The National Socialist Convention in Finnish Harlem
One hundred years ago today … the US Socialist Party National Convention was on its fourth day. It was held from May 8 through 14 at Harlem’s Finnish Hall, located at 5th Avenue and 127 Street. The complete list of all 161 delegates is available at Marxists.org.
The party debated its platform and its direction, and most famously, agreed to nominate as president Eugene V. Debs, currently in federal prison for sedition (as mentioned in our post of April 20).
As for the site of the convention, its name was no fluke. As is recounted in Ephemeral New York: “In the 1920s to 1940s, up to 9,000 Finnish residents called [Harlem] home.”
Courtesy Ephemeral New York.
WRITTEN BY JONATHAN GOLDMAN.
TAGS: socialism, Harlem, Finns, Finnish, Debs