Communist Councilman from Harlem: Autobiographical Notes Written in a Federal Penitentiary (1990)

The Negro People on the March  (1956)  /  The Path of Negro Liberation  (1947)

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William L. Patterson, the author of Ben Davis: Crusader for Negro Freedom & Socialism, has achieved world-wide renown for his militant leadership in the fight to preserve constitutional liberties and to win full civil rights for all Americans--and for the Negro people in particular.

He was responsible for the production of the Petition, We Charge Genocide: The Crime of Government Against the Negro People, and its presentation to the United Nations in Paris in 1951. In the late twenties he was National Executive Secretary of the International Labor Defense which played a leading role in the defense of the nine innocent Scottsboro Boys. In the fifties he occupied the same position in the Civil Rights Congress and led many fierce civil rights battles.

He also led the international struggle to save the life of the martyred Willie McGee of Mississippi and the Martinsville Seven of Virginia, all charged falsely with rape by racists and framed by the highest courts. In the thirties he organized the Marxist Abraham Lincoln School, in Chicago. He was twice tried for contempt of Congress for his vigorous condemnation of the racist policies of the government of the U.S.A.

He graduated from Hastings Law College of the University of California and for a period practiced law in New York City. he is presently chairman of the National Negro Commission of the Communist Party, U.S.A.

Source: Ben Davis: Crusader for Negro Freedom & Socialism (1967)