Downloadable Content
Download audio
Other
Stern (Todes), Charlotte (audio interview #1 of 7)
INTERVIEW DESCRIPTION - This first of seven interviews with Charlotte Todes Stern was conducted in her Columbia University apartment by Ros Baxandall for the Feminist History Research Project. Stern was a friend of Baxandall's parents and because she and the interviewer shared a similar world, they established rapport from the start and enjoyed each other's company. Stern was a spirited and vigorous woman and able to spend a sustained period of time talking. In this first, rather long interview, Stern is mainly reading from and following the prepared autobiographical sketch that she wrote. 1/17/1976
- Date
- 2021-01-21
- Resource Type
- Creator
- Campus
- Keywords
- Handle
- Language
- Notes
- SUBJECT BIO - Todes Stern was a radical activist for most her life, beginning with her introduction to YPSL (Young People's Socialist League) during her college years. Much her of activism focused on the labor movement and her membership in the Communist party. The daughter of Jewish immigrant parents, Stern was raised in East Boston. Her mother was obsessed with their her daughter obtaining a good education and Stern spent her high school years at Girl's Latin School before attending Radcliffe College. After Stern graduated from college in 1917, she was employed as a social worker with the Federation of Jewish Charities in Boston, where she worked on housing and welfare issues. In 1923, Stern became a staff member of the Workers Health Bureau (WHB) and when she returned from a two year sojourn in Europe with her husband two years later, she became their Organizing Secretary. She traveled around the US organizing on behalf of the WHB until 1927, when she moved to Seattle with her husband. There, she became the secretary of the International Labor Defense. Her work in the lumber camps during this period resulted in writing Labor and Lumber , published in 1932 under her family name, Charlotte Todes. During the 1930s, when the Sterns moved back to New York, she joined the Community party. In a short autobiographical sketch, Stern notes that her career in the CP was almost entirely devoted to organizing the unorganized. She worked, especially, with the Food Workers Organizing Committee and became the Educational Director when the workers succeeded in establishing a union. In 1945, the president of the union appointed Stern to the Joint Anti-Fascist Refugee Committee. Later, called before HUAC, Stern, along with others on the committee, refused to turn over their records. In 1947 she was found guilty of Contempt of Congress and in 1950 served a three month sentence. With the politically repressive climate and fear that permeated the labor movement, Stern decided to retool and began working in the medical field. In 1956, at about the time that her husband died, she was fired from her job as a medical researcher as a result of FBI intervention. Eventually Stern found work as a journalist on a medical newspaper, where she remained until her retirement in 1971. Proud of her political history, Stern was very interested in making her oral history accessible. As a result, arrangements were made for the Tamiment Library at NYU to transcribe her oral history. Her edited transcript is on deposit there. TOPICS - Stern's early life; immigration, religion; employment; education; women's rights issues; socialism; college; employment history; Boston Jewish charities Workers Health Bureau; Lawrence strike; marriage; political consciousness; London School of Economics; labor activism; Europe; and and birth control;Workers Health Bureau; Seattle; husband; AFL; anti-Semitism; Communist party; education; political beliefs; family relationships; gender roles; parents; red-baiting; District Committee, CP; labor research; lumber workers; Labor and Lumber; and writing activities;
- *** File: refcstern1.mp3 Audio Segments and Topics: (0:00-3:58)... Charlotte Stern's parents immigrated to Massachusetts from Russia; her father in 1890 and her mother in 1892. They each went to work in a shoe factory and were married in 1893. Stern was born one year later, the only child of four who was not stillborn. The family moved to East Boston and opened a dressmaking shop. Although Stern's parents were traditional, they did not practice a strict religious observance. (3:58-7:02)... Focusing on survival in their new environment, Stern's parents did not maintain ties with their homes back in Russia. As a result, Stern knew very little about her grandparents. Her parents were not politically active because they were occupied with the family's immediate struggles. Uncertain and lacking confidence in his work, Stern's father became withdrawn from the family. (7:02-16:02)... Although Stern's father wanted her to go to work after high school,her mother wanted her to attend the best elementary school and high school in Boston in preparation for college. Stern spoke Yiddish in the home and learned Latin, Greek, French, and English in high school. Her mother saved money earned from her dressmaking shop in hopes of sending her daughter to college. She emphasized education as a means of advancement for women and rarely spoke of marriage. (16:02-22:24)... When Stern she was in high school, one of her cousins visited her from Russia. He was a revolutionary and talked to her about his Marxist beliefs, helping her to recognize class divisions within her own community. When she entered Radcliffe at sixteen, Stern became friends with Black and Jewish students. Although many of her classmates came from wealthy and noted families, most of Stern's friends came from poorer origins. She became interested in socialism and the effects of economics. (22:24-28:06)... In 1915, Stern participated in a protest for women's rights. In college, she became best friends with Harvard student, Pedro Albizu Campos, a Puerto Rican nationalist and revolutionary. She also knew Harry Wordsworth Longfellow Dana and many other male students interested in socialist discussions and activism. Few women at Radcliffe, however, participated in political student activism. Stern noticed that class divisions created distance between wealthy and poor students. (28:06-34:50)... During her junior year at Radcliffe, Stern met Martha Silverman, a Russian woman who had obtained a law degree and was active in charities for the poor. She hired Stern as the director of the Employment Bureau of the Boston Jewish Charities. Working there gave Stern the opportunity to reach out to Boston's poor and provided her with leadership experience. She spearheaded a successful campaign to get Boston's Jewish community to work for legislative changes to assist the poor and disadvantaged. (34:50-39:40)... During a visit to her family, Stern went to Lawrence, Massachusetts and saw the Lawrence strikers, who had been on strike for one year. [Editor's note: Sterns gives the incorrect dates of the strike. It was 1912.] The city was filled with policemen on patrol. At the strikers' headquarters, she met A. J. Muste and volunteered to help with the strike efforts. Rather than direct actions on the picket line, Stern was offered various menial tasks such as running errands. She learned more about the strike by speaking with the textile workers than through her involvement with the strike. (39:40-47:03)... In 1921, Stern met her future husband, Bernhard J. Stern, an activist with an M.A. from the University of Cincinnati. She left Boston in 1923 to work for the Workers Health Bureau and married Bernhard later that year. Stern's husband was supportive of her professional ambitions. He planned to study medicine in Graz, Austria, but when he became ill and had to have surgery, his aspirations for a medical career ended. (47:03-55:10)... In 1923, Stern and her husband went to Berlin, Germany, which was undergoing political and economic instability. They met many ex-patriots in Germany, and gained a greater understanding of politics. Although Stern knew many communist activists and union leaders back in Boston, in Berlin she witnessed firsthand the revolutionary environment and the tragic effects of inflation, which left workers in poverty and starvation. (55:10-1:02:40)... Stern and her husband left Berlin for London, England, where they both attended the London School of Economics. During their travels to Europe, Stern and her husband relied on the strength of the American dollar and help from friends for survival. They moved New York in 1924, where Bernhard earned a Ph.D. from Columbia and Stern returned to the Workers Health Bureau. In New York, she visited the Margaret Sanger clinic for birth control. In Berlin, London, and New York, Stern studied women writers and activists. End of Tape. *** File: refcstern2.mp3 (0:00-5:00)... Charlotte Stern returned to the United States in 1923, and from 1924 to 1928, she worked for the Workers Health Bureau (WHB) educating local unions across the country about health and safety in the workplace. In 1927, she prepared the basis for the WHB official safety code. That same year, Stern moved to Seattle when her husband became an assistant professor at the University of Washington. She continued her WHB organizing on the West Coast, despite conflict with the AFL and hierarchies in the labor movement. (5:00-11:34)... Stern's husband, Bernhard, had difficulty finding work, despite earning a Ph.D. in one year with a remarkable record. He encountered anti-Semitism frequently, and Dartmouth officials even explicitly said that Jews were not hired for social sciences. When Bernard was offered a job in Seattle, Stern joined him in support. The Workers Health Bureau closed shortly after, and Stern became the secretary of the local International Labor Defense. She fought to release wrongly-convicted prisoners and researched labor conditions in the lumber industry. She published a book, Labor and Lumber in 1932. (11:34-20:40)... Stern joined the Communist Party in 1926 while in New York. Bernhard was liberal and studied Marx, but did not become a member. Many communists were secretive about their party affiliation. Bernhard became very interested in the Sacco-Vanzetti case and consequently grew more interested in rights for the working class and minority groups. He often was a guest speaker for minority groups and labor organizations, and spoke with his students about labor rights. (20:40-26:36)... In Stern's household, her husband did not do housework and they often hired help. Stern did not cook well, but because Bernhard was in frail health, she did not want him to cook. Stern's parents saved money to move from Boston to Seattle to be closer to their daughter. They opened a grocery store, but sold it after a year and moved back to Boston. Although Stern's mother was very attached to her daughter, she did not support her communist associations. Years later, in 1941, Stern's father went into a nursing home and her mother lived with her, taking on the cooking and housework. (26:36-33:46)... Stern's husband, Bernhard, was sought out by various groups to give speeches while he was teaching in Seattle. Certain fundamentalist members of the clergy disapproved of his teaching methods. Additionally, during his second year at the University of Washington, he advocated a union for university professors. Bernhard began to feel pressure from the university and had several talks with the president about his activism. When he lost his job, they left Seattle. (33:46-43:15)... After the Workers Health Bureau closed in 1930, Stern became an organizer in the International Labor Defense and served on the district committee of the Communist party in Seattle. For a year and a half, while doing research for her book on labor in lumber camps, Stern would drive alone in her car, traveling from town to town. She would meet with men in the lumber camps to discuss unemployment and social insurance issues. (43:15-49:02)... Stern's book, Labor and Lumber, was released by International Publishers as part of a series of books on labor and industry. Stern admired Bernhard's skills as a writer and he helped with her book. Stern had written articles and reports while at Radcliffe and Workers Health Bureau, but she had no experience writing a full-length book. Although International Publishers was not able to do much promotion, Stern received many letters from lumber areas and the book was reviewed well in the progressive media. (49:02-1:02:40)... The University of Washington administrators organized a student questionnaire to gather evidence against Stern's husband, Bernhard. Although he was revealed as the fifth most popular professor, he was later told he had to leave in a year due to economic constraints. He received a grant to research Lewis Henry Morgan at Brown University in New York in the summer. While there, Stern wrote articles about civil rights cases for the Labor Defender. Bernhard then found a job in New York with the Encyclopedia of Social Sciences. End of Tape.
- Rights Note
- This repository item may be used for classroom presentations, unpublished papers, and other educational, research, or scholarly use. Other uses, especially publication in any form, such as in dissertations, theses, articles, or web pages are not permitted without the express written permission of the individual collection's copyright holder(s). Please contact the CSULB Library Administration should you require permission to publish or distribute any content from this collection or if you need additional information or assistance in using these materials: https://www.csulb.edu/university-library/form/questionssuggestions-the-digital-repository-group
| Thumbnail | Title | Date Uploaded | Visibility | Actions |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
6362082703339024-refcstern1.mp3 | 2023-10-19 | Public | Download |
|
9924615013300657-refcstern2.mp3 | 2023-10-19 | Public | Download |