According to
Max Lowenthal, Brodsky was a partner in the law firm of a "Captain
Hale."[2] Other sources state that Brodsky was a partner with
Carol Weiss King at Brodsky, King &
Shorr in New York City.[2] (Another source calls the firm "Shorr, Brodsky, and King" and states King headed it in 1925.[3][4]) Others in their "loose partnership" of radical attorneys included
Walter Nelles and
Walter Pollak (onetime partner of
Benjamin Cardozo, known through King's brother-in-law
Carl Stern).[5][6]
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 (ILD) and the
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) 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."[8] (Carol Weiss King, Walter Pollak, and Carl Stern all worked on the
Scottsboro Boys cases; Pollak argued part of it before the U.S. Supreme Court.[5])
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.[9] In August 1931, Brodsky and Chamlee had to remain in the court building until a large crowd dispersed.[10]
At year's end, Brodsky led arguments,[8] 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.[11]
Upon Brodsky's arrival:
He was met by a howling mob of lynchers. In his efforts to have the convictions set aside, Hawkins immediately overruled Brodsky's request. Brodsky took exception to the judge's ruling, whereupon the judge overruled his exception. Brodsky then countered with an exception to Hawkins' decision overruling his previous request to except. The judge became so angry that he made a grand exit through the rear door of the courtroom. ln all the confusion, Brodsky turned round, and was suddenly seized by a husky man who said: "Come on, yah Jew bitch! We'll show you how to defend n*****r rapers."[12]
Former ILD chairman
J. Louis Engdahl toured 26 European countries to raise support for the Scottsboro Boys. (Engdahl died in Moscow of pneumonia during the trip.) 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."[12]
On January 21, 1932, Chamlee, Brodsky, and Irving Schwab (retained by ILD) 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 (retained by the ILD), 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.[9]
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.[9] 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 Defense Meeting" in Union Square, New York City.[13][14] On April 16, 1933, Brodsky filed a motion for new trial for Patterson, which the judge grants on June 22.[8] 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.[15] 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.[9][16][8][17][18] On November 19, 1933, the lawyers called on U.S. President
Franklin Delano Roosevelt for intervention to protect the defendants.[19]
"Conflict between Liebowitz and the Communist-dominated International Labor Defense (ILD) attorney Joseph Brodsky" undermined the effectiveness of defense, particularly after two ILD attorneys were charged with attempting to bribe witness Victoria Price.[20] By 1934, Brodsky had dropped out of the case, apparently replaced by fellow IJA member
Osmond Fraenkel.[9]
Individual cases involved in the Scottsboro Boys case include:
POWELL ET AL. v. STATE, 141 So. 201(Ala. 1932): Defense of Ozie Powell, William Roberson, Andy Wright, Olen Montgomery, and Eugene Williams by Chamlee Sr., Chamlee Jr., and Brodsky, supported by Irving Schwab, Allan Taub, Elias M. Schwartzbart, Joseph Tauber, and Sidney Schreiber.[21]
WEEMS ET AL. v. STATE, 141 So. 215 (Ala. 1932): Defense of Charlie Weems and Clarence Norris by Chamlee Sr., Chamlee Jr., and Brodsky, supported by Irving Schwab, Allan Taub, Elias M. Schwartzbart, Joseph Tauber, and Sidney Schreiber.[22]
PATTERSON v. STATE, 141 So. 195 (Ala. 1932): Defense of Haywood Patterson by Chamlee Sr., Chamlee Jr., and Brodsky, supported by Irving Schwab, Allan Taub, Elias M. Schwartzbart, Joseph Tauber, and Sidney Schreiber.[23]
NORRIS v. STATE, 156 So. 556 (Ala. 1934): Defense of Clarence Norris by Leibowitz, Brodsky, and Chamlee, supported by
Osmond. Fraenkel, George Rosier, and
Carol Weiss King[24]
Other cases
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.[25]
In 1932, Brodsky became a founding member of the
International Juridical Association (IJA). 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.[27] The
House Un-American Activities Committee considered the IJA "an official offshoot" of the ILD, itself the "legal arm" of the Communist Party.[28]
Other associations
Brodsky was involved in many left-leaning associations, making him a nexus of
Popular Front and other political movements.
International Workers Order (IWO): Mutual aid society that paralleled ILD support "arm" of the Communist Party of the USA: see entry on
International Workers Order.[27]
Jewish People's Committee (JPC): Founded in 1936 as Jewish People's Committee for United Action Against Fascism and Anti-Semitism ("Jewish People's Committee") in response to a refusal by the
American Jewish Congress and the
World Jewish Congress to admit representatives of the Jewish Section of the
International Workers Order (IWO),
ICOR, and the
Fur Workers Joint Board of New York City. Founding members included: Rabbi Jacob Greenfield, William Weiner (IWO), Dr. Charles Kuntz (Icor), H. Upatschwisky (Fur Workers), and Rubin Saltzman. Mirroring Soviet foreign policy, the JPC switched from Anti-Fascism to Isolationism after the
Hitler-Stalin Pact of 1939. When Nazi German attacked Soviet Russia in 1941, the JPC reverted to Anti-Fascism. Other associates included:
Joseph Freeman (New Masses), A. A. Heller,
Michael Gold, John Howard Lawson, Louis Weinstock, John L. Spivak, Rabbi Moses Miller,
Ben Gold (Fur Workers), Rabbi J. Greenfield, Rabbi Judah L. Hahn, Ben Meyers, Harry Mintz, M. Pizer,
Irving Potash, Arthur Rock, J. Sultan and Charles Zuckerman. By 1944, its national board comprised: Joseph Aronow, Dr.
Edward K. Barsky, Herbert Biberman, Sabina Bluman, Dr. A. L. Bunin, J. Burakoff, Sydney Burger, Abram Flaxer, Julius Fleiss, Morris Friedman, Leonard Goldsmith, Dr. Benjamin Goodman, Dave Greene, . George Hochberg, Conrad Kaye, Aaron Kertman, Alexander Koren, Samuel Kramberg, Prof. William M. Malisoff, Saul B. Minowitz, Fern Mosk, Sam Nessin, Dr. Benjamin Netreba, Harry Poll, Irving Potash, Dora Rich, I. Rosenberg, George Sandler, S. Saniel, Henry Sazer, Morris Schwartz, Rubin Shulman, Irving Schnurman, Max Steinberg, William Weiner, Isidor Weissberg, Sol Wollin, and Tobias Wendy. JPC sponsors included:
Aline Bernstein (lover of
Thomas Wolfe), Louis P. Birk,
Marc Blitzstein, Morris Carnovsky, Jerome Chodorov, Prof. Leon W. Cohen, Lester Cohen,
Lion Feuchtwanger, Irving Fineman, Dr. Abraham Goldfeld,
William Gropper (artist), Prof. N. Levinson, Josef Lhevinne, Rosina Lhevinne, Irving M. Lechtenstein,
Albert Maltz,
Samuel Ornitz, Prof. Bernard F. Riess,
Raphael Soyer (artist), Alfred K. Stern (husband of
Martha Dodd), Maurice Sugar (union lawyer), Max Weber, Z. Weinper, Prof. Louis Weisner, and John Wexley. The
House Un-American Activities Committee considered it a Communist front.[30]
People's Songs, Inc. Established January 31, 1946, with chief director
Pete Seeger and other directors
Herbert Haufrect,
Lee Hays,
Daniel Lapidus, and
Robert Claiborne, plus Joe Brodsky as corporation's attorney. Board members included: B. A. Bodkin, Tom Glazer, Horace Grenell,
Woody Guthrie, John Hammond Jr., Herbert Haufrect, Bess Hawes, Waldemar Hille, Paul Kent,
Millard Lampell, Earl Robinson, Bob Russell, Walter Lowenfels, Kenneth Spencer, Alec Wilder, and Palmer Weber.[27]
New York Workers School Brodsky was associated with this organization–see entry
New York Workers School.[2]
Personal and death
Brodsky died age 58 on July 30, 1947, as reported by the Daily Worker, which listed him as a charter member of the Communist Party.[2][1]
In the 1920s, Brodsky mentored
Vito Marcantonio and "significantly contributed to his left orientation" toward
Marxism.[31] 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.
^From the Washington Post, February 12, 1944: "The Labor Canteen, sponsored by the United Federal Workers of America, CIO, will be opened at 8 p.m. tomorrow at 1212 18th st. nw. Mrs. Roosevelt is expected to attend at 8:30 p.m."