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Estate sale find, vintage original copy of Ben Davis Crusader for Negro Freedom & Socialism by William L Patterson, With a chronology and bibliography of the life and writings of Benjamin J. Davis prepared by Dr. Oakley C. Johnson. 1967.
Benjamin Jefferson “Ben” Davis Jr. (1903 – 1964), was an African-American lawyer and communist who was elected in 1943 to the city council of New York City, representing Harlem. He faced increasing opposition from outside Harlem after the end of World War II.
In 1949 he was among a number of communist leaders prosecuted for violating the Smith Act. He was convicted and sentenced to five years in prison.
Benjamin J. Davis Jr. – known to his friends as “Ben” – was born September 8, 1903, in Dawson, Georgia. The family moved to Atlanta in 1909, where Davis’s father, “Big Ben” Davis, established a weekly black newspaper, the Atlanta Independent.
It was successful enough to provide a comfortable middle-class upbringing for his family. The elder Benjamin Davis emerged as a prominent black political leader and served as a member of the Republican National Committee for the state of Georgia.
The younger Ben Davis Jr. attended the high school program of Morehouse College in Atlanta. He left the South to study at Amherst College, where he earned his B.A. in 1925.  Davis continued his education at Harvard Law School, from which he graduated in 1929. Davis worked briefly as a journalist before starting a law practice in Atlanta in 1932.
Davis moved to Harlem, New York in 1935, joining the Great Migration of blacks out of the South to northern cities. He worked as editor of the Communist Party’s newspaper targeted to African-Americans, The Negro Liberator. He later became editor of the CPUSA’s official English-language daily, The Daily Worker.
Davis became radicalized through his role as defense attorney in the 1933 trial of Angelo Herndon, a 19-year-old black Communist who had been charged with violating a Georgia law against “attempting to incite insurrection”, because he tried to organize a farm workers’ union. Davis asked the International Juridical Association to review his brief.
During the trial, Davis faced angry, racist opposition from the judge and public. He was impressed with the rhetoric and bravery of Herndon and his colleagues. After giving concluding arguments, he joined the Communist Party himself.
The booklet measures approximately 5.5″ X 8.5″,  48 pages, shipping weight approximately 5 ounces.
PLEASE SEE DESCRIPTION AND PHOTOS FOR ADDITIONAL DETAILS – The booklet is in overall Fair to Good Minus used condition with signs of wear, soiling, stains, age toning, fading, tears, creases, no writing, no odors, please see images.
(C1B11-106)