Why We Are for Roosevelt

New York: People's Voice, 1944. Very good plus.. [4]pp., on a single folded sheet. Minor soiling and wear. A 1944 campaign brochure issued by the Board of Directors of the New York African American newspaper, The People's Voice. The board, headed by Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., here "calls upon the Negro people of America -- and especially the people of our own Harlem -- to raise their voices in an overpowering demand for the reelection of Franklin Delano Roosevelt for a fourth term as President." Powell and his colleagues also argue that FDR "symbolizes the road ahead to a better world and a more democratic America." They continue to enumerate the reasons they support FDR, including Roosevelt's support for the United Nations, labor unions, equal wages, anti-discrimination policies in federal programs and the military, and because FDR fights against poll taxes and "the reactionary enemies of the people who now control the Republican Party." For these reasons, Powell and his fellow board members of The People's Voice view Roosevelt as "a staunch friend of the Negro people."

The pamphlet was reprinted from the July 5, 1944 issue of The People's Voice, and likely handed out to potential voters in Harlem. The People's Voice was a short-lived but important African American newspaper published in New York City from 1942 to 1948. Adam Clayton Powell was the newspaper's founder and editor. The life of the newspaper was sadly cut short, mainly due to its growing affiliation with the Communist Party at exactly the wrong time in American history. Surprisingly, no copies in OCLC.