Award-winning journalist Dave Schechter’s research on how his late aunt became a leader in the Communist Party in the 1920s has been published in a new book.
Schechter’s book on Amy Schechter, “A Life of the Party,” blends the historical record of her activities with narrative fiction.
Schechter will discuss her life during a book event on March 9 at Waller’s Coffee House in Decatur from 1 to 4 p.m.
Born in England and educated in the United States, Amy Schechter devoted more than four decades of her life to fighting for the labor struggles of men and women.
She was the great aunt of Atlanta-based Schechter, who worked as a CNN journalist and editor for 25 years, and the daughter of a Jewish scholar.
“Amy’s greatest notoriety came in 1929 when she was sent by the party’s Workers International Relief to care for the families of 1,700 striking workers at the Loray Mill in Gastonia, North Carolina,” said Schechter in a statement. “At that strike, Amy was one in a cadre of Communists who came south to organize the mill workers. She was arrested on charges that included murder, and the trial made national headlines.”
Schechter has been researching his Aunt Amy for decades and has written columns about her. He was 7 years old when she died in 1962. The journalist said he became fascinated by her life in 1999 when his father gave him a letter and redacted pages of an FBI report that involved someone with whom Amy had a relationship.
The letter was from an expert on Soviet activities in the U.S., the statement said.
“The blacked-out sections put my imagination in motion,” Schechter said.
For research, he used the Freedom of Information Act to obtain hundreds of pages of FBI reports, documents from archives of the Soviet Union, and dozens of newspaper and magazine articles written by Amy, the statement said.
“Were she around today, I have no doubt that Amy would support the current labor struggles and racial justice protests,” Schechter said.
“History may not have been kind to the communists, but in Amy’s time the communists often were at the forefront in calling attention to economic and social inequities in the United States, and in organizing people for change.”
Fascinating! I look forward to more details about the event at Waller’s.