Joseph Gelders

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Joseph Gelders
Gelders in 1936
BornNovember 20, 1898
Birmingham, Alabama, US
DiedMarch 1, 1950(1950-03-01) (aged 51)
San Francisco, California, US
Alma materUniversity of Alabama
Occupation(s)Physicist, antiracist, civil rights activist, labor organizer, communist
Organizations
Movement
Children
Relatives

Joseph Sidney Gelders (November 20, 1898 – March 1, 1950) was an American physicist who later became an

labor organizer, and communist. In the mid-1930s, he served as the secretary and southern-U.S. representative of the National Committee for the Defense of Political Prisoners. In September 1936, Gelders was kidnapped, beaten, and nearly killed by members of the Ku Klux Klan for his civil rights and labor organizing activities. After his recovery, Gelders continued his activism and cofounded the Southern Conference for Human Welfare and the National Committee to Abolish the Poll Tax. He collaborated closely with other activists including Lucy Randolph Mason and Virginia Foster Durr
. Internal injuries sustained during his kidnapping and assault led to Gelders' death on March 1, 1950.

Early life and education

Gelders was born November 20, 1898, in

German-Jewish descent.[1][2][3] He was the son of Blanche Loeb, of Mississippi, and Louis Gelders, a restaurateur and real estate businessperson.[4] His elder sister was author Emma Gelders Sterne, and his brother, Louis Gelders Jr., was a New York architect.[5][6] Gelders attended the University of Alabama for a year and a half before attending the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for a year. Gelders went back to Birmingham and joined the American Legion. He worked at several jobs including "third helper in an open-hearth furnace of the Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad Company."[7] Gelders tried to operate an automobile dealership without success. In 1929, he returned to the University of Alabama and completed a bachelor's and master's degree. After graduating in 1930, Gelders worked at the university as an assistant professor of physics for five years and was also head of the physics laboratory.[7]

Activism

While working at the University of Alabama, Gelders became more aware of oppressive

RCA Corporation in New Jersey.[7] In the summer of 1936, Gelders worked for the release of Communist Party organizer Jack Barton, who had been sentenced to 180 days in jail for being in possession of "communistic literature."[9] In August 1936, he became the southern representative for the CDPP.[7][10]

Kidnapping and assault

Gelders recovering in a Clayton, Alabama, hospital[11]

At 11:30 pm on September 23, 1936, Gelders was on his way home from an International Labor Defense (ILD) meeting when he was kidnapped on a Birmingham street and flogged with a leather strap. The abductors read and mocked Gelders's Scottsboro Boys–related documents, calling him a "dammed red" and "nigger lover."[7][11] After a national outcry, Alabama Governor Bibb Graves, who had connections with the Ku Klux Klan, ordered a state police investigation and authorized a $200 reward (equivalent to US$4,391 in 2023).[7] Police found four suspects, three of whom Gelders positively identified.[9] One was an employee of the Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad Company. Some accounts state that they were members of the Ku Klux Klan.[1] Despite an additional investigation by the La Follette Committee, no indictments were filed. In a private letter to the governor, the chief detective, G. C. Giles, remarked that the economic considerations would prevent convictions.[9]

Continued activism

In the spring of 1938, Gelders went to

United Mine Workers, and the Alabama Director of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO).[12] Eleanor Roosevelt attended the first SCHW on November 20, 1938.[13] A continuing organization was established as an outcome of this conference, and Gelders was designated executive secretary of the Civil Rights Committee. In this role, he targeted poll taxes in the United States.[12]

Gelders and civil rights activist

New Deal liberalism believed that abolition of the poll tax was a necessary step in reshaping the Democratic Party in the South and defeating the conservative oligarchy of large planters and industrialists that kept most southern citizens disenfranchised and impoverished.[14]

Military career

On July 2, 1918, Gelders enlisted in the U.S. Army during

Signal Corps, at Camp Kohler. He was honorably discharged on July 24, 1944.[2]

Personal life

Esther Josephine (née Frank) Gelders and daughters c. 1936

Gelders married Esther Josephine Frank on November 19, 1919, at the Standard Club in

internal injuries that Gelders sustained from his kidnapping and beating in 1936 eventually led to his death on March 1, 1950, in San Francisco.[1][12][22] He was interred on March 7, 1950, at the Golden Gate National Cemetery.[1]

See also

References

  1. ^
    ISBN 978-1-4696-2083-1
    .
  2. ^ a b "US National Cemetery Interment Control Forms QMC Form 14". April 28, 1950 – via Ancestry.com.
  3. JSTOR 3250602
    .
  4. ^ Jolly, Peggy B. (July 7, 2009). "Emma Gelders Sterne". Encyclopedia of Alabama. Retrieved March 1, 2021.
  5. ^ Dalrymple, Dolly (September 4, 1932). "Dolly's Dialogues". The Birmingham News. p. 12. Retrieved November 17, 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. ^ "Obituary for Gelders". The Birmingham News. November 4, 1931. p. 1. Retrieved November 22, 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
  7. ^
    JSTOR 2207401
    .
  8. ^ "Joe Gelders – Communist Party Oral Histories". Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Archives. February 6, 1987. Archived from the original on November 30, 2020. Retrieved November 22, 2020.
  9. ^
    ISSN 0023-656X
    .
  10. ISBN 978-0-8139-0892-2
    .
  11. ^ a b "Abducted, Beaten". The Kane Republican. October 2, 1936. p. 6. Retrieved November 16, 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
  12. ^
    JSTOR 271568
    .
  13. ISBN 978-0-8078-8254-2
    .
  14. ^ Salvatore, Susan Cianci (2007). "Civil Rights in America: Racial Voting Rights" (PDF). National Historic Landmarks Program. Retrieved November 16, 2020.Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  15. ^ "Alabama WWI Service Cards 1917–1919". 1918 – via FamilySearch.
  16. ^ "Marriage of Esthers Josephine". The Montgomery Advertiser. November 6, 1919. p. 6. Retrieved November 16, 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
  17. ^ "Negroes used by 5th columnists to communize south". The Eunice News. December 17, 1940. p. 3. Retrieved November 16, 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
  18. ^ "In Memoriam: Marge Frantz (1922–2015)". October 20, 2020. Archived from the original on October 20, 2020. Retrieved December 2, 2020.
  19. ^ "Margaret Frantz Obituary (1922–2015) – Santa Cruz Sentinel". www.legacy.com. Retrieved December 2, 2020.
  20. ISBN 0-8070-7309-1
    .
  21. ISBN 0-86171-509-8
    .
  22. ^ "California Death Index, 1940–1997" – via FamilySearch.

Further reading

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