Lovett Huey Fort-Whiteman (3 December 1889 – 13 January 1939) was an American political activist and functionary for the

Communist International The Communist International, abbreviated as Comintern and also known as the Third International, was a political international which existed from 1919 to 1943 and advocated world communism. Emerging from the collapse of the Second Internationa ...

(Comintern). The first

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

to attend a Comintern training school in the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

in 1924, Fort-Whiteman was later named the first national organizer of the American Negro Labor Congress, a

mass organization A communist front (or a mass organization in communist parlance) is a political organization identified as a front organization, allied with or under the effective control of a communist party, the Communist International or other communist organi ...

(front group) of the

Communist Party USA The Communist Party USA (CPUSA), officially the Communist Party of the United States of America, also referred to as the American Communist Party mainly during the 20th century, is a communist party in the United States. It was established ...

. Fort-Whiteman was once called "the reddest of the blacks" by ''

Time Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...

'' magazine. Fort-Whiteman was accused of being a

Trotskyist Trotskyism (, ) is the political ideology and branch of Marxism developed by Russian revolutionary and intellectual Leon Trotsky along with some other members of the Left Opposition and the Fourth International. Trotsky described himself as an ...

and died of malnutrition while imprisoned in a

gulag The Gulag was a system of Labor camp, forced labor camps in the Soviet Union. The word ''Gulag'' originally referred only to the division of the Chronology of Soviet secret police agencies, Soviet secret police that was in charge of runnin ...

in the

Biography

Early years

Lovett Huey Fort-Whiteman was born in

Dallas Dallas () is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of Texas metropolitan areas, most populous metropolitan area in Texas and the Metropolitan statistical area, fourth-most ...

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

on December 3, 1889. His father, Moses Whiteman, was born into

slavery Slavery is the ownership of a person as property, especially in regards to their labour. Slavery typically involves compulsory work, with the slave's location of work and residence dictated by the party that holds them in bondage. Enslavemen ...

South Carolina South Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders North Carolina to the north and northeast, the Atlantic Ocean to the southeast, and Georgia (U.S. state), Georg ...

and relocated to Texas at some time prior to 1887, where he worked as a janitor and a small scale cattle rancher.Glenda Elizabeth Gilmore, ''Defying Dixie: The Radical Roots of Civil Rights, 1919-1950''. New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 2008; pg. 33. At the age of 35, Moses Whiteman married the 15-year-old Elizabeth Fort. Lovett was the first of the couple's children. Fort-Whiteman received a better education than was common for many African American children of the era in the Dallas public schools, attending one of the few high schools in the American South in that day open to black attendance. Following graduation from high school, Fort-Whiteman enrolled at the

Tuskegee Institute Tuskegee University (Tuskegee or TU; formerly known as the Tuskegee Institute) is a Private university, private, Historically black colleges and universities, historically black land-grant university in Tuskegee, Alabama, United States. It was f ...

Tuskegee, Alabama Tuskegee ( ) is a city in Macon County, Alabama, Macon County, Alabama, United States. General Thomas Simpson Woodward, a Creek War veteran under Andrew Jackson, laid out the city and founded it in 1833. It became the county seat in the same y ...

, probably about 1906, from which he graduated as a

machinist A machinist is a tradesperson or trained professional who operates machine tools, and has the ability to set up tools such as milling machines, grinders, lathes, and drilling machines. A competent machinist will generally have a strong mechan ...

. Following completion of his studies at Tuskegee, Fort-Whiteman gained admission to

Meharry Medical College Meharry Medical College is a private historically black medical school affiliated with the United Methodist Church and located in Nashville, Tennessee. Founded in 1876 as the Medical Department of Central Tennessee College, it was the first m ...

Nashville, Tennessee Nashville, often known as Music City, is the capital and List of municipalities in Tennessee, most populous city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County in Middle Tennessee, locat ...

, with a view to becoming a medical doctor, but he did not complete the course of studies at that institution. By 1910, his father having died, Fort-Whiteman had moved with his mother and younger sister to the

Harlem Harlem is a neighborhood in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It is bounded roughly by the Hudson River on the west; the Harlem River and 155th Street on the north; Fifth Avenue on the east; and Central Park North on the south. The greater ...

area of

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

, where he worked as a hotel bellman to support the family while harboring dreams of becoming a professional actor.

Mexican years

Soon abandoning his dramatic ambitions, Fort-Whiteman next spent two or three years in the

Yucatán Peninsula The Yucatán Peninsula ( , ; ) is a large peninsula in southeast Mexico and adjacent portions of Belize and Guatemala. The peninsula extends towards the northeast, separating the Gulf of Mexico to the north and west of the peninsula from the C ...

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

, where he worked as an accounting clerk for a rope manufacturer, gaining fluency in the

Spanish language Spanish () or Castilian () is a Romance languages, Romance language of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family that evolved from the Vulgar Latin spoken on the Iberian Peninsula of Europe. Today, it is a world language, gl ...

and studying the rudiments of

French French may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France ** French people, a nation and ethnic group ** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices Arts and media * The French (band), ...

. Fort-Whiteman was deeply inspired by the

Mexican Revolution The Mexican Revolution () was an extended sequence of armed regional conflicts in Mexico from 20 November 1910 to 1 December 1920. It has been called "the defining event of modern Mexican history". It saw the destruction of the Federal Army, its ...

which swept the Yucatán in the spring of 1915, advancing a reform program over the staunch opposition of wealthy landowners and the

Catholic church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

.Gilmore, ''Defying Dixie'', pg. 34. He became a committed adherent to the idea of radical transformation of society through trade unions,

syndicalism Syndicalism is a labour movement within society that, through industrial unionism, seeks to unionize workers according to industry and advance their demands through Strike action, strikes and other forms of direct action, with the eventual goa ...

, as a member of an organization called

Casa del Obrero Mundial The Casa del Obrero Mundial () or COM was a libertarian socialist and anarcho-syndicalist worker's organization located in the popular Tepito Barrio of Mexico City, founded on September 22, 1912. One of its founders was Antonio Díaz Soto y Gama, ...

(House of the World Worker, or COM). When the COM attempted to further deepen the nature of the revolution by launching a strike against the new government of Yucatán, it was destroyed in the aftermath. In 1917, Fort-Whiteman left Yucatán as a sailor bound first for

Havana Havana (; ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.Cuba Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is an island country, comprising the island of Cuba (largest island), Isla de la Juventud, and List of islands of Cuba, 4,195 islands, islets and cays surrounding the main island. It is located where the ...

before proceeding to Halifax,

Nova Scotia Nova Scotia is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada, located on its east coast. It is one of the three Maritime Canada, Maritime provinces and Population of Canada by province and territory, most populous province in Atlan ...

, Canada. He disembarked there and made his way to the city of

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

, adopting the

pseudonym A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true meaning ( orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individual's o ...

"Harry W. Fort" and discreetly reentering the United States under the guise of a railroad dining car waiter.

Radical activism in New York City

Back in New York City, Fort-Whiteman became well acquainted with leading black

socialists Socialism is an economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to private ownership. It describes the economic, political, and socia ...

A. Philip Randolph Asa Philip Randolph (April 15, 1889 – May 16, 1979) was an American labor unionist and civil rights activist. In 1925, he organized and led the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, the first successful African-American-led labor union. In the ...

and

Chandler Owen Chandler Owen (April 5, 1889 – November 2, 1967) was an African-American writer, editor and early member of the Socialist Party of America. Born in North Carolina, he studied and worked in New York City, then moved to Chicago for much of his c ...

, publishers of the magazine '' The Messenger''. He enrolled for courses at the

Rand School of Social Science The Rand School of Social Science was formed in 1906 in New York City by adherents of the Socialist Party of America. The school aimed to provide a broad education to workers, imparting a politicizing class-consciousness, and additionally served a ...

, a socialist school operated by the

Socialist Party of America The Socialist Party of America (SPA) was a socialist political party in the United States formed in 1901 by a merger between the three-year-old Social Democratic Party of America and disaffected elements of the Socialist Labor Party of America ...

, joining the party himself.Gilmore, ''Defying Dixie'', pg. 39. While at the Rand School Fort-Whiteman met others who would become prominent in the world radical movement in ensuing years, including Japanese émigré

Sen Katayama , born , was an early Japanese Marxist political activist and journalist, one of the original members of the American Communist Party and co-founder, in 1922, of the Japanese Communist Party. After 1884, he spent most of his life abroad, especia ...

and

Otto Huiswoud Otto Eduard Gerardus Majella Huiswoud (October 28, 1893 – February 20, 1961) was a Surinamese political activist who was a charter member of the Communist Party of America. Huiswoud is regarded as the first black member of the American co ...

, a recent transplant from

British Guiana British Guiana was a British colony, part of the mainland British West Indies. It was located on the northern coast of South America. Since 1966 it has been known as the independent nation of Guyana. The first known Europeans to encounter Guia ...

.Gilmore, ''Defying Dixie'', pg. 35. Picking up the pen as the new "Dramatic Editor" of ''The Messenger'' in 1918, Fort-Whiteman was among those at the epicenter of the

Harlem Renaissance The Harlem Renaissance was an intellectual and cultural revival of African-American music, dance, art, fashion, literature, theater, politics, and scholarship centered in Harlem, Manhattan, New York City, spanning the 1920s and 1930s. At the ti ...

, a multi-sided and dynamic black cultural movement dedicated to artistic and political development of the so-called "

New Negro "New Negro" is a term popularized during the Harlem Renaissance implying a more outspoken advocacy of dignity and a refusal to submit quietly to the practices and laws of Jim Crow racial segregation. The term "New Negro" was made popular by Al ...

". Fort-Whiteman even tried his hand as a writer, publishing two works of fiction in ''The Messenger'' provocatively dealing with interracial amorous relations. Another who Fort-Whiteman met in this period was

anarchist Anarchism is a political philosophy and Political movement, movement that seeks to abolish all institutions that perpetuate authority, coercion, or Social hierarchy, hierarchy, primarily targeting the state (polity), state and capitalism. A ...

cartoonist

Robert Minor Robert Berkeley "Bob" Minor (15 July 1884 – 26 January 1952), alternatively known as "Fighting Bob", was a Editorial cartoon, political cartoonist, a radical journalist, and, beginning in 1920, a leading member of the Communist Party USA. Ba ...

, another expatriate from Texas.Gilmore, ''Defying Dixie'', pg. 38. Minor visited

Soviet Russia The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (Russian SFSR or RSFSR), previously known as the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic and the Russian Soviet Republic, and unofficially as Soviet Russia,Declaration of Rights of the labo ...

in 1918 where he had seen the

Bolshevik Revolution The October Revolution, also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution (in Soviet historiography), October coup, Bolshevik coup, or Bolshevik revolution, was the second of two revolutions in Russia in 1917. It was led by Vladimir L ...

at close quarters. Fort-Whiteman followed his friend into the

Communist Labor Party of America The Communist Labor Party of America (CLPA) was one of the organizational predecessors of the Communist Party USA. The group was established at the end of August 1919 following a three-way split of the Socialist Party of America. Although a leg ...

shortly after the time of its formation in September 1919. In October 1919, Fort-Whiteman was arrested in St. Louis speaking to a small gathering attended by a small handful of party members infiltrated by an informer from military intelligence. As a prominent black Communist agitator, Fort-Whiteman came under close scrutiny from the

Bureau of Investigation The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. An agency of the United States Department of Justice, the FBI is a member of ...

as a "dangerous agitator." Fort-Whiteman was charged with violation of the

Espionage Act The Espionage Act of 1917 is a United States federal law enacted on June 15, 1917, shortly after the United States entered World War I. It has been amended numerous times over the years. It was originally found in Title 50 of the U.S. Code ( ...

for having explicitly advocated "resistance to the United States" — although Fort-Whiteman denied ever having used such a phrase in his St. Louis speech. Fort-Whiteman ultimately remained in jail for months after his arrest but seems to have escaped a lengthy prison term.Gilmore, ''Defying Dixie'', pg. 40.

Black communist leader

From 1920 to 1922, the American communist movement eked out a covert, underground existence, with Fort-Whiteman presumably retaining party membership through the succession of mergers and splits which ensued. He reemerged in the public eye in February 1923 as a member of the editorial staff of ''The Messenger'', although his affiliation with the

Workers Party of America The Workers Party of America (WPA) was the name of the legal party organization used by the Communist Party USA from December 1921 until the middle of 1929. Background As a legal political party, the Workers Party accepted affiliation from indep ...

(WPA), a legal communist organization established around the first day of 1922, seems to have remained an unpublicized fact. Fort-Whiteman only publicly acknowledged his communist affiliation in January 1924 with the publication of an article in ''

The Daily Worker The ''Daily Worker'' was a newspaper published in Chicago founded by communists, socialists, union members, and other activists. Publication began in 1924. It generally reflected the prevailing views of members of the Communist Party USA (CPU ...

'', official English-language newspaper of the WPA. In February 1924, Fort-Whiteman was tapped as one of 250 delegates to the " Negro Sanhedrin", a Chicago convention dedicated to issues of concern to black members of the working class, in which the WPA played a significant organizing role through its New York-based affiliate, the

African Blood Brotherhood The African Blood Brotherhood for African Liberation and Redemption (ABB) was a U.S. black liberation organization established in 1919 in New York City by journalist Cyril Briggs. The group was established as a propaganda organization built on t ...

(ABB), headed by

Cyril Briggs Cyril Valentine Briggs (May 28, 1888 – October 18, 1966) was an African-Caribbean American writer and communist political activist. Briggs founded the African Blood Brotherhood (ABB), a small but historically important radical organization de ...

Fort-Whiteman served as speaker for the WPA/ABB caucus and forward the organization's program, calling for an end to racial segregation in housing, binding contracts to protect tenant farmers, an end to colonialism in Africa, and US government recognition of the Soviet Union.Gilmore, ''Defying Dixie'', pg. 41. During the 1920s, a so-called " Great Migration" of African Americans moving from the South to urban centers of the Northern United States took place. The American communist movement sought to capitalize upon the health and safety problems which ensued, initiating a short-lived

(front group) known as the Negro Tenants Protective League to agitate for rent strikes and other forms of activity as a means of spurring change.Mark Solomon, ''The Cry Was Unity: Communists and African Americans, 1917-36''. Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi, 1998; pg. 44. Fort-Whiteman, by then a top leader of the Communist Party in its "Negro work," addressed the founding convention of this group in Chicago on March 31, 1924 along with other top-level Workers Party officials, including

and

American Negro Labor Congress

In the spring of 1925, Fort-Whiteman joined his Workers (Communist) Party comrades Otto Hall and

as one of 17 black signatories of an official call for establishment of the American Negro Labor Congress (ANLC).Earl Ofari Hutchinson, ''Blacks and Reds: Race and Class in Conflict, 1919-1990''. East Lansing, MI: Michigan State University Press, 1995; pg. 29. Established by the Communist Party as a successor organization to the now moribund

, the ANLC was founded by a convention of 500 men and women in Chicago late in October of that same year. Delegates attending this founding congress included substantial numbers of representatives of

trade union A trade union (British English) or labor union (American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers whose purpose is to maintain or improve the conditions of their employment, such as attaining better wages ...

s and sundry community organizations as well as unaffiliated working-class people rather than members of the so-called "Negro intelligentsia."Hutchinson, ''Blacks and Reds'', pg. 30. In the words of one historian, the bulk of these founding delegates were "the sorts of blacks the Communists felt the

NAACP The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is an American civil rights organization formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E. B. Du&nbs ...

and

Urban League The National Urban League (NUL), formerly known as the National League on Urban Conditions Among Negroes, is a nonpartisan historic civil rights organization based in New York City that advocates on behalf of economic and social justice for Afri ...

forgot." The short-lived success of the founding convention of the ANLC was largely a product of Fort-Whiteman's initiative. Chosen as the head of the Provisional Organizing Committee of the ANLC, Fort-Whiteman had traveled across the

South South is one of the cardinal directions or compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both west and east. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Proto-Germanic ''*sunþa ...

and

Northeast The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A '' compass rose'' is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—eac ...

speaking to countless black community groups attempting to persuade them to support in the new effort, arguing that a new organization was essential in order to "present the cause of the Negro worker." His successful organizing effort gained national notoriety for Fort-Whiteman, with the conservative ''

'' magazine deeming Fort-Whiteman to be "the reddest of the blacks."

Move to Russia

Fort-Whiteman moved to Russia in about 1927, joining the tiny African American community in Moscow. He lived with his wife Marina, a Jewish chemist, in a small apartment. He was a close friend of African American journalist Homer Smith Jr. In 1928, Fort-Whiteman was a delegate to the

6th World Congress of the Communist International The Sixth Congress of the Communist International was held in Moscow from July 17 to September 1, 1928. The Congress was attended by 515 delegates from 65 organizations (including 50 Communist Parties) from 57 countries. Adopting the theory of the ...

. In the Comintern debates of 1928, Fort-Whiteman supported the positions of Bukharin and American leader

Jay Lovestone Jay Lovestone (15 December 1897 – 7 March 1990) was an American activist. He was at various times a member of the Socialist Party of America, a leader of the Communist Party USA, leader of a small oppositionist party, an anti-Communist and Cen ...

, arguing against the need for the existence of the ANLC. He was later hired by the English-language ''

Moscow News ''The Moscow News'', which began publication in 1930, was Russia's oldest English-language newspaper. Many of its feature articles used to be translated from the Russian language ''Moskovskiye Novosti.'' History Soviet Union In 1930 ''The Mo ...

'' as a contributor and worked as a teacher at an English-language school in Moscow. He was a consulting screenwriter on the 1932 production ''

Black and White Black-and-white (B&W or B/W) images combine black and white to produce a range of achromatic brightnesses of grey. It is also known as greyscale in technical settings. Media The history of various visual media began with black and white, ...

''.

Arrest and death

Early in 1937, a massive campaign of arrests and punishments of alleged spies, saboteurs, and disloyal individuals was initiated by the

Soviet secret police There were a succession of Soviet secret police agencies over time. The Okhrana was abolished by the Provisional government after the first revolution of 1917, and the first secret police after the October Revolution, created by Vladimir Leni ...

targeting especially Communist Party members and economic leaders. Lovett Fort-Whiteman applied for permission to return home to the United States at this time – a request which was refused.Tim Tzouliadis, ''The Forsaken: An American Tragedy in Stalin's Russia''. New York: Penguin Press, 2008; pp. 98-99. Three weeks later, Fort-Whiteman was denounced for having expressed "counterrevolutionary" sentiments and on July 1, 1937 was sentenced to five years internal exile. He was first sent to

Semipalatinsk Semey (; , formerly known as Semipalatinsk ( ) until 2007 and as Alash-Qala ( ) from 1917 to 1920, is a city in eastern Kazakhstan, in the Kazakh part of Siberia. When Abai Region was created in 2022, Semey became its administrative centre. I ...

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a landlocked country primarily in Central Asia, with a European Kazakhstan, small portion in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the Kazakhstan–Russia border, north and west, China to th ...

, where he worked for a time as a teacher. Lovett Fort-Whiteman was identified as a

in internal CPUSA documents. A report from the mid-1930s on support for Trotsky within the party stated that "Lovett Fort-Whiteman, a Negro Comrade, showed himself for Trotsky." In a 1938 letter to

Gosizdat State Publishing House of the RSFSR (Russian: Госуда́рственное изда́тельство РСФСР), also known as Gosizdat (Госиздат), was a publishing house founded in the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic on ...

, the CPUSA's Comintern representative Pat Toohey wrote, "Whiteman is a Trotskyist." The terror continued to escalate into 1938 and on May 8, 1938, Fort-Whiteman's sentence was reviewed under the stricter

article 58 Article 58 of the Russian SFSR Penal Code was put in force on 25 February 1927 to prosecute those suspected of counter-revolutionary activities. It was revised several times. In particular, its Article 58-1 was updated by the listed sub-articles ...

, specifically 58-2 and 58-6, of the criminal code of the

Russian SFSR The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (Russian SFSR or RSFSR), previously known as the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic and the Russian Soviet Republic, and unofficially as Soviet Russia,Declaration of Rights of the labo ...

(for armed insurrection and espionage) and his sentence was amended to five years of hard labor in the notorious

Gulag The Gulag was a system of Labor camp, forced labor camps in the Soviet Union. The word ''Gulag'' originally referred only to the division of the Chronology of Soviet secret police agencies, Soviet secret police that was in charge of runnin ...

system of work camps. Fort-Whiteman was sent to

Kolyma Kolyma (, ) or Kolyma Krai () is a historical region in the Russian Far East that includes the basin of Kolyma River and the northern shores of the Sea of Okhotsk, as well as the Kolyma Mountains (the watershed of the two). It is bounded to ...

Siberia Siberia ( ; , ) is an extensive geographical region comprising all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has formed a part of the sovereign territory of Russia and its predecessor states ...

, a particularly inhospitable part of the Soviet Far East. In Kolyma, Fort-Whiteman was imprisoned in one of the camps of the Camp Department of the Southern Mining and Industrial Administration, part of the

Sevvostlag Sevvostlag (, North-Eastern Corrective Labor Camps) was a system of forced labor camps set up to satisfy the workforce requirements of the '' Dalstroy'' construction trust in the Kolyma region in April 1932. Organizationally being part of ''Dal ...

camp system run by the

Dalstroy Dalstroy (, ), also known as Far North Construction Trust, was an organization set up in 1931 in order to manage road construction and the mining of gold in the Russian Far East, including the Magadan Region, Chukotka, parts of Yakutia and parts ...

State Trust in the region surrounding

Magadan Magadan ( rus, Магадан, p=məɡɐˈdan) is a Port of Magadan, port types of inhabited localities in Russia, town and the administrative centre of Magadan Oblast, Russia. The city is located on the isthmus of the Staritsky Peninsula by the ...

. The camp department and camps under its management it were tasked with the extraction of gold and tin ore in freezing subarctic conditions. There the intentionally inadequate food supplied to the overworked camp inmates and savage winter weather sapped Fort-Whiteman's strength and the formerly robust man's health rapidly failed. According to an acquaintance of Robert Robinson, who saw Fort-Whiteman, he was severely beaten for failure to fulfill the work norms in the camp, and was "a broken man, whose teeth had been knocked out". On January 13, 1939, Lovett Fort-Whiteman died of illness related to malnutrition. He was 49 years old. According to the death certificate filled out at the Southern Mining Administration's Gulag hospital in Ust-Taezhny, Fort-Whiteman was most likely working at the Taezhnik mine. Although Fort-Whiteman's death certificate was printed on letterhead belonging to the Camp Department of the Southern Mining and Industrial Administration, the need to increase production of tin led to reorganizations of the Sevvostlag organization structure in October 1938 that preceded Lovett's death and led to its reorganization into the Southwest Mining and Industrial Administration with its center in Ust-Utinaya. The Southwest Mining and Industrial Administration was responsible for the operation of a complex of camps, including Taezhnik in the village of Ust-Taezhny (Orotukan), where Lovett Fort-Whiteman died.