C. Jacob Potofsky presidential correspondence, 1946-1974.
Scope and Contents
This correspondence covers a wide variety of topics, including the struggles of the union after its break from the United Garment Workers; its organizing campaigns in the major clothing manufacturing centers in the U.S. and Canada; locals and joint boards of the ACWU; charitable organizations; the depression and its impact on the clothing industry; the New Deal; politics and political organizations, including the American Labor Party; strikes and lockouts in the men's garment industry; union business matters; women in the union; worker education; and working conditions in the garment industry.
The officers represented include: Bessie Hillman, Jacob Potofsky, Joseph Schlossberg, John Abt, August Bellanca, Sidney Benjamin, Beatrice Bisno, Hyman Blumberg, Sol Brandzel, Alex Cohen, Tecia Davidson, Gladys Dickason, Charles W. Ervin, J.B.S. Hardman, Abraham Hershkowitz, Louis Hollander, Leo Krzycki, Fred Reinfold, Richard Rohman, Frank Rosenblum, Lester Rosner, Howard Samuel, Jacob Sheinkman, and Valentin Wertheimer. Those officers whose papers are more substantive (Bessie Hillman, Jacob Potofsky, Joseph Schlossberg, and August Bellanca) are represented by individual catalog records.
Other individuals and organizations represented include: the AFL; Dorothy Jacobs Bellanca; the CIO; Sidney Hillman; the NRA; the U.S. Dept. of Labor; and the Women's Trade Union League.
Language of Materials
Collection material in English
Conditions Governing Access
Access to some portions of the collection is restricted; contact Kheel Center reference archivist for further details.
Extent
208.33 cubic feet
Abstract
Correspondence documenting Jacob Potofsky's tenure as president of the ACWU. These two linear feet of correspondence are extremely fragmentary and represent the only surviving part of Potofsky's presidential correspondence. What remains is largely from the late (post 1960) period of Potofsky's tenure. It consists primarily of routine correspondence. Much of it is from charitable organizations, asking for financial support for their activities.
Abstract
There is also a good deal of correspondence from political figures, including Presidents Truman, Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon, congressmen, governors, and mayors, thanking Potofsky for support, inviting him to official functions, or soliciting his aid in their campaigns. Other correspondence deals with ACWA administrative matters, as well as with other labor organizations, including the International Labor Organization and the CIO.
Abstract
Individuals represented in the collection include: Herman Badillo, Justice Arthur Goldberg; Hubert Humphrey; Lady Bird Johnson; Lyndon Johnson; Estes Kefauver; John F. Kennedy; Robert Kennedy; Herbert Lehman; John Lindsay; George McGovern; George Meany; Jawaharlal Nehru; Richard Nixon; Claude Pepper; Victor Reuther; Walter Reuther; Nelson Rockefeller; Adlai Stevenson; Harry Truman; and Harry Van Arsdale of the New York City Central Labor Council.
Abstract
Major organizations represented include: Hart, Schaffner, and Marx; the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union; the International Textile and Garment Workers' Federation; the Jewish Daily Forward; the Jewish Labor Committee; the NAACP; and the various subordinate units of the ACWA.
Repository Details
Part of the Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation & Archives Repository
227 Ives Hall
Ithaca NY 14853