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Abraham Unger Papers

Call Number

TAM.157

Date

1936-1980, inclusive

Creator

Unger, Abraham, 1899-1975
Unger, Nick (Role: Donor)
Starcevic, Elizabeth (Role: Donor)

Extent

14 Linear Feet
in 12 record cartons and 4 manuscript box

Language of Materials

Materials are in English

Abstract

Abraham Unger (1899-1975) was a lawyer, Communist, a founder and officer of the National Lawyers Guild and leader of its New York City Chapter, and beginning in 1948, partner in the law firm of Freedman and Unger. His defendants included the Communist Party USA, various state-level Party organizations, individual Communists and progressive activists, radical and/or Communist-associated labor unions and their leaders and activists, Puerto Rican nationalists, and fellow lawyers charged with contempt and other crimes in connection with their defense of radicals. The collection contains personal and legal correspondence; legal documents pertaining to cases handled by Unger andd those of interest to him; published and unpublished writings; records of the National Lawyers Guild and of its New York City chapter; subject files; and clippings and printed ephemera.

Historical/Biographical Note

Abraham Unger (1899-1975) was a lawyer, Communist, a founder and officer of the National Lawyers Guild and leader of its New York City Chapter, and beginning in 1948, partner in the law firm of Freedman and Unger. His defendants included the Communist Party USA, various state-level Party organizations, individual Communists and progressive activists, radical and/or Communist-associated labor unions and their leaders and activists, Puerto Rican nationalists, and fellow lawyers charged with contempt and other crimes in connection with their defense of radicals. Unger was a graduate of the New York University Law School. As a member of the International Labor Defense, he took part in the preparation of the defense of nine young African American men convicted of rape in Scottsboro, Alabama in 1931. Unger also defended the first twelve Communist Party USA top leaders indicted under the Smith Act in 1949 (for conspiring to advocate the violent overthrow of the U.S. government), and was himself indicted for contempt in 1953 for refusing to answer questions from Senator Joseph McCarthy before the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, including whether or not he headed the Party's section for professionals. Unger also defended Puerto Rican nationalist Juan Bernardo Lebron who was charged as a conspirator in the 1954 attack on the US House of Representatives, and petitioned for the commutation of Oscar Collazo's life sentence for his 1952 attempted assassination of Harry Truman.

Arrangement

The collection is organized into six series. Files in series I-V are arranged alphabetically by topic or document type. Matierials in Series VI: 2016 Accretion have not been arranged by an archivist and are in the order in which they were received by the donor.

The series in this collection are as follows:

Series I: Biographical Materials, Correspondence, and Writings; Series II: Cases; Series III: National Lawyers Guild; Series IV: National Lawyers Guild. New York City Chapter; Series V: Subject Files; Series VI: 2016 Accretion

Scope and Contents

The collection contains personal and legal correspondence; legal documents pertaining both to cases handled by Abraham Unger and those of interest to him; published and unpublished writings; records of the National Lawyers Guild and of its New York City chapter; subject files; and clippings and printed ephemera.

Notable correspondents include lawyers Bella Abzug, Ben Margolin and Samuel Rosewein. Notable clients represented (usually as defendants) include: The American Communications Association, attorney Maurice Braverman and Abraham Isserman (contempt / disbarment in connection with Smith Act case activity); the Communist Party state organizations of Alabama, Colorado, Georgia, Louisiana, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia, and Washington; Gerhart Eisler (passport and deportation); and (on behalf of Curran), Andrew Furuseth, President of International Seamen's Union of America v. Joseph Curran, Joseph, Chairman Provisional Strike Committee (1936), Willie McGee, and Unger's son Nicholas. The National Lawyers Guild series includes correspondence of Unger and other members, minutes of the executive board and of several committees, including that overseeing the publication of the Lawyers Guild Review, convention materials, and statements and resolutions and other internal documents. The NLG New York City Chapter series contains executive board minutes and correspondence, files on New York State court reform, committee and general records, membership lists, and resolutions and statements.

The Subject Files series covers numerous organizations, causes, events, and some individuals, with an overall focus on civil rights and liberties and laws and legislation. Files include: the American Bar Association, American Birobidjan Committee, Anti Red Ordinance (Birmingham, AL), Ben Davis Bail Committee, Oscar Collazo (Puerto Rican nationalist), the Columbia University Student Strike of 1968, the Committee to abolish HUAC (U.S. House Committee on Unh-American Activities), Council on African Affairs, Emergency Civil Liberties Committee, Bill Eption (Puerto Rican nationalist), International Labor Defense, Lawyers Committee to End the War in Vietnam, the New York State's 1949 "Feinberg" law (providing for the dismissal of teachers belonging to "subversive" organizations), and the Trade Union Committee to Defend Louis Weinstock.

Materials added to the collection in 2016 predominantly include documents related to Unger's legal defense of members of the Puerto Rican Independence Movement. They include Unger's notes and legal documents related to the cases of Oscar Collazo and Juan Bernardo Lebron, both of whom he defended in the 1950s. The accretion also contains clippings, ephemera, and articles related to the Puerto Rican Independence Movement and its leader Pedro Albizu Campos. Other materials in this accretion include Unger's personal correspondence between 1947 and 1952 and papers related to Unger's involvement in the Communist Party of the United States.

Conditions Governing Access

Materials open without restrictions.

Conditions Governing Use

Copyright (and related rights to publicity and privacy) to materials in this collection created by Abraham Unger was not transferred to New York University. Permission to use materials must be secured from the copyright holder.

Preferred Citation

Identification of item, date; Abraham Unger Papers; TAM 157; box number; folder number; Tamiment Library/Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives, New York University.

Location of Materials

Materials stored offsite and advance notice is required for use. Please contact tamiment.wagner@nyu.edu at least two business days prior to research visit.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Donated by Elizabeth Starcevic and Nick Unger in 1995; additional materials were donated by Elizabeth Starcevic in 2016. The accession numbers associated with these gifts are 1950.134 and 2017.001.

Collection processed by

Tamiment staff, 2010

About this Guide

This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on 2024-03-06 16:21:45 -0500.
Using Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language: Description is in English

Processing Information

Information regrading processing descisions made prior to 2016 have not been recorded. In 2016 four boxes of papers related to members of the Puerto Rican independence movement were added to the collection as Series VI: 2016 Accretion. Materials from this accertion were moved into archival housing. Original folder titles were retained and titles for any loose items or unlabeled files were supplied by the archivist. At the time of accessioning materials were described at the series-level with a brief box list. These materials have not been arranged by an archivist and are in the order in which they were received from the donor.

Revisions to this Guide

January 2017: Edited by Heather Mulliner to include materials from 2016 accession
March 2024: Updated by Anna Björnsson McCormick to reflect the rehousing of material

Repository

Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives
Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives
Elmer Holmes Bobst Library
70 Washington Square South
2nd Floor
New York, NY 10012