Charles Krumbein
Charles Krumbein (February 10, 1889 – January 20, 1947) was an American Communist activist.
Biography
[edit]Krumbein initially joined the Socialist Party.[1] He left the SP in 1919 and became a founding member of the Communist Labor Party.[2]
Back row, L-R: T.J. O'Flaherty, Charles Erickson, Cyril Lambkin, Bill Dunne, John Mihelic, Alex Bail, W.E. "Bud" Reynolds, "Francis Ashworth."
Seated L-R: Norman Tallentire, Caleb Harrison, Eugene Bechtold, Seth Nordling, C. E. Ruthenberg, Charles Krumbein, Max Lerner, T.R. Sullivan, Elmer McMillan.
Krumbein was a delegate to the 1922 Bridgman Convention of the Communist Party of America.[3] He was arrested with 17 other Party members but was later pardoned by Illinois Governor Len Small.[4] Krumbein was one of seven Americans invited to study at the International Lenin School in May 1926.[5] In January 1935, Krumbein plead guilty to the charge of having traveled with a false passport in 1930, and received an eighteen month sentence at Lewisburg Penitentiary.[6] Despite their political differences, Socialist Party leader Norman Thomas wrote a letter to Roosevelt asking for clemency for Krumbein, describing him as "a man of character and devotion to his cause".[7] Krumbein was elected to serve as the national treasurer for the Communist Party at their convention on May 22, 1943.[8]
Krumbein was married to fellow Communist Party activist Margaret Cowl.[9] He died of a heart attack on January 20, 1947, while on vacation in Miami Beach.[10]
References
[edit]- ↑ Storch, Randi (2007). Red Chicago: American Communism at its Grassroots, 1928-35. University of Illinois Press. p. 22. ISBN 9780252032066.
- ↑ Barrett, James R. (1999). William Z. Foster and the tragedy of American radicalism. University of Illinois Press. p. 113. ISBN 0252020464.
- ↑ Draper, Theodore (1957). The Roots of American Communism. New York: The Viking Press. p. 370.
- ↑ ""Red" Freed by Illinois Governor in Court Here". The Herald-Palladium. December 6, 1922. p. 1.
- ↑ American Communism and Soviet Russia: The Formative Period. New York: The Viking Press. 1963. p. 168.
- ↑ "Editorial Paragraphs". The Nation. 141 (3658): 171. August 14, 1935.
- ↑ Swanberg, W.A. (1976). Norman Thomas: The Last Idealist. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. p. 197.
- ↑ Isserman, Maurice (1982). Which side were you on? : The American Communist Party during the Second World War. Wesleyan University Press. p. 204. ISBN 0819550590.
- ↑ Ware, Susan (1982). Holding Their Own: American Women in the 1930s. Boston: Twayne Publishers. p. 138. ISBN 0805799001.
- ↑ "Communist Leader Dies". The Cleveland Press. January 22, 1947. p. 10.
