the condition of white and Negro working people in the South.
Scope and Content Note
This collection documents Weissman's preparation of his articles on West. It consists of correspondence, research materials, clippings, and drafts and printed copies of the four different articles in the series. The correspondence, dating from 1955-1958, is primarily concerned with events after West left Dalton, but it provides a view of the frustrations of the civil rights movement during the 1950's; the letter of March 27, 1956 is particularly interesting in this regard. The research materials consist of pamphlets concerning the labor situation in Dalton, the Union Church, workers' affidavits and statements of the ACLU and TWUA. The collection also includes drafts of articles and a prospectus folder written by West for The New Southerner.
Administrative/Restriction Information
Presented by George L. Weissman, New York, N.Y., April 30, 1968.
This collection was donated to the State Historical Society of Wisconsin by Mr. Weissman in the hope that the contributions of Donald West to the cause of civil rights not be forgotten. It arrived with several collections concerned with civil rights issues with which Weissman was involved: the Civil Rights Defense Committee Papers (Mss 79), the Committee to Combat Racial Injustice (Mss 51), and the Kutcher Civil Rights Committee (Mss 52).
Processed by Carolyn J. Mattern, March 17, 1970.
Contents List
|
Box
1
Folder
1
|
Correspondence, 1955, Nov. - 1958, Dec.
|
|
|
Box
1
Folder
2
|
West Writings, The New Southerner, 1956
|
|
|
Research materials
|
|
|
Box
1
Folder
3
|
Dalton, Georgia, 1954
|
|
|
Box
1
Folder
4
|
TWUA press releases, 1955
|
|
|
Box
1
Folder
5
|
Workers' affidavits, 1955
|
|
|
Box
1
Folder
6
|
Clippings, 1955, Sept. - 1956, April
|
|
|
Box
1
Folder
7
|
Research notes, 1955
|
|
|
Box
1
Folder
8
|
Articles, drafts and printed copies, 1955-1956
|
|
|
