Joseph R. Brodsky

Joseph R. Brodsky, often known as Joseph Brodsky and Joe Brodsky, was an early 20th-century American civil rights lawyer, political activist, general counsel of the International Labor Defense (ILD), co-founder of the International Juridical Association (IJA), member of ILD defense team for members of the Scottsboro Boys Case of the 1930s, and general counsel for the International Workers Order (IWO).

Career

According to Max Lowenthal, Brodsky was a partner in the law firm of a "Captain Hale." Other sources state that Brodsky was a partner with Carol Weiss King at Brodsky, King & Shorr in New York City. ) Others in their "loose partnership" of radical attorneys included Walter Nelles and Walter Pollak (onetime partner of Benjamin Cardozo, known through King's brother-in-law Carl Stern).

International Labor Defense (ILD)

Brodsky was general counsel of the International Labor Defense (ILD), an affiliate (or "arm") of the Communist Party of the United States. The ILD was a legal advocacy organization established in 1925 as the American section of the Comintern's International Red Aid network. The ILD defended Sacco and Vanzetti, was active in the anti-lynching, movements for civil rights, and prominently participated in the defense and legal appeals in the cause célèbre of the Scottsboro Boys in the early 1930s. Its work contributed to the appeal of the Communist Party among African Americans in the South. In addition to fundraising for defense and assisting in defense strategies, from January 1926 it published Labor Defender, a monthly illustrated magazine that achieved wide circulation. In 1946 the ILD was merged with the National Federation for Constitutional Liberties to form the Civil Rights Congress, which served as the new legal defense organization of the Communist Party USA. Carol Weiss King helped Brodsky found the ILD and served on its legal advisory committee.

Scottsboro Boys Case

In 1931, nine Southern African-American youths–the "Scottsboro Boys"–were falsely accused of rape and sentenced to death in Alabama. Between April 6 and 9, all boys except Roy Wright were tried singly or in groups and convicted. Some of the boys retained George W. Chamlee Sr., as new defense. In mid-April 1931, the International Labor Defense (ILD) and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) stepped in to help. Brodsky sought first to hire Clarence Darrow, but he declined. Brodsky then worked hard to "wrest the case from the NAACP." (Carol Weiss King, Walter Pollak, and Carl Stern all worked on the Scottsboro Boys cases; Pollak argued part of it before the U.S. Supreme Court. In August 1931, Brodsky and Chamlee had to remain in the court building until a large crowd dispersed.

At year's end, Brodsky led arguments,

Upon Brodsky's arrival: He was met by a howling mob of lynchers. In his efforts to have the convictions set aside, Hawkins immediately overruled Brodsky's request. Brodsky took exception to the judge's ruling, whereupon the judge overruled his exception. Brodsky then countered with an exception to Hawkins' decision overruling his previous request to except. The judge became so angry that he made a grand exit through the rear door of the courtroom. ln all the confusion, Brodsky turned round, and was suddenly seized by a husky man who said: "Come on, yah Jew bitch! We'll show you how to defend n*****r rapers." Former ILD chairman J. Louis Engdahl toured 26 European countries to raise support for the Scottsboro Boys. (Engdahl died in Moscow of pneumonia during the trip.) In Chemnitz, Germany, two demonstrators were killed during protests. In the United States, "the Communist Party and the Young Communist League were the great stimulating forces which brought Scottsboro before the broad masses of organized labor. In cooperation with the ILD, the question of Negroes serving on juries was raised for the first time." On April 16, 1933, Brodsky filed a motion for new trial for Patterson, which the judge grants on June 22. In November 1933, third trials start for Patterson and Clarence Norris, represented by Liebowitz, Brodsky, and Chamlee; both boys receive third convictions by mid-December. On November 19, 1933, the lawyers called on U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt for intervention to protect the defendants. "Conflict between Liebowitz and the Communist-dominated International Labor Defense (ILD) attorney Joseph Brodsky" undermined the effectiveness of defense, particularly after two ILD attorneys were charged with attempting to bribe witness Victoria Price. By 1934, Brodsky had dropped out of the case, apparently replaced by fellow IJA member Osmond Fraenkel. WEEMS ET AL. v. STATE, 141 So. 215 (Ala. 1932): Defense of Charlie Weems and Clarence Norris by Chamlee Sr., Chamlee Jr., and Brodsky, supported by Irving Schwab, Allan Taub, Elias M. Schwartzbart, Joseph Tauber, and Sidney Schreiber. PATTERSON v. STATE, 141 So. 195 (Ala. 1932): Defense of Haywood Patterson by Chamlee Sr., Chamlee Jr., and Brodsky, supported by Irving Schwab, Allan Taub, Elias M. Schwartzbart, Joseph Tauber, and Sidney Schreiber. NORRIS v. STATE, 156 So. 556 (Ala. 1934): Defense of Clarence Norris by Leibowitz, Brodsky, and Chamlee, supported by Osmond. Fraenkel, George Rosier, and Carol Weiss King

Other cases

In 1932, Brodsky helped Baltimore-based lawyer Bernard Ades) defend Euel Lee AKA "Orphan Jones," accused of murdering his white employer and family, in the Orphan Jones Case on the Maryland Eastern Shore.

In 1938, Brodsky served as attorney for the American Federation of Musicians by filing as amicus curiae (along with Boudin, Cohn & Glickstein) for several AFL-affiliated unions, Harold Dublirer for Window Trimmers & Displaymen's Union Local 144, Carol Weiss King for the IJA, Edward Kuntz for the ILD, Abraham Unger for the International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 820 AFL, etc.

Associations

International Juridical Association (IJA)

In 1932, Brodsky became a founding member of the International Juridical Association (IJA). The IJA provided Brodsky and its members with a wide network. Other members and affiliates included: George R. Andersen, Harry Elmer Barnes, Paul F. Brissenden, Richard A. Dowling, Arthur Fisher, Osmond Fraenkel, Leo Gallagher, Aubrey Grossman, Pearl M. Hart, Robert L. Hale, Isaac S. Heller, Abraham J. Isserman, Isadore Katz, Robert W. Kenny, Paul J. Kern, Carol Weiss King, Joseph Kovner, Max Lowenthal, Jerome Michael, Louis F. McCabe, Carey McWilliams, Shad Polier, Lee Pressman, Colston E. Warne, Abrahm Lincoln Wirin, Nathan Witt, David Ziskind, Isaac E. Ferguson, Yetta Land, Maurice Sugar, David J. Bentall, John P. Davis, Charles H. Houston, Henry T. Hunt, R. W. Henderson, Austin Lewis, and Clara G. Binswanger. Beyond Brodsky, IJA members also to the ILD included: George R. Andersen, David J. Bentall, Joseph R. Brodsky, John P. Davis, Leo Gallagher, Irvin Goodman, Carol Weiss King, Edward Lamb, Yetta Land, Louis F. McCabe, Herbert T. Wechsler, Ruth Weyand, Samuel L. Rothbard, and Abraham Lincoln Wirin. The House Un-American Activities Committee considered the IJA "an official offshoot" of the ILD, itself the "legal arm" of the Communist Party.

Other associations

Pete Seeger (here, entertaining Eleanor Roosevelt in 1944 ) made Brodsky attorney for People's Songs.

Brodsky was involved in many left-leaning associations, making him a nexus of Popular Front and other political movements.

Those associations include:

American League for Peace and Democracy: Founded in 1932 via the (Amsterdam) World Congress Against War was held in Holland in August, 1932, under the direction of the Communist International, chaired by Henri Barbusse. Prominent participants included: Francis J. McConnell, Reinhold Niebuhr, James B. Carey, Joseph Curran, Max Lerner, and Paul Robeson. Others affiliated included Brodsky and: Roger Baldwin, William Dodd Jr., Sam Jaffe, William Gropper, Louis B. Boudin, Granville Hicks, Robert Morss Lovett, T. A. Bisson, Mrs. Corliss Lamont, Ben Gold, Muriel Draper, Frances Farmer, Donald Ogden Stewart, Wanda Gag, Lewis Mumford, Vito Marcantonio, Kyle Crichton (father of Michael Crichton), Philip Loeb, Ella Winter, Earl Browder (CPUSA), Rockwell Kent, Yasuo Kuniyoshi, Alfred Kamin, Harvey O'Connor, Edgar Snow, Dr. Max Yergan, Sherwood Anderson, Melvyn Douglas, Prof, Franz Boas, Congressman John M. Coffee, Jerome Davis, John P. Davis, Theodore Dreiser, Samuel Ornitz, Morris Katz, Charles Preston, Aaron Wool, Russell Thayer, Regina Rakoczy, Sophia Pressman (wife of Lee Pressman, Israel Amter, Malcolm Cowley, Robert W. Kenny, Harry C. Lamberton, Prof. Oliver Larkin, Prof. Walter Rautenstrauch, Ella Reeve Bloor, W. E. B. DuBois, Joseph Freeman, Lillian Furness, Joseph Gardner, Kate Crane Gartz, Michael Gold, Joshua Kunitz, Corliss Lamont, Lincoln Steffens, Bruce Bliven, Clarence Hathaway, Carol Weiss King, Freda Kirchwey, and Lillian Hellman.

National Federation for Constitutional Liberties: Founded in June 1940 "one of the most important Communist-front organizations in the United States"; advocated termination of the House Un-American Activities Committee. Members included Brodsky and: Prof. Franz Boas, Elmer Benson, Herbert Biberman, Carey McWilliams, Max Yergan, Howard P. Costigan, George Marshall, Robert MacGregor, Tom Mooney, Jack McMichael, Prof. Robert K. Speer, Merle D. Vincent, Alice Barrows, Marc Blitzstein, Rev. Dwight Bradley, Prof. John B. Canning, John M. Coffee, Bella Dodd, Robert W. Dunn, Mrs. Sarah Bard Field, Dashiell Hammett, Pearl M. Hart, Marion Hathway, Abraham J. Isserman, Paul J. Kern, Carol Weiss King, Edward Land, David Lasser, Ira Latimer, Prof. Alain Locke, Robert Morss Lovett, Prof. Robert S. Lynd, Clifford T. McAvoy, Louis F. McCabe, James B. McNamara, Prof. William M. Malisoff, Albert Maltz, Vito Marcantonio, Prof. F. O. Matthiessen, Lewis Merrill, Jerry O'Connell, William L. Patterson, Michael Quill, Walter Rauteustrauch, Reid Robinson, George Seldes, Herman Shumlin, Edwin S. Smith, Alfred K. Stern, Donald Ogden Stewart, Channing H. Tobias, Prof. Colston E. Warne, Morris Watson, Ella Winter, Robert Wirtz, Charles Erskine Scott Wood, John Woodruff, Richard Wright, and Art Young. Marcantonio went on to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives from New York's 18th district from January 3, 1945, until January 3, 1951.

The still-existent National Lawyers Guild is an outgrowth of his efforts at the ILD and IJA.