Joseph R. Brodsky


Joseph R. Brodsky, often known as Joseph Brodsky and Joe Brodsky, was an early 20th-Century American civil rights lawyer, political activist, general counsel of the International Labor Defense, co-founder of the International Juridical Association, and member of ILD defense team for members of the Scottsboro Boys Case of the 1930s.

Career

According to Max Lowenthal, Brodsky was a partner in the law firm of a "Captain Hale." Other sources state that Brodsky was a partner with Carol Weiss King at Brodsky, King & Shorr in New York City. Others in their "loose partnership" of radical attorneys included Walter Nelles and Walter Pollak.

International Labor Defense (ILD)

Brodsky was general counsel of the International Labor Defense, an affiliate of the Communist Party of the United States. The ILD was a legal advocacy organization established in 1925 as the American section of the Comintern's International Red Aid network. The ILD defended Sacco and Vanzetti, was active in the anti-lynching, movements for civil rights, and prominently participated in the defense and legal appeals in the cause célèbre of the Scottsboro Boys in the early 1930s. Its work contributed to the appeal of the Communist Party among African Americans in the South. In addition to fundraising for defense and assisting in defense strategies, from January 1926 it published Labor Defender, a monthly illustrated magazine that achieved wide circulation. In 1946 the ILD was merged with the National Federation for Constitutional Liberties to form the Civil Rights Congress, which served as the new legal defense organization of the Communist Party USA. Carol Weiss King helped Brodsky found the ILD and served on its legal advisory committee.

Scottsboro Boys Case

In 1931, nine Southern African-American youths–the "Scottsboro Boys"–were falsely accused of rape and sentenced to death in Alabama. Between April 6 and 9, all boys except Roy Wright were tried singly or in groups and convicted. Some of the boys retained George W. Chamlee, Sr., as new defense. In mid-April 1931, the International Labor Defense and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People stepped in to help. Brodsky sought first to hire Clarence Darrow, but he declined. Brodsky then worked hard to "wrest the case from the NAACP."
On June 22, 1931, the courts denied Brodsky's motion for a new trial. When he arrived to make his application, a "howling mob of lynchers" greeted him. In August 1931, Brodsky and Chamlee had to remain in the court building until a large crowd dispersed.
At year's end, Brodsky led arguments, but on December 31, 1931, the Daily Worker newspaper published a statement for Scottsboro defendants that announced retainer of Chamlee and Brodsky as their attorneys.
Upon Brodsky's arrival:
Former ILD chairman J. Louis Engdahl toured 26 European countries to raise support for the Scottsboro Boys. In Chemnitz, Germany, two demonstrators were killed during protests. In the United States, "the Communist Party and the Young Communist League were the great stimulating forces which brought Scottsboro before the broad masses of organized labor. In cooperation with the ILD, the question of Negroes serving on juries was raised for the first time."
On January 21, 1932, Chamlee, Brodsky, and Irving Schwab appealed to the Alabama Supreme Court on all convictions. On March 24, 1932, the court affirms conviction of seven boys but reverses that of Eugene Williams as a minor. On May 31, 1932, the U.S. Supreme Court grants permission for leave to appeal to it. On October 10, 1932, Walter H. Pollak, argues before the U.S. Supreme Court; on November 7, 1932, the court reverses the convictions due to inadequate representation and sets new trials for 1933 in Powell v. Alabama.
In 1933, the ILD brought in Samuel Leibowitz to join him and Chamlee. The fact that Leibowitz was not a communist or even radical but rather a mainstream Democrat underscored how serious Communists were to win the case. That said, Leibowitz did have to accept as co-counsel ILD chief attorney Joseph Brodsky. On March 27, 1933, Leibowitz opened his defense of Haywood Patterson, the first defendant retried, by challenging Alabama's exclusion of blacks from the jury rolls and tough cross-examination of whites. On April 9, 1933, at the jury's guilty verdict of Patterson, Liebowitz compared the verdict to "the act of spitting on the tomb of Abraham Lincoln" and vowed to defend the defendants "until hell freezes over." On April 12, 1933, Leibowitz and Brodsky joined John Haynes Holmes, Arthur Garfield Hays, and Roger Baldwin at a "Labor Defnese Meeting" in Union Square, New York City. On April 16, 1933, Brodsky filed a motion for new trial for Patterson, which the judge grants on June 22. In May 1933, Brodsky joined the ACLU's Arthur Garfield Hays and NAACP's Alexander Miller to meet faculty and students at Brooklyn College to discuss the case. In November 1933, third trials start for Patterson and Clarence Norris, represented by Liebowitz, Brodsky, and Chamlee; both boys receive third convictions by mid-December. On November 19, 1933, the lawyers called on U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt for intervention to protect the defendants.
"Conflict between Liebowitz and the Communist-dominated International Labor Defense attorney Joseph Brodsky" undermined the effectiveness of defense, particularly after two ILD attorneys were charged with attempting to bribe witness Victoria Price. By 1934, Brodsky had dropped out of the case, apparently replaced by fellow IJA member Osmond Fraenkel.
Individual cases involved in the Scottsboro Boys case include:
In 1932, Brodsky helped Baltimore-based lawyer Bernard Ades) defend Euel Lee AKA "Orphan Jones," accused of murdering his white employer and family, in the Orphan Jones Case on the Maryland Eastern Shore.
In 1938, Brodsky served as attorney for the American Federation of Musicians by filing as amicus curiae for several AFL-affiliated unions, Harold Dublirer for Window Trimmers & Displaymen's Union Local 144, Carol Weiss King for the IJA, Edward Kuntz for the ILD, Abraham Unger for the International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 820 AFL, etc.

Associations

International Juridical Association (IJA)

In 1932, Brodsky became a founding member of the International Juridical Association. The IJA provided Brodsky and its members with a wide network. Other members and affiliates included: George R. Andersen, Harry Elmer Barnes, Paul F. Brissenden, Richard A. Dowling, Arthur Fisher, Osmond Fraenkel, Leo Gallagher, Aubrey Grossman, Pearl M. Hart, Robert L. Hale, Isaac S. Heller, Abraham J. Isserman, Isadore Katz, Robert W. Kenny, Paul J. Kern, Carol Weiss King, Joseph Kovner, Max Lowenthal, Jerome Michael, Louis F. McCabe, Carey McWilliams, Shad Polier, Lee Pressman, Colston E. Warne, Abrahm Lincoln Wirin, Nathan Witt, David Ziskind, Isaac E. Ferguson, Yetta Land, Maurice Sugar, David J. Bentall, John P. Davis, Charles H. Houston, Henry T. Hunt, R. W. Henderson, Austin Lewis, and Clara G. Binswanger. Beyond Brodsky, IJA members also to the ILD included: George R. Andersen, David J. Bentall, Joseph R. Brodsky, John P. Davis, Leo Gallagher, Irvin Goodman, Carol Weiss King, Edward Lamb, Yetta Land, Louis F. McCabe, Herbert T. Wechsler, Ruth Weyand, Samuel L. Rothbard, and Abraham Lincoln Wirin. The House Un-American Activities Committee considered the IJA "an official offshoot" of the ILD, itself the "legal arm" of the Communist Party.

Other associations

Brodsky was involved in many left-leaning associations, making him a nexus of Popular Front and other political movements.
Those associations include:
Brodsky died on July 30, 1947, as reported by the Daily Worker, which listed him as a charter member of the Communist Party.

Legacy

In the 1920s, Brodsky mentored Vito Marcantonio and "significantly contributed to his left orientation" toward Marxism. Marcantonio went on to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives from New York's 18th district from January 3, 1945, until January 3, 1951.
The still-existent National Lawyers Guild is an outgrowth of his efforts at the ILD and IJA.

External sources