Joseph Gelders

Joseph Sidney Gelders (November 20, 1898 – March 1, 1950) was an American physicist who later became an antiracist, civil rights activist, 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 Birmingham, Alabama, to a family of German-Jewish descent. He was the son of Blanche Loeb, of Mississippi, and Louis Gelders, a restaurateur and real estate businessperson. His elder sister was author Emma Gelders Sterne, and his brother, Louis Gelders Jr., was a New York architect. 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."

Activism

While working at the University of Alabama, Gelders became more aware of oppressive anti-labor actions. The catalyst for his civil rights activism and labor organizing efforts was a 1934 ore-miner strike which led to the death of several black miners. Gelders and his wife Esther started hosting a weekly discussion group for students. In 1935, he assisted students in drafting a petition against a state anti-sedition bill. In May 1935, Gelders attended a southern conference on civil liberties hosted by left-wing groups in Monteagle, Tennessee. He was moved by the stories of communists, including Blaine Owen, about beatings and illegal raids. In August 1935, he joined the National Committee for the Defense of Political Prisoners (NCDPP). In fall 1935, Gelders resigned from the University of Alabama to pursue civil liberties advocacy fulltime. He moved to New York City to serve as secretary of the NCDPP. He established an Alabama committee to work on the Scottsboro Boys case. Gelders also investigated civil liberties denial at the RCA Corporation in New Jersey.

Kidnapping and assault

Continued activism In the spring of 1938, Gelders went to Hyde Park, New York, to discuss his idea for the Southern Conference for Human Welfare (SCHW) with U.S. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt. With their support, the conference was open to people of all races and covered topics including social justice, electoral reforms, and improving race relations. Lobbyist Lucy Randolph Mason cofounded the SCHW and played a large role in its development. Gelders also obtained the support of William Mitch, the President of District 20 of the United Mine Workers, and the Alabama Director of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO). 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.

Military career On July 2, 1918, Gelders enlisted in the U.S. Army during World War I at Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia. He served in Coast Artillery Corps, First Company, in Mobile, Alabama, until transferring on October 1, 1918, to Fort Monroe for school. Gelders was promoted to corporal in September 1918. He was honorably discharged on November 25, 1918. Gelders never saw action, as the war had ended. She worked as an official for the National Youth Administration. They had two daughters. Their older daughter, Marge Frantz, was an activist, feminist, and among the first generation of academics who taught women's studies courses in the United States. Gelders's younger daughter, Blanche Hartman, was a Sōtō teacher. The internal injuries that Gelders sustained from his kidnapping and beating in 1936 eventually led to his death on March 1, 1950, in San Francisco. He was interred on March 7, 1950, at the Golden Gate National Cemetery.