Mark Starr Papers
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Abstract
Mark Starr (1894-1985), was the education director of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union (1935-1960) and a longtime activist in civic and political affairs, including as an officer and candidate of the Liberal Party. As head of the ILGWU Education Department, he supervised a program that established compulsory educational requirements for candidates for union office, and was president of the American Federation of Teachers. Workers Education Local 189, and served on governmental commissions and boards of civic organizations, including Americans for Democratic Action, the League for Industrial Democracy, the American Labor Party. This unprocessed collection contains correspondence, manuscripts, clippings, printed ephemera and subject files. The majority focus on Starr's activities outside his official capacity as ILGWU Educational Director, and illuminate educational enterprises he associated with, such as: U.S. Advisory Commission on Educational Exchange (the Fulbright program), the U.S. Information Service, New York City Community College, the Ford Foundation, the Georgia Workers Education Service, Harvard Fellowships for union members, a Labor Extension Service Bill for workers' con¬tinuing education, labor education programs abroad, and the United States Works Progress Administrations Workers' Education Project. Other materials relate to political groups he associated with, including: Americans for Democratic Action, the League for Industrial Democracy, the American Labor Party, and the Liberal Party. One box of material on Japan describes post war labor developments and U.S. interest in trade unionism there, and there is also correspondence from a tour of Far East.
Biographical Note
Mark Starr (1894-1985), was the education director of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union (1935-1960) and a longtime activist in political and civic affairs. Mr. Starr was the chairman of the Liberal Party in Queens from 1945 to 1959 and was the Liberal candidate for the House of Representatives for the district covering western Queens in 1962. As head of the ILGWU Education Department, he supervised a program that offered 600 classes a year in the United States and Canada, established compulsory educational requirements for candidates for union office,with courses offered in trade unionism and related fields. He was president of the American Federation of Teachers. Workers Education Local 189 (during the 1940s), and served on numerous governmental commissions and boards of directors of civic organizations.
Mr. Starr, a native of Somersetshire, England, started work at age 13 as a hod carrier. He began his teaching career with the miners in Wales, ran unsuccessfully as a Labor candidate for Parliament and entered this country in 1928. Mr. Starr was the center of a brief but intense public controversy in 1943, when Mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia nominated him to be the city's first director of adult education. Mr. Starr was the only one of 100 candidates found qualified by a screening committee, but he was rejected by the Board of Education, with the chairman later saying that Mr. Starr was disqualified by his "long record as a labor protagonist."
Arrangement
The collection is organized into two unprocessed series: Accession I, (boxes 1-16), folder level control; Accession II, (boxes 17-45), box level control.
Scope and Contents note
This unprocessed collection contains correspondence, manuscripts, clippings, printed ephemera and subject files. Although these primarily to Starr's activities outside his official capacity as ILGWU Educational Director, many focus on his unflagging interest in adult and workers education. Letters and documents illuminate educational enterprises he associated with, such as: U.S. Advisory Commission on Educational Exchange (the Fulbright program), the U.S. Information Service, New York City Community College, the Ford Foundation, the Georgia Workers Education Service, Harvard Fellowships for union members, a Labor Extension Service Bill for workers' con¬tinuing education, labor education programs abroad, and the United States Works Progress Administrations Workers' Education Project. Correspondence, memoranda, and clippings document attacks on and response of Public Affairs Committee, publishers of educational pamphlets, to McCarthyist attacks by Friends of Democracy in the early 1950's. Drafts of several PAC pamphlets are included.
Some correspondence and documents relate to political groups he associated with at various times, including: Americans for Democratic Action (1942-1959), the League for Industrial Democracy (1944-1958), the American Labor Party (1940-1944), the Liberal Party (1944-1957). One box of material on Japan describes post war labor developments and U.S. interest in trade unionism there; one report describes meeting with Douglass McArthur, whom Starr found impressive. There is also correspondence from 1965 tour of Far East. Manuscripts of published material includes drafts of educational material and pamphlets, and manuscripts for approximately eighty unpublished items, including college essays, and eleven book reviews.
Subjects
Organizations
People
Conditions Governing Access
Materials are open without restrictions.
Conditions Governing Use
Copyright (or related rights to publicity and privacy) for materials in this collection, created by Mark Starr was not transferred to New York University. Permission to use materials must be secured from the copyright holder.
Preferred Citation
Identification of item, date; Mark Starr Papers; TAM 019; box number; folder number; Tamiment Library/Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives, New York University.
Location of Materials
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Donated by Mark Starr in 1983; an additional accession was donated in 1985 by his wife, Helen Starr. The accession number associated with these gifts is 1988.002.
About this Guide
Processing Information
In 2021, creator-supplied titles containing harmfully euphemistic language regarding the forced removal and incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II were identified, but have been retained to convey important contextual information regarding time and place in which the documents and titles were created.
