William Schneiderman

William V. Schneiderman (December 14, 1905 – January 29, 1985) was an American politician activist who was secretary for California in the Communist Party USA (CPUSA) and involved in two cases before the United States Supreme Court, Stack v. Boyle and Schneiderman v. United States.

Background

William V. Schneiderman was born on December 14, 1905, in Romanovo, Russian Empire, and came with his parents to Chicago at the age of two. In the 1920s, the Schneiderman family moved to Los Angeles. He studied political science at the University of California at Los Angeles but had to drop out to help support his family and completed his degree forty years later.

On February 13, 1948, the Daily People's World (now People's World) mentioned that Schneiderman had written an introduction for a new version of the Manifesto of the Communist Party called The Communist Manifesto in Pictures.

During testimony on May 6, 1949, Paul Crouch spoke at length about efforts by the CPUSA to continue to infiltrate the U.S. Army. He also mentioned alleged communists known to him, including Harry Bridges (strike organizer), Schneiderman (California CP), J. Robert Oppenheimer (atomic scientist), and Haakon Chevalier (translator).

In 1964, Schneiderman stepped down as chairman of the Communist Party of California.

Carol Weiss King's co-representation of Schneiderman exemplifies her success in enlisting other (male) attorneys to work for free on key constitutional cases — in this case, recruiting Willkie to represent Schneiderman before the Supreme Court. King won this case in 1943, preventing the Government's revocation of the Communist Party leader's citizenship. Support had come from the American Committee for the Protection of Foreign Born, of which King and Kenny were members, as they were also members of the National Lawyers Guild. Schneiderman was the American Committee for the Protection of Foreign Born's second major victory, following work for Harry Bridges, leader of the International Longshoremen's Association (ILA) during the 1934 West Coast waterfront strike.

Stack v. Boyle (1951)

In 1949, Schneiderman and 14 other California party leaders found themselves indicted and then convicted under the Smith Act for trying to overthrow the government. The defendants were: Loretta Starvus Stack, Al Richmond, Dorothy Healey, Rose Chernin Kunitz, Albert J. Lima, Philip Marshall Connelly, Ernest Otto Fox, Carl Rude Lambert, Henry Steinberg, Oleta O'Connor Yates, and Mary Bernadette Doyle. At the time of his death, Schneiderman's wife said:Bill was a very gentle man who did not believe in force and violence... He was a true believer. He was aware of errors, but he never broke with the party. Samuel Adams Darcy, and Max Schachtman.

Works

Everything for United and Victory (1941) "California political perspectives and the 1948 elections," People's World (1947) The Communist Manifesto in Pictures, introduced by William Schneiderman (1948) Dissent on Trial (1982)