Publisher's Synopsis
Oneil Cannon was Los Angeles' first African-American member of the International Typographical Union (ITU). If that had been all, Oneil could be considered a significant man, but there is so much more to his story which began in Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana on January 28, 1917. In 1947, Oneil and his brother, after migrating from New Orleans, LA to the community of Watts in Los Angeles, CA, determined to become printers-but not just printers. The two men, both of them members of the Communist Party, understood that their print shop was not an ordinary business. Over the next 70 years their shop became a headquarters for community activism, a school for youth, and eventually would generate the Paul Robeson Center, a multi-cultural oasis in South Central Los Angeles. If there was a Cause, Oneil was in the center of it. And he never wavered as a member of the Communist Party-for in Marxism he found the answers he needed to understand the exploitation and suffering in the world around him, particularly to people of color, and how to act to do something about it. His love for people was both human and revolutionary. Between the covers of this book lies the story of a man's life told in his words, the words of his family, and of friends, activists, and comrades. And in the telling, there is also the story of the community of South Central Los Angeles and its people who struggled to overcome racist neglect and racist policing; and there is the story of courageous Communist rank and file members who stood by the community even through the darkest days of the Red Scare Witch hunts.
