Skip to main content Skip to main navigation

James E. Jackson and Esther Cooper Jackson Papers

Call Number

TAM.347

Dates

1872, 1917-2018, inclusive
; 1937-2000, bulk

Creator

Jackson, James E., 1914-2007 (Role: Donor)
Jackson, Esther Cooper (Role: Donor)

Extent

38 Linear Feet
in 23 record cartons, 13 manuscript boxes, 2 small flat boxes, 1 card box, 1 cassette box, 2 flat-file folders, 1 artwork, and 1 item and 11 folders within three shared boxes

Extent

29 sound tape reels

Extent

4 film reels

Extent

36 audiocassettes

Extent

1 Half_Inch_Video_Reel

Extent

2 Terabytes
in 1 hard disk drive

Language of Materials

Materials are in English.

Abstract

James E. Jackson (1914-2007) and Esther Cooper Jackson (1917-2022) were Black American communists and civil rights activists, as well as founders and leaders of the Southern Negro Youth Congress (1937-1948). James held a number of positions within the Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA), and Esther served as Executive Secretary of the Southern Negro Congress and also managing editor of the publication Freedomways. This collection contains biographical material and ephemera for both James and Esther, photographs, correspondence, most notably an extensive collection of World War II letters between the Jacksons. James' paper files and recordings of lectures and speeches; research notebooks; writings; and subject files are also in this collection. Organizational material related to both the Southern Negro Youth Congress and the publication Freedomways are in this collection. Documents related to the Smith Act indictments of James and other communists and also Communist Party documents are in this collection. Published material by American and Soviet writers collected by the Jacksons is also in this collection.

Biographical Note

James E. Jackson (1914-2007) and Esther Cooper Jackson (1917-2022) were Black American communists and civil rights activists, also known for their role in founding and leading the Southern Negro Youth Congress (SNYC) during the 1930s and 1940s. Both were raised in middle-class families with histories in civil rights activism, James in Richmond, Virginia, and Esther in Arlington, Virginia. James graduated from Virginia Union University in 1934, and Howard University (the alma mater of his parents) from the College of Pharmacy in 1937. After attending Dunbar High School in Washington D.C., Esther Cooper graduated from Oberlin College in 1938, then completed her master's degree at Fisk University in 1940. James joined the Communist Party in 1931, and Esther Cooper joined in 1939. The couple met in 1939 when James was staying at Fisk University while working as an investigator for what would become Gunnar Myrdal's An American Dilemma: The Negro Problem and Modern Democracy (1944). They married in 1941.

James entered the U.S. Army in 1943, serving in the China Burma India Theatre for eighteen months, eventually attaining the rank of sergeant. In the fall of 1945, Esther attended the World Youth Congress in London, where she met W.E.B. Du Bois, beginning a close association with the Jacksons which culminated in Du Bois' decision to join the Communist Party. In 1946 James became State Chairman of the Communist Party of Louisiana. In 1947 the Jacksons moved to Detroit, where James worked as a Party organizer among the autoworkers, while Esther was active in the local branches of the Progressive Party and the Civil Rights Congress. In 1951 the Jacksons moved to New York and James became Southern Director of the Communist Party. Later that year he was indicted under the Smith Act, charged with advocating the overthrow of the U.S. government and went underground to avoid arrest, while Esther worked for the National Committee to Defend Negro Leadership and the Families of Smith Act Victims. Emerging five years later, James was sentenced to prison, although he did not serve time.

Thereafter, James served as a full-time Communist Party official including as a member of its leading Political Bureau, and later, Education Director. He eventually took the position of International Affairs Secretary in which he traveled throughout Communist countries and elsewhere. During this time, Esther was involved in the founding of a Black American political and cultural quarterly, Freedomways in 1961 and served as its editor from 1961 to 1985. James retired in 1991 in the aftermath of the split within the CPUSA.

Sources:

Jackson, Esther Cooper. This Is My Husband: Fighter for His People, Political Refugee. (New York: National Committee to Defend Negro Leadership, 1953).

Kelley, Robin D.G. 'Southern Negro Youth Congress.' In Encyclopedia of the American Left, pp. 737-9. (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1992).

Historical Note

The Southern Negro Youth Congress (SNYC) was an American organization established in 1937 at a conference in Richmond, Virginia. It was established as a left-wing civil rights organization, arising from the National Negro Congress (NNC) and the leftist student movement of the 1930s. The SNYC aimed to empower Black people in the Southern region to fight for their rights and envisioned interracial working-class coalitions as the way to dismantle the southern caste system. The SNYC consisted of young leaders who had participated in the National Negro Congress.

The first gathering of the SNYC consisted of a wide range of individuals including representatives from almost all Historically Black Colleges in the country, Boy and Girl Scouts, steel workers, and members of the YMCA. During the late 1930s and 1940s the SNYC engaged in leading boycotts against discriminatory working environments, registering Black American voters, organizing workers into unions, and assisting rural Black Americans in legal cases. Prominent members of the SNYC included activists James E. Jackson, Helen Gray, Esther Cooper Jackson, Louis Burnham, and Edward E. Strong. The organization also had the support of prominent community figures including Mary McCleod Bethune, Charlotte Hawkins Brown, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and W.E.B Du Bois. The SNYC began to decline in 1949 in part due to the postwar period of the United States caught in the Cold War.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Negro_Youth_Congress viewed on November 3, 2023.

Historical Note

Freedomways was a leading Black American theoretical, political and cultural journal from 1961 until 1985. The journal's founders were Louis Burnham, Edward Strong, and W. E. B. Du Bois. Its first general editor was Shirley Graham Du Bois, followed closely by Esther Cooper Jackson, who served in the role until 1985. The mission was to reflect and influence the rising tide of activism in the U.S., both politically and culturally. The journal published articles, poetry, commentary, short stories, book reviews, readers' forum, and artwork. In addition to noted Black American intellectuals and artists whose work appeared in Freedomways, including writers James Baldwin, Alice Walker, Paul Robeson, Nikki Giovanni, Lorraine Hansberry, and visual artists Jacob Lawrence, Romare Bearden, and Elizabeth Catlett, the journal published the work of international literary authors including Pablo Neruda and Derek Walcott, and political leaders and intellectuals Kwame Nkrumah, Julius K. Nyerere, Agostinho Neto, Jomo Kenyatta, Claudia Jones and C. L. R. James. Prominent entertainers and artists such as Ruby Dee, Ossie Davis, and Harry Belafonte were consistently involved with Freedomways' publication during most of the journal's existence.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedomways viewed on November 3, 2023.

Arrangement

This collection is organized into 15 series with Series IV, XI, XIII, and XV further divided into subseries. Files within these series are organized either alphabetically or chronologically.

I. James E. Jackson Memorabilia and Biographical Material
II. Clippings
III. Communist Party Materials
IV. Correspondence
IV.A. Chronological Correspondence
IV.B. Alphabetical Correspondence
IV.C. Third Party Correspondence
IV.D. Esther and James WWII Letters
V. Freedomways Records
VI. Esther Cooper Jackson Memorabilia and Biographical Material
VII. Lectures
VIII. Notebooks
IX. Smith Act Materials
X. Southern Negro Youth Congress Materials
XI. Speeches
XI.A. Alphabetical Speeches
XI.B. Chronological Speeches
XII. Subject Files
XIII. Writings, Published
XIII.A. Articles
XIII.B. Leaflets
XIII.C. Pamphlets
XIV. Writings, Unpublished
XV. Writings by Others
XV.A. American, Western European Writers
XV.B. Soviet Writers

Scope and Contents

This collection documents the life-long careers of James E. Jackson and Esther Cooper Jackson, a married Black couple active in the American communist party and civil rights communities within the United States dating from the 1930s to 2010s. Early ephemera and photographs in this collection from Esther and James' years in high school and college, provide a view into the lives and education of two young Black Americans living in the 1930s and 1940s. Personal and professional correspondence for both Jacksons is in this collection, with most notably a comprehensive selection of their World War II letters to each other, written almost daily. James' professional writing is represented through his subject files; research notebooks; and published and unpublished works. His speaking engagements took place nationally and internationally and are documented in his manuscripts, notes, promotional material, and audio recordings of lectures and speeches dating from 1946 to 2001.

Esther and James' involvement with organizations including the Southern Negro Youth Congress (SNYC), and the publication, Freedomways, is documented in this collection through correspondence, financial reports, event ephemera, promotional material, and photographs of staff and events dating from the 1930s through 2000s. Materials pertaining to James' Smith Act indictments, and general information and program material on the Communist Party are also in this collection. Individuals represented in this collection through correspondence and photographs include: Carl Bloice, Lloyd Brown, Dorothy and Louis Burnham, Angela Davis, Benjamin Davis, Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, Eugene and Peggy Dennis, Shirley Graham Du Bois, W.E.B. Du Bois, Martin Duberman, Viriginia Durr, William Z. Foster, Simon Gerson, Gus Hall, Ollie Harrington, Hosea Hudson, Alphaeus Hunton, Pablo Neruda, John Pittman, Pete Seeger, Edward Strong, Alice Walker, Mary Helen Washington, Jim West, Robert Williams, Henry Winston, and Carl Winter.

Subjects

Conditions Governing Access

Materials are open without restrictions.

Conditions Governing Use

Any rights (including copyright and related rights to publicity and privacy) to the majority of materials in this collection held by James Jackson and Esther Cooper Jackson were transferred to New York University in 2005 by James and Esther Cooper. Permission to publish or reproduce materials in this collection must be secured from Tamiment Library/Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives. Please contact Tamiment Library/Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives, special.collections@nyu.edu, 212-998-2596.

Copyright (and related rights to publicity and privacy) to James Jackson's and Esther Cooper Jackson's World War II correspondence are held by Cooper Jackson's heir, Kathryn Jackson. Permission to publish or reproduce materials to which she holds copyright must be secured from the copyright holder. Rights to these letters will pass to NYU on February 1, 2112.

Preferred Citation

Identification of item, date; James E. Jackson and Esther Cooper Jackson Papers; TAM 347; box number; folder number or item identifier; Tamiment Library/Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives, New York University.

Location of Materials

Some materials are stored offsite and advance notice is required for use. Please request materials at least two business days prior to your research visit to coordinate access.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

James and Esther Jackson sent a gift of their papers in 2006. A flier and news release pertaining to the National Committee to Defend Negro Leadership found in repository were added to the collection in 2014. In 2015, Esther Jackson donated an additional four boxes of papers, photographs, and an audio recording related to her and James Jackson's personal and professional lives. In 2016 Esther Jackson donated additional photographs and clippings concerning the Southern Negro Youth Congress. Plaques, sound reels, objects, and posters were donated in May and June of 2018. The accession numbers associated with this collection are 2006.009, NPA.2006.077, 2014.040, 2015.063, 2016.021, 2018.140, 2018.141, and 2019.019.

Audiovisual Access Policies and Procedures

Some audiovisual material have not been preserved and may not be available to researchers. Material 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 Library/Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives, special.collections@nyu.edu, 212-998-2596 with the collection name, collection number, and a description of the item requested. A staff member will respond to you with further information.

Appraisal

The following were removed from the collection: (5) 1/4 inch audio reel of Russian language lessons; (1) Unopened, blank 1/4 inch audio reel; Plastic container with lead spent bullets(?) on a string; and ephemera that falls outside the scope of the Library's collecting.

Separated Materials

Some of the photographs were separated to the James E. Jackson and Esther Cooper Jackson Photographs (PHOTOS 221). A collection of the audio cassettes were separated to the James E. Jackson Audiotapes Collection (OH 057). Original drawings by Ollie Harrington were separated to the Non Print Department.

Three folders of assorted artifacts and ephemera were separated to the Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives General Ephemera and Artifacts Collection (EPHEMERA ARTIFACTS 0010, including Unprocessed Accession: NPA-2006-077 within the record).

Related Materials

James E. Jackson and Esther Cooper Jackson Photographs (PHOTOS-221); James E. Jackson Audiotapes Collection (OH-057); and General Tamiment and Wagner Ephemera and Artifacts Collection (EPHEMERA-ARTIFACTS-001)

Existence and Location of Copies

A selection of material from Series III through XV was digitized and now available to view through Gale Primary Sources Archives Unbound website, under the title Southern Negro Youth Congress and the Communist Party.

Collection processed by

Peter Meyer Filardo and Aniko Szucs, 2006

About this Guide

This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on 2024-02-06 14:03:05 -0500.
Using Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language: Finding aid is in English

Processing Information

Collection was reboxed in December 2011. The current finding aid reflects the changes made. A copy of the old finding aid is available upon request.

Additional material found in the repository was added to the collection in 2014. Materials donated in 2015 and 2016 were added to the collection as Series XVI: Accretions. Documents from this donation were originally grouped by donor. Materials have been rehoused and boxes condensed, but original groupings of materials were maintianed.

In June 2017, archivists located a box of materials with accession number NPA 2006.077, indicating these materials were separated from TAM 347. These materials have now been reincorporated into the collection.

In 2023, material from 2015 to 2019 accretions totalling 13 linear feet (in boxes 25-40, and Flat-file folders 5 and 7) was processed and added to the collection. All folders and boxes were replaced with acid-free supplies. Duplicate paper items were removed from the collection. Oversized material was unfolded and placed in appropriately-sized housing. Titles were created by the processing archivist, often supplementing information provided on original folder titles. Preservation Lab staff removed a loose, mounted diploma from its wooden base. The audiovisiual material was numbered, labeled, and listed individually in their appropriate series inventory.

Revisions to this Guide

June 2017: Jasmine Larkin added Series XVI: Separated Materials, Box 30, to the finding aid.
November 2017: Updated by Megan O'Shea to prepare one item for a move to offsite art storage in winter 2017
December 2018: Updated by Rachel Searcy to reflect 2018 accretions
February 2019: Updated by Rachel Searcy to reflect 2019 accretions found in repository
February 2023: Updated by Rachel Mahre to state some audio materials have been digitized and are accessible to patrons
November 2023: Updated by Stacey Flatt to reflect the processed 2015-1019 Accretion material and add ACM Required Elements for Archival Description to the existing finding aid.

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