William A. Price Papers
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Abstract
William Addison Price (1915-2009) was a journalist and community organizer. He worked for the New York Daily News as a United Nations correspondent and later wrote about social issues in New York City and the civil rights movement in the South for the National Guardian. In 1956, Price invoked his First Amendment rights when called before the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee, which was investigating allegations of Communist infiltration in the media. Price began working with the United Tenants Association (UTA) and other housing rights organizations in the 1970s, fighting the New York City government's plans to develop the Upper West Side. The collection is mostly comprised of materials generated by the UTA and other housing rights groups, as well as the New York City government, regarding urban renewal plans in the designated West Side Urban Renewal Area (WSURA). There are also materials related to the civil rights movement, the opposition to the House Un-American Activities Committee and other Congressional inquisitorial groups, and the state of journalism and journalists' unions. The collection also contains biographical information on Price, particularly his World War II service.
Historical/Biographical Note
William Addison Price (1915-2009) was a journalist and community organizer. He grew up in Montclair, NJ and flew air-rescue missions for the Navy during World War II, earning the rank of lieutenant. Price's war experiences inspired him to become a socialist. He joined the New York Daily News in 1940, eventually becoming the paper's United Nations correspondent. In 1948, Price and other members of the Newspaper Guild founded the Newsmen's Committee to Investigate the Murder of George Polk, who was Price's cousin and a fellow journalist. (Polk was murdered in Greece during the Greek civil war by forces allied with the anti-communist government.)
Price appeared before the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee, an inquisitorial committee which was investigating allegations that Communists had infiltrated the media, in 1956. The Subcommittee inquired if Price was a member of the Communist Party and if he used the plane he owned as a courier aircraft for the Communist International. Price invoked the First Amendment, rather than the Fifth, and argued that the Subcommittee did not have the right to inquire into his political beliefs. He was fired from the Daily News after testifying before the Subcommittee, and additionally was found guilty of contempt of Congress and was fined and imprisoned. Price's appearance before the inquisitorial committee and its aftermath spurred him to become a participant in the Committee of First Amendment Defendants coordinating committee. He also served as secretary of the New York Council to Abolish the House Un-American Activities Committee.
Price later wrote for the National Guardian, covering social issues in New York City and the civil rights movement in the South. In 1981, Price was awarded $10,000 by the Department of Justice after the FBI's "Squad 47" was found to have illegally wiretapped Price and four others on suspicion that they were associated with the Weather Underground. During the 1980s and 1990s, Price was a member and periodic resident of a congregate living house on Fire Island.
Beginning in the 1970s and continuing into the 2000s, Price worked with a number of community organizations on New York City's Upper West Side to defend tenants' rights and protest the city's urban renewal plans. He was particularly active with the United Tenants Association (UTA), an organization of tenants who lived in buildings in the city's designated West Side Urban Renewal Area (WSURA), and was treasurer of the later dissident subgroup of UTA, the Ad Hoc Committee for Low-Rent Housing. Founded in 1977 by the mostly low-income inhabitants of several city-owned buildings, UTA fought for the right to manage and rehabilitate the buildings in which its members lived, fearing that development in the WSURA would raise rents and push minority groups out of the area. The city's Fifth Amendment to the WSURA plan was passed by the early 1980s and guaranteed UTA tenants the right to rehabilitate the buildings they inhabited as low-rent apartments. However, it was not until 1991 that UTA began renovating the buildings through the city's Mutual Housing Association program (run by the Department of Housing Preservation and Development), thereby forming the United Tenants Association/Mutual Housing Association-Housing Development Fund Corporation, Inc. (UTA/MHA-HDFC, Inc.). Members of UTA's Ad Hoc Committee contended that UTA's association with the Mutual Housing Association would cause rents to continually increase and cause further gentrification of the area, as many low-income families in the area had already been relocated by urban renewal. In addition to the dispute between UTA/MHA-HDFC, Inc. and UTA Ad Hoc, UTA/MHA-HDFC, Inc. also brought nonpayment proceedings against Price and other tenants who refused to pay the increased interim rents.
Arrangement
This collection is unprocessed. Materials are arranged in the order in which they were received from the donor.
Scope and Contents
The collection, which spans from the 1930s to the 2000s but dates mostly from the 1960s through 1990s, is a rich source of information for researchers interested in tenants' rights in New York City's Upper West Side. The collection is predominately comprised of agendas and minutes; proposals and reports; legal documents; correspondence and memoranda; press releases; news clippings; and flyers, pamphlets, and other printed ephemera related to the debates over the development of the city's designated West Side Urban Renewal Area (WSURA). Most of the materials were generated by the United Tenants Association (UTA), later known as the United Tenants Association/Mutual Housing Authority-Housing Development Fund Corporation, Inc. (UTA/MHA-HDFC, Inc.). The materials document UTA's protests to the city's urban renewal plans for the WSURA and its promotion of the construction of low-income housing. The collection also reflects the internal politics of UTA, particularly the dispute between UTA/MHA-HDFC, Inc. and UTA's Ad Hoc Committee for Low-Rent Housing and UTA/MHA-HDFC, Inc. against Price. Government entities represented in the collection, which UTA and other community groups frequently interacted with, include Community Board #7, the NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD), and HPD's Division of Alternative Management Programs (DAMP). The activities of other community groups with an interest in the development of the Upper West Side are also documented, including (but not limited to) the Strycker's Bay Neighborhood Council, the Community Service Society of New York, the Metropolitan Council on Housing, the 87th Street West Park Association, the Urban Homesteading Assistance Board (UHAB), and Community Action, Inc. (particularly Operation Move-In). There are also materials generated by the Committee of Neighbors to Insure a Normal Urban Environment (CONTINUE), which, in contrast to most other community group included in the collection, opposed the construction of subsidized housing.
The collection also speaks to the political environment of the mid-20th century, particularly the civil rights movement and the resistance to anti-Communist investigations. Newsletters, flyers, reports, news clippings, correspondence, and other materials pertaining to the civil rights movement were collected by Price through his coverage of the movement as a journalist and his personal involvement in the cause. Many of these materials were generated by the Southern Conference Educational Fund (SCEF), as well as the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and other activist groups. Two boxes of reel-to-reel recording tapes appear to be mostly of civil rights meetings and events. A significant amount of the collection pertains to activism against the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) and other Congressional inquisitorial committees in the form of memoranda and correspondence, flyers, governing documents, press releases, newsletters, and other materials, many created by the National Committee to Abolish the House Un-American Activities Committee (NCAHUAC) or the group's local New York Council to Abolish HUAC. In a similar vein, there are subject files on First Amendment cases compiled by the Committee of First Amendment Defendants (CFDA).
To a much lesser extent, the collection includes clippings and correspondence that provide biographical information on Price. Especially noteworthy is Price's family correspondence from World War II, when Price served as a Navy pilot. Materials created by the Communist Party, both national and New York branches, and the Independent-Socialist Party reflect Price's political affiliations. The collection also serves as a resource for researchers interested in the organization and activism of newspaper unions and offices, as it contains correspondence and other materials from the Newspaper Guild, the Guild's Newsmen's Commission to Investigate the Murder of George Polk, and the National Guardian. A small amount of material relates to Price's time on Fire Island (including the journals he kept while living there) and the "Squad 47" wiretapping case.
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Conditions Governing Access
Materials are open without restrictions with the exception of Box 10, Box 14, and Box 15. Repository permission is required for access to Box 10, Box 14, and Box 15. Please contact Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archive, tamiment.wagner@nyu.edu, 212-998-2630.
Conditions Governing Use
Any rights (including copyright and related rights to publicity and privacy) held William A. Price were transferred to New York University in 2007 by Elizabeth. Permission to publish or reproduce materials in this collection must be secured from the Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archive. Please contact tamiment.wagner@nyu.edu.
Preferred Citation
Published citations should take the following form:
Identification of item, date; William A. Price Papers; TAM 398; Box number; Folder number; Tamiment Library/Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives, New York University.
Location of Materials
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Elizabeth Price sent two donations of William A. Price's papers in 2007 and 2009. In 2011, Hope DeRogatis sent an additional eight boxes of William Price's files on West Side Housing and West Side Urban Renewal. Louis Albano sent an additional gift of five of Price's journals from Fire Island House in 2012. The accession numbers associated with these gifts are 2007.018, 2009.064, 2011.094, and 2012.078.
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
Some materials in boxes 2, 7, 8, 11, 12, 13, 17, 18, 20, and 22 are especially fragile and should be handled with care.
Box 10 was isolated due to suspected mold growth and is currently closed to researchers. Boxes 14 and 15, which contain reel-to-reel tapes in poor condition, are also closed.
Audiovisual Access Policies and Procedures
Audiovisual materials have not been preserved and may not be available to researchers. Materials not yet digitized will need to have access copies made before they can be used. To request an access copy, or if you are unsure if an item has been digitized, please contact tamiment.wagner@nyu.edu with the collection name, collection number, and a description of the item(s) requested. A staff member will respond to you with further information.
Separated Materials
Runs of City Star and other publications were separated for library cataloging. An oversize photograph from Box 2 was separated to Box OS004, which is indicated in the collection with a removal slip.
Unannotated duplicates of printed ephemera created in bulk were sampled and the remainder discarded. A run of the National Guardian from 1966-1967 was removed from the collection. Individual bank statements and checks were also discarded.
About this Guide
Processing Information
Some materials from the 2011 accretion (Boxes 16 through 21) were rehoused in archival quality folders shortly after they were donated to the Tamiment Library. Some materials which suffered extensive fire damage may have been discarded during the rehousing process.
In 2013, the entire collection was assessed for preservation needs. Some materials were placed in new archival quality folders if the original folders were damaging the materials (i.e. if the original folders were dirty or overstuffed). Original folder titles were retained when provided. Any other information on the original folders was photocopied and placed in the new folders. Folder titles added by the archivist are indicated with square brackets. Acid-free paper was used to separate photographs from any acidic materials. In some instances, materials which suffered fire damage were placed in mylar or were separated from other materials with acid-free paper. A folder containing Social Security numbers was redacted with permanent marker. Materials were shifted between boxes to correct understuffing.