Frank Crosswaith

Frank R. Crosswaith was born on July 16, 1892, in Frederiksted, St. Croix, Danish West Indies (the island was sold to the United States in 1917 and became part of the U.S. Virgin Islands). His parents were William I. Crosswaith and Anne Eliza Crosswaith. He emigrated to the United States in his teens. While finishing high school, he worked as an elevator operator, porter and garment worker. He joined the elevator operators' union and when he finished high school, he won a scholarship from the socialist The Jewish Daily Forward to attend the Rand School of Social Science, an educational institute in New York City associated with the Socialist Party of America. ==Career==

Labor career , and William Karlin 1920s Crosswaith founded an organization called the Trade Union Committee for Organizing Negro Workers in 1925, but this work went by the wayside when Crosswaith accepted a position as an organizer for the fledgling Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters. Crosswaith maintained a long association with union head A. Philip Randolph, serving with him as officers of the Negro Labor Committee in the 1930s and 1940s. In the early 1930s Crosswaith worked as an organizer for the International Ladies Garment Workers Union, which became one of the major supporters of the Negro Labor Committee. In 1934, Crosswaith co-founded and chaired the Harlem Labor Committee (HLC), which he tried to align with the American Federation of Labor (AFL), then seeking African-American members. The majority of these were under the Socialist Party ticket, but his run for City Council and his last Congressional run were under the American Labor Party ticket. In 1942, Crosswaith was appointed by New York City mayor Fiorello La Guardia to the New York City Housing Authority, the first Black man to join the body. He served until 1958. ==Death and legacy==

Crosswaith died at his home in New York City on June 17, 1965. Crosswaith was known as the "Negro Debs" (after Eugene V. Debs). On Crosswaith, Robert Fay wrote: "Crosswaith, a Socialist, sought to ally African American workers with white workers under the banner of class. Thus, he opposed African American leaders who believed in racial alliance alone." Additional information on Crosswaith may be found in the Negro Labor Committee Records held by the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in New York City. ==Works==

• When Will It End? New York: Negro Labor News Service, 1929. • The Negro and Socialism. Chicago: Socialist Party of America, n.d. [c. 1932]. • ''Know Your 'Onions': A Message on the Negro in Trade Unions.'' New York: Negro Labor News Service, n.d. [1930s]. • True Freedom for Negro and White Labor. With Alfred Baker Lewis and Norman Thomas. New York: Negro Labor News Service, 1936. • Discrimination.With Alfred Baker Lewis. New York: Negro Labor News Service, 1942. • Colored People Have a Stake in the War. (contributor) New York: Committee to Defend America by Aiding the Allies, New York Chapter, n.d. [c. 1942]. • Communists and the Negro. n.c. [New York?]: n.p. [Interracial Review?], n.d. [c. 1943]. ==References==