American Youth Congress Records
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Abstract
The American Youth Congress Records was an umbrella organization of United States youth advocacy groups, active from 1938-1941. Its intention was to unite these disparate groups under a single voice to promote opportunities for education and civic involvement for Depression-era youth, and to lobby on behalf of the under-21 population which at this time had no voting voice. The collection contains official correspondence, office files (financial reports, dunning letters from creditors, internal memoranda, etc.), and printed promotional material including brochures, posters, flyers, broadsides and fundraising material from a wide variety of pre-World War II youth organizations in the United States, Latin America and Europe.
Historical/Biographical Note
The American Youth Congress (AYC) was established in 1935 as an umbrella organization of American youth advocacy groups. Its intention was to unite these disparate groups under a single voice to promote opportunities for education and civic involvement for Depression-era youth, and to lobby on behalf of the under-21 population. The AYC won the vocal support of First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, and established itself as a powerful lobbying entity. Among many other causes, the AYC undertook lobbying efforts on behalf of racial justice, increased federal spending on education, and an end to mandatory participation in the Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC) for male college students. In its final years, with WWII looming, the AYC fought a vigorous battle against the Conscription Act and advocated American neutrality in the war. From its inception the AYC followed a policy of inclusiveness, welcoming youth organizations of all political views to join and contribute. But as its membership grew (the AYC claimed to represent at least 4.5 million citizens in 1938), left-leaning groups such as the American Student Union and the Young Communist League began to comprise the largest block of members, and the leadership of the AYC became increasingly radicalized, until by 1940 many of its upper-level members, including Director Joseph Cadden and Secretary Joseph Lash, also claimed membership in Communist Party front organizations. The AYC came under frequent attack from the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) and particularly from the committee chairman Martin Dies, whose 1940 book The Trojan Horse in America was largely an exposé of Communist infiltration in the AYC ranks. Under the pressure of these HUAC attacks, and following its notorious anti-war, anti-Roosevelt rally on the White House lawn in 1940, the AYC lost the support of its few remaining political allies, including Eleanor Roosevelt; by 1941 its influence had all but waned, and the group was effectively disbanded by the end of that year.
Arrangement
The collection has not been arranged by an archivist.
Scope and Content Note
The collection documents in detail the AYC's activities during its final four years (1938-1941), under the directorship of Frances Williams and, later, Joseph Cadden (the most frequent correspondent). It includes an extensive file of correspondence between Cadden and members of the Senate and House of Representatives on legislation including the Conscription Act, the continuing funding of the Civilian Conservation Corps, and support of the Neutrality Act. Of great interest are the extensive files of correspondence with member organizations ranging from municipal boys' clubs and the YMCA on the right, to the Student Union, the Southern Negro Youth Congress, International Labor Defense, and other radical or semi-radical organizations on the left. There is also an extensive file of correspondence relating to the organization of an International Youth Congress in 1941, including correspondence with dozens of youth organizations in Latin America and Europe; much of this correspondence is accompanied by examples of these foreign delegations' publications and promotional materials, most of which are extremely ephemeral newsprint or mimeograph productions. Nearly all are unabashedly anti-Fascist, pro-Marxist in tone and the collected result must represent a nearly unique accumulation of several hundred pieces of International leftist youth propaganda in the years prior to the Second World War. Finally, the archive includes several hundred internal documents, including invoices (often accompanied by increasingly urgent letters from creditors), memoranda, and printed materials reflecting the increasingly deteriorated state of the organization in its final waning years.
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Conditions Governing Access
Materials are open without restrictions.
Conditions Governing Use
Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archive has no information about copyright ownership for this collection and is not authorized to grant permission to publish or reproduce materials from it. Materials in this collection, which were created in 1938-1941, are expected to enter the public domain in 2061.
Preferred Citation
Identification of item, date; American Youth Congress Records; TAM 553; box number; folder number; Tamiment Library/Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives, New York University.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Purchased from Lorne Bair Rare Books in 2010. The accession number associated with this gift is 2010.074.
Custodial History
Lorne Bair Rare Books purchased the American Youth Congress office files and correspondence in 2009 from a salvage company at a New York flea market. In 2010, Tamiment Library purchased the collection from Lorne Bair Rare Books.
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
The collection contains a significant portion of fragile material, as well as some material that is housed in fragile folders, and these materials may require preservation measures prior to being made available for research.
About this Guide
Processing Information
In 2014, the original description provided by Lorne Bair Rare Books was reformatted to EAD.
