Eva Shafran Burton (September 6, 1906November 17, 1944) was a Communist Party promoter who worked in New York and California in the early 20th century. She was known for her expertise in Marxist theory.

Biography

Shafran was born in Poland or Russia in 1906.New York State Archives; Albany, New York; State Population Census Schedules, 1925; Election District: 35; Assembly District: 03; City: New York; County: Bronx; Page: 9 Description District: ''A·D· 03 E·D· 35'' Source Information Ancestry.com. ''New York, U.S., State Census, 1925'' atabase on-line Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012. Original data:State population census schedules, 1925. Albany, New York: New York State Archives. She immigrated to the United States in around 1915, when she was about nine years old. At the time of the 1925 New York State census she lived in

the Bronx The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New ...

and worked as a bookkeeper. Shafran was naturalized a citizen of the United States at the District Court for the Eastern District of New York at Brooklyn on August 25, 1925. According to her passport she was with brown hair and brown eyes. In February 1931 she was picked up by the

LAPD Red Squad The LAPD Red Squad is the common name for a division of the municipal Los Angeles Police Department, in California, United States, that was focused on limiting the activities of left-wing individuals and organizations in the city. Over the course ...

as she left the

CPUSA The Communist Party USA, officially the Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA), is a communist party in the United States which was established in 1919 after a split in the Socialist Party of America following the Russian Revo ...

offices and "was beaten so severely by the police officers that she was admitted to a local sanitarium". She was reportedly hit over the head "with an automobile crank". According to the Chicago ''Daily Worker'', "A couple of weeks ago she spoke at a meeting of Trade Union Unity League metal workers, and, returning home alone, was suddenly attacked by one of the patriotic thugs of that city. The gangster leaped from an automobile, struck her down with a club, and, while she was lying in the street, kicked her in the mouth and knocked out all of her front teeth. She was in a hospital for ten days, but is now improved." In 1938 she worked as a

millinery Hat-making or millinery is the design, manufacture and sale of hats and other headwear. A person engaged in this trade is called a milliner or hatter. Historically, milliners, typically women shopkeepers, produced or imported an inventory of g ...

worker in Los Angeles and lived with her brother, Abe Shafran, a

furrier Fur clothing is clothing made from the preserved skins of mammals. Fur is one of the oldest forms of clothing, and is thought to have been widely used by people for at least 120,000 years. The term 'fur' is often used to refer to a specific i ...

, and his wife on Cummings Street.California State Library; Sacramento, California; ''Great Register of Voters, 1900-1968'' Source Information Ancestry.com. ''California, U.S., Voter Registrations, 1900-1968'' atabase on-line Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2017. Name Miss Eva Shafran Residence Date 1938 Street Address 527# N Cummings St. millinery Residence Place Los Angeles, California, USA Party Affiliation Cst Occupation Worker All three were registered to vote Communist Party. A

California state legislature The California State Legislature is a bicameral state legislature consisting of a lower house, the California State Assembly, with 80 members; and an upper house, the California State Senate, with 40 members. Both houses of the Legislatur ...

investigation into Communism in California, published in 1945, put a spotlight on Shafran's biography: California Communist

Dorothy Ray Healey Dorothy Ray Healey (September 22, 1914 – August 6, 2006) was a long-time activist in the Communist Party USA, from the late 1920s to the 1970s. In the 1930s, she was one of the first union leaders to advocate for the rights of Chicanos and b ...

recalled in the 1970s, "I became a part of what in the post-

Browder Browder may refer to: People *Andrew Browder (1931–2019), American mathematician * Aurelia Browder (1919–1971), African-American civil rights activist * Ben Browder (born 1962), American actor and writer * Bill Browder (born 1964), Hermitage C ...

period was derisively called the Gods' Committee. That was the Communists who were in the top leadership of the

CIO CIO may refer to: Organizations * Central Imagery Office, a predecessor of the American National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency * Central Intelligence Office, the national intelligence agency of the former Republic of Vietnam * Central Intellige ...

, who had a group together; it was mainly a class, as a matter of fact, taught by a woman by the name of Eva Shafran who died in '45. Really a wonderful woman, the only woman I've ever known who could take a current question and relate it back to Marxist classics." Shafran was struck and killed by a streetcar in November 1944. At the time of her death her husband Don A. Burton was serving as a sergeant in the U.S. armed forces in China. Her friends organized a memorial in her honor.

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