Dorothy Burnham
Dorothy Burnham was a life long Communist Party USA activist.[1]
She is the mother of Linda Burnham.
SNYC conference
In 2018 South Carolina Progressive Network published a booklet, HISTORY DENIED: Recovering South Carolina's Stolen Past by Becci Robbins. Its content is a substantive introduction to the Southern Negro Youth Congress (SNYC) and the vanguard radical labor organizing among interracial youth in the severely segregated South between 1937 and 1949. Specifically, this tells of a landmark Congress convened in Columbia, South Carolina in October of 1946.
This event had in active participation such Freedom Movement notables as local South Carolina youth leaders in addition to Paul Robeson, Herbert Aptheker, Dorothy Burnham and Louis Burnham, Esther Jackson and James Jackson, Louise Patterson, Sallye Davis, Jack O'Dell, South Carolina's Modjeska Simkins and the Congress' Keynote Speaker, Dr. W.E.B. DuBois, who gave a speech, BEHOLD THE LAND, which "has been a must read' for all young activists ever since".[2]
We Will Make Peace Prevail!
On March 28, 1982 the New World Review organized a gala luncheon "We Will Make Peace Prevail! Disarmament Over Confrontation, Life Over Death", at the Grand Ballroom, Hotel Roosevelt, New York City. Virtually all participants were identified as Communist Party USA.
Dorothy Burnham was listed on the Committee of Sponsors.[3]
Communist Party reformer
In 1991 Dorothy Burnham, New York was one of several hundred Communist Party USA members to sign the a paper "An initiative to Unite and Renew the Party"-most signatories left the Party after the December 1991 conference to found Committees of Correspondence.[4]
Bassett, Kryzak, Gale fundraiser
On May 7 1994, the New York Communist Party held a fundraising banquet to honor three Party activists Ted Bassett, Rose Kryzak and Mary Gale. Grace Bassett accepted the award on behalf of Ted Bassett. Almost 3,000 was contributed in honor of the three.
New York District chair John Bachtell MCd the event. Communist Party USA leader Gus Hall was keynote speaker while Maria Ramos introduced the honorees. Dorothy Burnham reminisced about her work with Bassett. Etta Glaser spoke of helping to organize the 1963 March on Washington with Ted Bassett.[5]
Communist Party MLK tribute
On January 19, 2002, the Communist Party USA newspaper, Peoples Weekly World published a signed tribute to Martin Luther King, Jr..
We salute Dr. King’s courage and vision. He saw and struggled for an America and world that can be. We pledge in his memory to work to reorder our nation’s priorities “so that the pursuit of peace will take precedence over the pursuit of war.”
Signatories included Dorothy Burnham. Almost all signatories were confirmed members of the Communist Party USA[6].
2011 Better World Awards banquet
Local People's World readers and contributors held their annual Better World Awards banquet May 29, focusing on the fight for quality public education.
Pioneering civil rights activist Dorothy Burnham was warmly received with a standing ovation after she received her award. At 96 years old, the program was not long enough to mention all her life's work, which began in the 1930s with the American Student Union and continued in the 1940s with the Southern Negro Youth Congress in Birmingham. She has long been active in women's and peace organizations, and is currently she is president of the Louis Burnham Awards Fund.[7]
Critical Resistance event
Critical Resistance and Brecht Forum presented Angela Y. Davis/Ruthie Gilmore/Vijay Prashad/ Laura Flanders...
Friday, May, 20, 2011 Riverside Church, South Hall Admission: $50-$250. (includes admission to main event -"The World We Want is the World We Need". Riverside Church, Nave 490 Riverside Drive. Admission: $20-$30
Host Committee: Rashidah Ismaili AbuBakr, Malaika Adero, Seth Adler, Shana Agid, Sam Anderson, Kai Barrow, Andrea Bible, Jean Carey Bond, Dorothy Burnham, Melanie Bush, Rod Bush, Angela Cali, Susie Day, Jesse Ehrensaft-Hawley, Joan Gibbs, Elspeth Gilmore, Farah Jasmine Griffin, Lennox Hinds, Esther Cooper Jackson, Peter Marcuse, Jerry Meyer, Charlene Mitchell, Mary Morgan, Mary Lou Patterson, Beth E. Richie, Shreya Shah, Alvin Starks, Farrah Tanis, Laura Whitehorn.[8]
References
- ↑ http://www.politicalaffairs.net/article/articleview/9323/
- ↑ CCDS Mobilizer August 2018
- ↑ We Will Make Peace Prevail! event brochure
- ↑ Addendum to Initiative document
- ↑ PWW "A tribute to thee real life heroes" May 14, 1994, page 11
- ↑ http://transitional.pww.org/so-that-the-pursuit-of-peace-will-take-precedence/
- ↑ PW People’s World hosts awards banquet in New York, Gabe Falsetta June 2 2011
- ↑ Google groups Cardozo NLG › This Friday-Angela Davis|Ruth Gilmore|Vijay Prashad|Laura Flanders Amy Cross