William L. Patterson facts for kids
William Lorenzo Patterson (born August 27, 1891 – died March 5, 1980) was an important African-American leader. He was part of the Communist Party USA, which was a political group with specific ideas about how society should be run. He also led the International Labor Defense, a group that helped people with legal problems, especially those who faced unfair treatment because of their political beliefs or their race.
Early Life
William Lorenzo Patterson was born on August 27, 1891, in San Francisco, California. His father, James Edward Patterson, came from the island of St. Vincent in the British West Indies. His mother, Mary Galt Patterson, was born into slavery in Virginia. Her father had helped organize a group of Black soldiers who fought for the Union Army during the American Civil War.
Patterson's father was a Seventh-day Adventist missionary in Tahiti. William spent a lot of time there. His family also moved between Oakland and Mill Valley, California, where William went to public schools.
In 1911, William was the first African-American student to graduate from Tamalpais High School in Mill Valley, California. In his yearbook, he said he wanted to be like Booker T. Washington, another famous African-American leader. After high school, Patterson worked hard as a laborer on railroad dining cars and boats along the Pacific coast. He saved enough money to go to the University of California, Berkeley. However, he was asked to leave during World War I because he refused to take part in required military training.
Patterson then decided he wanted to become a lawyer. He went to Hastings College of Law and graduated in 1919. But he didn't pass the California State Bar Examination right away. He thought about moving to Liberia and took a job as a cook on a ship going to England to help him get there. In England, he found it hard to get information about moving to Liberia because he didn't have skills like construction. Determined to return to the United States, he landed in New York and found work as a longshoreman (someone who loads and unloads ships).
Eventually, Patterson used his college degree to get a job as a clerk in a law office. He helped write legal papers and studied for the New York State Bar Examination, which he passed in 1924. Around this time, he married his first wife, Minnie Summer. He also met many people involved in the exciting Harlem Renaissance, a time when Black art, music, and literature thrived in Harlem, New York.
Working for Justice
Among Patterson's friends in New York was Richard B. Moore, a political activist. Moore convinced Patterson to use his legal skills to help prevent the execution of two Italian immigrants, Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti. They had been found guilty of murder in a very debated trial in Massachusetts.
Patterson joined the Workers (Communist) Party and became the head of the International Labor Defense. This was a group that provided legal help to people, especially those who were communists, trade union members, or African Americans, in cases where they faced unfair treatment.
On August 22, 1927, Patterson was one of 156 people arrested for protesting the execution of Sacco and Vanzetti.
Standing Up for Rights
Patterson was also very active in the Civil Rights Congress, another group that worked for civil rights. In 1951, he presented a document called We Charge Genocide to the United Nations. This document accused the U.S. federal government of not doing enough to stop terrible violence against Black people, like unjust killings, which mostly affected Black men. After he returned from delivering this document in Paris, the United States Department of State took away his passport, meaning he wasn't allowed to travel outside the United States anymore.
On September 3, 1940, he married Louise Thompson. She was a writer and had worked with the famous poet Langston Hughes. They even planned a documentary about the culture of Harlem together.
Later Life and Legacy
William Lorenzo Patterson passed away in 1980 at the age of 88, after being sick for a long time. He died at Union Hospital in the Bronx, New York.
Patterson's important papers, which include a detailed biography, are kept at Howard University.
