New York State Joint Legislative Committee to Investigate Seditious Activities Suspected Radical Organizations Seized Files L0029

New York State Joint Legislative Committee to Investigate Seditious Activities Suspected Radical Organizations Seized Files

Some content may contain outdated and offensive terminology. See: New York State Archives Statement on Language in Descriptive Resources

Overview of the Records

Repository:

New York State Archives
New York State Education Department
Cultural Education Center
Albany, NY 12230

Summary:

The Joint Legislative Committee to Investigate Seditious Activities (known as the "Lusk Committee for its chairman Clayton R. Lusk) seized these records during raids on suspected radical organizations including the Communist Party, the Rand School, the Socialist Party Left Wing Section, and the Workers Defense Unions. Records include correspondence, meeting minutes, organization by-laws, membership lists, receipts, reports, pamphlets, and published articles relating to the philosophy, organization, membership, publications, and activities of both the national organizations and their local branches in New York.

Creator:

New York (State). Legislature. Joint Legislative Committee to Investigate Seditious Activities

Title:

Suspected radical organizations seized files

Quantity:

1 cubic foot

Inclusive Dates:

1916-1919

Series Number:

L0029

Arrangement

Organized into 2 subseries: Subseries 1, Original Records, 1918-1919, 0.5 cubic foot, and Subseries 2, Photostatic Copies of Seized Records, 1916-1919, 0.5 cubic foot, are both arranged alphabetically by name of organization.

Scope and Content Note

The series consists of original and photostatic copies of records from approximately a dozen organizations suspected of radical activities. The records were seized by the committee during raids on the organizations' headquarters in New York City in order to gather information and evidence about suspected radical groups and individuals. The records include correspondence, meeting minutes, pamphlets, articles, organization and membership lists, and other materials.

The records pertain to the various groups' organization, philosophy, membership, meetings, educational programs, and publications. There is information both on national organizations and their local branches, such as the Communist Party, the Socialist Party, the Union of Russian Workers, and the Workers Defense Union. Some non-English language materials are found in this series.

Subseries 1, Original Records, 1918-1919, 0.5 cubic foot. This subseries pertains to activity of nine suspected radical organizations. The majority of records relate to the Communist Party and to the left wing section of the Socialist Party.

Subseries 2, Photostatic Copies of Seized Records, 1916-1919, 0.5 cubic foot. This subseries pertains to a number of suspected radical organizations. This subseries contains a number of articles appearing in various radical publications and approximately 50 letters, articles, and reports in Russian without translations. Some organizations represented in this subseries are also found in Subseries 1, and while some of these copies duplicate original documents in Subseries 1, most do not.