William L. Patterson
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
William L. Patterson (1890–1980) was a leader in the Communist Party USA and head of the International Labor Defense, a group that offered legal representation to communists, trade unionists, and African-Americans in cases involving issues of political or racial persecution. He was later active in the Civil Rights Congress, and in 1950 presented a document, We Charge Genocide, to the United Nations, charging the U.S. federal government with complicity in genocide for failing to take action against lynching in the United States.
He was married to Louise Thompson Patterson.
Patterson was the first African-American graduate of Tamalpais High School, Mill Valley, California, in 1911. In the yearbook, his stated ambition was “to be a second Booker T. Washington.”[1]
[edit] Notes
- ^ Tamalpais Graduate, 1911, Tamalpais Union High School, Mill Valley, California
 |
This biographical article about a United States activist is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
