Williana Burroughs
Encyclopedia
Williana "Liane" Jones Burroughs (1882 - 1945) was an American teacher, communist political activist, and politician
. She is best remembered as one of the first African-American women to run for elective office in New York.
. Her mother had formerly been a slave for 16 years, her father died when Williana was just 4. Her widowed mother left Virginia
for New York City
, bringing Williana together with her siblings, Gordon and Nellie. She found work as a live-in cook, but no children were allowed, so Williana, Gordon and Nellie were enrolled in the Colored Orphan Asylum, a charitable institution founded by Quakers and primarily run, by the late nineteenth century, by wealthy New York society women and men and located at the time on the corner of 143rd Street and Amsterdam Avenue in Harlem
. Nellie soon died of pneumonia, but Williana and Gordon spent the next seven years at the Asylum, visited occasionally by their mother and others. Their mother retrieved them when Williana was 11; the three settled on the West Side of Manhattan.
Williana attended public school in New York, where she was an excellent student. After graduation, she attended New York City Normal College, known today as Hunter College
, where she achieved credentials to become a teacher, graduating in 1903. She was the only African American in her class of approximately 50. Her grades put her near the top of her class, and her classmates noted, "She is not afraid to state her own convictions, and what is more, she'll stick to them, at any time and under any circumstances." Between 1903 and 1909 she taught first- and second-graders at P.S. 188 on the Lower East Side; she was the only African American teacher at this school. Many of her students were the children of recent Jewish immigrants, and she began to specialize in teaching English-language learners. In 1909, probably pregnant with her daughter Alison, she married her longtime beau Charles Burroughs, a onetime student of W.E.B. Du Bois and a renowned Shakespearean "reader" who earned a steady income from the U.S. Post Office. She left her teaching position and took her husband's last name
, as was the custom in the day. first grade
classroom.
In 1925, having in the intervening years raised four children, Burroughs returned to teaching, first as a substitute in Flushing and then as a teacher at P.S. 48 in Jamaica, Queens, where she again worked with English-language learners, this time from Italy and the Caribbean. She was soon recruited into the New York City Teachers Union, in which she was active as part of the Communist-led "Rank and File caucus."
"Mary Adams" in her activities in the communist movement during the 1920s and early 1930s. Between 1928 and 1935, she published about two dozen articles in The Negro Champion (1928-29), the Harlem Liberator (1933-34) and the more widely circulating Daily Worker
under her own name and her pseudonym.
Burroughs and her two youngest children, Charlie and Neal, visited the Soviet Union in July, 1928. She attended the 6th World Congress of the Communist International in Moscow
as a representative of the American Negro Labor Congress
, a Communist Party auxiliary group, as a non-voting delegate, and also toured schools and summer camps. By the end of the tour, she had decided to place Charlie and Neal in Soviet boarding schools. She visited her sons in the Soviet Union in 1929, after attending the Anti-Imperialist League Conference in Frankfurt.
Burroughs was also an alternate delegate to the 6th National Convention of the Communist Party USA in March 1929.
In 1930, having earned a year-long teaching sabbatical, she told those near her she was going to Germany and instead headed to the Soviet Union, where worked as a junior functionary ("praktikant") in the Communist International and saw her sons regularly. Upon returning in January 1931, she resumed teaching, and also became active in the campaign for defense of the Scottsboro boys
and was chairman of the Blumberg Defense Council, an organization formed to defend Isidore Blumberg, a teacher removed from the New York public schools system due to his political views.
In 1933 Burroughs spoke out at a meeting of the New York City Board of Education, and in June 1933 Burroughs was dismissed from her post for "conduct unbecoming to a teacher and prejudicial to law and order."
After loss of her teaching position, Burroughs was the Communist Party's candidate for New York Comptroller in the fall of 1933 and the Communist Party's candidate for Lieutenant Governor of New York
in 1934. She also ran the Harlem Worker's School from 1933 to 1934.
Burroughs was regarded as one of the CP's most effective witnesses during the public hearings over the 1935 Harlem riot.
She returned to the Soviet Union in October 1935, on the same boat as the African American actress Frances Williams and the prolific leftist writer Anna Louise Strong. She began working as a copyreader at the English-language newspaper Moscow News, and in 1937 joined the staff at the All-Union Radio Committee as an announcer and editor for the English-language broadcasts of Radio Moscow, the international shortwave
news service of the Soviet government.
In 1937, she was joined by her son Charlie, who soon graduated from high school and worked at various places, including a circus and the Stalin Auto Factory. Williana Burroughs hoped to guarantee her sons' future and then return to the United States; she began suffering health problems and asked to be relieved from her radio duties in 1940 and again in 1942. However, she was told that she was needed, given the scarcity of native English speakers in Moscow during the war, and her requests were denied. In the meantime, her husband Charles died a suicide in August 1941, and the family's eight-bedroom home in Jamaica, Long Island, was lost.
Burroughs and her sons remained in Moscow until 1945, when she finally managed to return to New York with the younger boy. The FBI was on high alert: J. Edgar Hoover
hoped to detain her, and had his agents watching boats arriving at New York Harbor. However, Williana and Neal arrived at Baltimore.
Her son Charles Burroughs, the oldest of the boys who had been left in Moscow, retained his American citizenship and was inducted into the U.S. Army early in 1945. After his military service he returned to the United States and in 1961 co-founded the DuSable Museum of African American History in Chicago
, of which he remained curator until 1980. A Chicago high school
is named after him.
Politician
A politician, political leader, or political figure is an individual who is involved in influencing public policy and decision making...
. She is best remembered as one of the first African-American women to run for elective office in New York.
Early years
Williana (Liane, Liana) Jones was born in 1882 in Petersburg, VirginiaPetersburg, Virginia
Petersburg is an independent city in Virginia, United States located on the Appomattox River and south of the state capital city of Richmond. The city's population was 32,420 as of 2010, predominantly of African-American ethnicity...
. Her mother had formerly been a slave for 16 years, her father died when Williana was just 4. Her widowed mother left Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
for New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, bringing Williana together with her siblings, Gordon and Nellie. She found work as a live-in cook, but no children were allowed, so Williana, Gordon and Nellie were enrolled in the Colored Orphan Asylum, a charitable institution founded by Quakers and primarily run, by the late nineteenth century, by wealthy New York society women and men and located at the time on the corner of 143rd Street and Amsterdam Avenue in Harlem
Harlem
Harlem is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan, which since the 1920s has been a major African-American residential, cultural and business center. Originally a Dutch village, formally organized in 1658, it is named after the city of Haarlem in the Netherlands...
. Nellie soon died of pneumonia, but Williana and Gordon spent the next seven years at the Asylum, visited occasionally by their mother and others. Their mother retrieved them when Williana was 11; the three settled on the West Side of Manhattan.
Williana attended public school in New York, where she was an excellent student. After graduation, she attended New York City Normal College, known today as Hunter College
Hunter College
Hunter College, established in 1870, is a public university and one of the constituent colleges of the City University of New York, located on Manhattan's Upper East Side. Hunter grants undergraduate, graduate, and post-graduate degrees in more than one hundred fields of study, and is recognized...
, where she achieved credentials to become a teacher, graduating in 1903. She was the only African American in her class of approximately 50. Her grades put her near the top of her class, and her classmates noted, "She is not afraid to state her own convictions, and what is more, she'll stick to them, at any time and under any circumstances." Between 1903 and 1909 she taught first- and second-graders at P.S. 188 on the Lower East Side; she was the only African American teacher at this school. Many of her students were the children of recent Jewish immigrants, and she began to specialize in teaching English-language learners. In 1909, probably pregnant with her daughter Alison, she married her longtime beau Charles Burroughs, a onetime student of W.E.B. Du Bois and a renowned Shakespearean "reader" who earned a steady income from the U.S. Post Office. She left her teaching position and took her husband's last name
Surname
A surname is a name added to a given name and is part of a personal name. In many cases, a surname is a family name. Many dictionaries define "surname" as a synonym of "family name"...
, as was the custom in the day. first grade
First grade
First grade is a year of primary education in schools in the United States and English-speaking provinces of Canada. It is the first school year after kindergarten...
classroom.
In 1925, having in the intervening years raised four children, Burroughs returned to teaching, first as a substitute in Flushing and then as a teacher at P.S. 48 in Jamaica, Queens, where she again worked with English-language learners, this time from Italy and the Caribbean. She was soon recruited into the New York City Teachers Union, in which she was active as part of the Communist-led "Rank and File caucus."
Political career
Williana Burroughs joined the Workers (Communist) Party in September 1926. Owing to the tenuous nature of her employment position — a black woman public educator — Burroughs did not make public her Communist Party membership until years later, after she had already lost her job. Instead, Burroughs made use of the pseudonymPseudonym
A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...
"Mary Adams" in her activities in the communist movement during the 1920s and early 1930s. Between 1928 and 1935, she published about two dozen articles in The Negro Champion (1928-29), the Harlem Liberator (1933-34) and the more widely circulating Daily Worker
Daily Worker
The Daily Worker was a newspaper published in New York City by the Communist Party USA, a formerly Comintern-affiliated organization. Publication began in 1924. While it generally reflected the prevailing views of the party, some attempts were made to make it appear that the paper reflected a...
under her own name and her pseudonym.
Burroughs and her two youngest children, Charlie and Neal, visited the Soviet Union in July, 1928. She attended the 6th World Congress of the Communist International in Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
as a representative of the American Negro Labor Congress
American Negro Labor Congress
The American Negro Labor Congress was established in 1925 by the Communist Party as a vehicle for advancing the rights of African-Americans, propagandizing for communism within the black community and recruiting African-American members for the party...
, a Communist Party auxiliary group, as a non-voting delegate, and also toured schools and summer camps. By the end of the tour, she had decided to place Charlie and Neal in Soviet boarding schools. She visited her sons in the Soviet Union in 1929, after attending the Anti-Imperialist League Conference in Frankfurt.
Burroughs was also an alternate delegate to the 6th National Convention of the Communist Party USA in March 1929.
In 1930, having earned a year-long teaching sabbatical, she told those near her she was going to Germany and instead headed to the Soviet Union, where worked as a junior functionary ("praktikant") in the Communist International and saw her sons regularly. Upon returning in January 1931, she resumed teaching, and also became active in the campaign for defense of the Scottsboro boys
Scottsboro Boys
The Scottsboro Boys were nine black teenage boys accused of rape in Alabama in 1931. The landmark set of legal cases from this incident dealt with racism and the right to a fair trial...
and was chairman of the Blumberg Defense Council, an organization formed to defend Isidore Blumberg, a teacher removed from the New York public schools system due to his political views.
In 1933 Burroughs spoke out at a meeting of the New York City Board of Education, and in June 1933 Burroughs was dismissed from her post for "conduct unbecoming to a teacher and prejudicial to law and order."
After loss of her teaching position, Burroughs was the Communist Party's candidate for New York Comptroller in the fall of 1933 and the Communist Party's candidate for Lieutenant Governor of New York
Lieutenant Governor of New York
The Lieutenant Governor of New York is a constitutional office in the executive branch of the government of New York State. It is the second highest ranking official in state government. The lieutenant governor is elected on a ticket with the governor for a four year term...
in 1934. She also ran the Harlem Worker's School from 1933 to 1934.
Burroughs was regarded as one of the CP's most effective witnesses during the public hearings over the 1935 Harlem riot.
She returned to the Soviet Union in October 1935, on the same boat as the African American actress Frances Williams and the prolific leftist writer Anna Louise Strong. She began working as a copyreader at the English-language newspaper Moscow News, and in 1937 joined the staff at the All-Union Radio Committee as an announcer and editor for the English-language broadcasts of Radio Moscow, the international shortwave
Shortwave
Shortwave radio refers to the upper MF and all of the HF portion of the radio spectrum, between 1,800–30,000 kHz. Shortwave radio received its name because the wavelengths in this band are shorter than 200 m which marked the original upper limit of the medium frequency band first used...
news service of the Soviet government.
In 1937, she was joined by her son Charlie, who soon graduated from high school and worked at various places, including a circus and the Stalin Auto Factory. Williana Burroughs hoped to guarantee her sons' future and then return to the United States; she began suffering health problems and asked to be relieved from her radio duties in 1940 and again in 1942. However, she was told that she was needed, given the scarcity of native English speakers in Moscow during the war, and her requests were denied. In the meantime, her husband Charles died a suicide in August 1941, and the family's eight-bedroom home in Jamaica, Long Island, was lost.
Burroughs and her sons remained in Moscow until 1945, when she finally managed to return to New York with the younger boy. The FBI was on high alert: J. Edgar Hoover
J. Edgar Hoover
John Edgar Hoover was the first Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation of the United States. Appointed director of the Bureau of Investigation—predecessor to the FBI—in 1924, he was instrumental in founding the FBI in 1935, where he remained director until his death in 1972...
hoped to detain her, and had his agents watching boats arriving at New York Harbor. However, Williana and Neal arrived at Baltimore.
Death and legacy
Williana Jones Burroughs died on December 24, 1945, just two months after her return to the United States, at the Manhattan home of her friend Hermie Huiswoud.Her son Charles Burroughs, the oldest of the boys who had been left in Moscow, retained his American citizenship and was inducted into the U.S. Army early in 1945. After his military service he returned to the United States and in 1961 co-founded the DuSable Museum of African American History in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, of which he remained curator until 1980. A Chicago high school
High school
High school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....
is named after him.
Works
- (as "Mary Adams"): "Record of Revolts in Negro Workers' Past," The Daily Worker, May 1, 1928.
- The Road to Liberation for the Negro People. Contributor with A.W. Berry; Benjamin J. DavisBenjamin J. DavisBenjamin J. "Ben" Davis , was an African-American lawyer and communist who was elected to the city council of New York City, representing Harlem, in 1943...
; James W. FordJames W. FordJames W. "Jim" Ford was the Vice-Presidential candidate for the Communist Party USA in 1932, 1936, and 1940. A party organizer from New York City, Ford was the first African-American to appear on a presidential ticket in the 20th century....
; Benjamin Carreathers; Angelo HerndonAngelo HerndonAngelo Braxton Herndon was an African American labor organizer arrested and convicted for insurrection after attempting to organize black industrial workers in 1932 in Atlanta, Georgia...
; William L. PattersonWilliam L. PattersonWilliam L. Patterson 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...
; Harry HaywoodHarry HaywoodHarry Haywood was a leading figure in both the Communist Party of the United States and the Communist Party of the Soviet Union . He contributed major theory to Marxist thinking on the national question of African Americans in the United States...
; Timothy Holmes; Manning Johnson; Richard B. Moore; William Taylor; Louise Thompson; Maude White; Henry WinstonHenry WinstonHenry M. Winston was an African American political leader and Marxist civil rights activist.Winston, committed to equal rights and communism, was an advocate of civil rights for African Americans decades before the idea of racial equality emerged as a mainstream current of American political...
; Merrill Work. New York: Workers Library Publishers, 1939.