Biographies of Oneil and Adele Cannon Essay Example for Free

Biographies of Oneil and Adele Cannon EssayOneil and Adele Cannon will be honored this year as they observe fifty geezerhood of an activist marriage. The following is just a short summary of the many ways Oneil and Adele Cannon have contributed to the history of Los Angeles. The great French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-78) wrote in his massage Emile there is no happiness without courage nor virtue without repugn. This is a quote that certainly can apply to the lives of Oneil Cannon and his wife Adele. As they celebrate fifty eld of an activist marriage, their life journey has exemplified the qualities of courage and attempt.The causes that they have fought unneurotic are a chronicle of the progressive movement over the sound half century. Oneil Cannon was born in Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana on January 28, 1917. He attended grammar and high educate in New siege of Orleans, Louisiana. In his 20s he was drafted into the Army in Louisiana. He first visited L. A. during his furlough from the Army, to visit his sister and younger brother. He met and married his first wife, Elizabeth, in New Orleans in 1939.After his discharge from the Army in 1945 he felt that Los Angeles would probably offer bettor opportunities for a man and his young family, so they travel to Watts. This was during the era of a large migration of African-Americans from the south to atomic number 20 and other northern states. In order to sustain an income in those beginning years, he had various jobs. In 1946 he obtained a position as an Insurance Agent with the historical Golden call down Insurance Company (the first insurance company to predominantly serve the African American community in Los Angeles).As Oneil puts it My brother Fred and I had opened our own printing tell on in Watts before every of us knew very much virtually printing. We were both just out of the Army (World War II) and subsequently a time, we decided that I would go to school and learn print ing. I studied printing at Frank Wiggins Trade School which later became Trade Tech third-year College in the years 1947 to 1950. Fred would period and take care of the shop and accordingly I would come home and teach my brother what I learned at school about printing.That was my job. Thats the way we did it. So we both became printers at the same time, but I became a printing teacher, the same day that I became a printing student. We ran the shop and studied between meetings and other community activities, which we were both involved in Mrs. Carlotta Bass, editor and publisher of the California Eagle Newspaper, (who also introduced Oneil to Paul Robeson) also had a printing shop needing someone to take it over at that time.So Oneil went in and made a extend with hershe rented him the use of the printing shop. Therefore Oneil was in business for himself as the California Eagle Printing Company (1950-55). Also, he still worked with his brother at the Quick Service Advertisers Prin t Shop on 111th and Wilmington. They printed signs, leaflets and advertisements for various funeral establishments, political causes and groups, and businesses in the community. One day Carlotta Bass came into the printishop with some flock to talk to Oneil about the Printers Union.Because of his hands-on work and training as a printer, they invited him to join in starting a campaign to break the color line in the Printers Union. This was a significant point in continuing the struggle for equal opportunities for all, and shows his genuine concern and courage to bring justice to the community. Philip Slim Connelly from the CIO, asked if he could participate in this very important campaign. Prior to this time, the Union did not have any African American members.Considering Oneils history of activism, from the voting rights movement in the south in the 1930s, to being involved in open frame the color bar in the International Typographical Union (ITU), this was one of the most importa nt, telling and dramatic labors of his life. Oneil stated, This is how I got started to working on getting into a printing union. After getting all sorts of run arounds from printing unions, somehow some of the Communists who were in the ITU came to me and offered to help, if I was really interested in breaking the Jim swash status in the printing industry and unions in Los Angeles.I had absolutely no doubts that I was ready for this struggle a piece of cake, after all, hadnt I just come from Jim Crow Louisiana where Id lived all my life, and hadnt I just gotten out, after three years in a Jim Crow Army. I had been all over Los Angeles looking for, and working on different jobs. But you aint lived until you have to deal with well-organized trade union bigots. These dudes were really pros. Interestingly, I never once heard them attacking my desire for membership on the basis of race, but only because the people who advocated my membership were Communists.Incidentally, I never saw an y membership cards, but saw that they knew of my efforts to become a printers union member, and that they were the ones who came to my assistance. Logic tells me that there was something strange about the Unions argument, because if they hated Communists so badly, why were these white Communists in the union, and not one African American? This point was raised by one of the comrades on the union floor and he was roundly booed, but not put out of the union. Oneil finally became a member of the Printers Union, but then was never sent out to jobs. When he went to the Union Hall, somehow there was no work for him. However, some of his friends benefited by Oneil breaking that barrier, and did get jobs. So the struggle continue. Meanwhile, Oneil continued operating his own Union printing business Fidelity Lettershop, which he continues to run today. I ended up not only path my own printing shop, but also teaching graphic arts at S. T. E. P. ne of the Poverty Programs and eventually I ret ired as a California State credentialed graphic arts teacher in 1999.This is where he first met (now Congresswoman) Maxine Waters. I still teach on a volunteer basis at the Paul Robeson Center in south Los Angeles, of which I am the director. Ive been teaching printing a long time. Oneil and Adele met in 1947, while working together as part of a political team in South Los Angeles during the campaign to put Henry Wallace (who was running against Truman) and the Independent Progressive Party (IPP) on the Ballot.Adele was also an activist, beginning with the Franklin Roosevelt campaign as a precinct worker. Adele Marx Rosenfield was born in El Paso, Texas in 1923. Her family moved to California in about 1936 and she graduated from Fairfax richly School in 1940. She then attended UCLA to study Chemistry. After Pearl Harbor, she enlisted in the WAVES, but was discharged after only 17 days imputable to political activities in civilian life. It turned out the government had interviewed a friend of the family who told of her activities.She married and had two childrenJan and Dale Goodman. Adele and Oneil were married in December, 1954. When her youngest child, Jan Goodman, was in Junior High School she went back to school at UCLA Extension and then for her Masters of Business Administration at Cal State Dominguez, while working as an office manager, and raising a family. After earning her CPA and working as a full-time accountant, she served as the Peace and Freedom Partys State Treasurer for 16 years and is still a State Officer of the Peace and Freedom Party.Since starting to work together as part of a political team in South Los Angeles during the campaign to put Henry Wallace and the Independent Progressive Party (IPP) on the ballot in the late 1940s, they continued as a team when argueing to free the Rosenbergs and later Angela Davis. One fight always led to another, as they fought as part of the IPP to force employers to hire African and Mexican- Americans, where the slogon was dont bank or buy where you cant work.As part of the South-East Inter-Racial Council, they fought to end segregated housing and limiting covenants and to bring Negro History Week into the Los Angeles City Schools. Always striving to bring peace, they gathered signatures to the Stockholm Peace Petition, fought and demonstrated against the wars in Vietnam and continue to fight for Middle East peace. As they raised their six kids, the Cannons fought to bring equal education to South Los Angeles, including the multi-years struggle led by Odessa Cox to bring a Junior college to South Los Angeles, which culminated in the establishment of Southwest Community College.They were also involved from the beginning to acquire a health facility of some lovable in Watts, which ultimately came under the leadership of Ted and Bernice Watkins and the Watts Labor Community Action Committee (WLCAC), a predecessor of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Hospital. Oneil Cannon is known to cu rrent activists as owner/operator/union printer at his print shop, Fidelity Educational Press. Oneil, along with his wife Adele and others co-founded the Paul Robeson Community Center in 1986.When they were mentation about a name for this Center, their daughter Jan Goodman suggested it be named in honor of Paul Robeson since their goal was to establish a multi-cultural/multi-ethnic community center. Therefore, who better to act multi-culturalism than Paul Robeson. In the Cannons fifty years as a team, they have certainly lived their motto to improve our community. Instead of leaving when the kids were grown, they stayed to continue the fight for better schools and living conditions in South Los Angeles. In this way they have been able to truly contribute to a multi-cultural South Los Angeles.