Independent Historian

Daren Salter is a PhD candidate in American history at the University of Washington. He received a Master’s Degree in American History from San Francisco State University, where he was named the History Department’s Distinguished Graduate Student for 2004. A student of race, labor, and radicalism, Salter’s essay, “Legacy of Paradox:  The Communist Party, Civil Rights, and the Politics of Race in the Pacific Northwest, 1928-1945,” was awarded the History Department’s York-Mason Prize for outstanding graduate essay on African Americans in the West in 2006. He is a past Fellow at the Harry Bridges Center for Labor Studies and was a project coordinator and Associate Editor for the Seattle Civil Rights and Labor History Project from 2005-2009. He currently teaches Humanities at the Northwest School in Seattle.

Council on African Affairs (1942-1955)

The Council on African Affairs (CAA) was founded in 1942 and quickly emerged as the leading voice of anti-colonialism and Pan-Africanism in the United States and abroad before becoming a casualty of Cold War liberalism and anti-communism in the early 1950s. Paul Robeson served as … Read MoreCouncil on African Affairs (1942-1955)

William Alphaeus Hunton Jr. (1903-1970)

A leading intellectual and activist of the post-WWII period, Alphaeus Hunton Jr. was the executive director of the Council on African Affairs (CAA) and editor of the CAA’s publication, New Africa, from 1943 through the organization’s dissolution in 1955. In this capacity, Hunton did more … Read MoreWilliam Alphaeus Hunton Jr. (1903-1970)

League of Struggle for Negro Rights (1930-1936)

The League of Struggle for Negro Rights (LSNR) was the primary civil rights organization of the American Communist Party (CP) during the early-to-mid 1930s. Founded in St. Louis in 1930 after the dissolution of the American Negro Labor Congress, the group established regional branches throughout … Read MoreLeague of Struggle for Negro Rights (1930-1936)