Revels Cayton (1907 – November 4, 1995) was an American union leader and civil rights activist active in the states of

Washington Washington most commonly refers to: * George Washington (1732–1799), the first president of the United States * Washington (state), a state in the Pacific Northwest of the United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A ...

and

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

Early life

Born in 1907 to Susie Revels Cayton and Horace Cayton, Sr., Cayton was a civil rights leader in

Seattle Seattle ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the 18th-most populous city in the United States. The city is the cou ...

and California. His grandfather was

Hiram R. Revels Hiram Rhodes Revels (September 27, 1827Different sources list his birth year as either 1827 or 1822. – January 16, 1901) was an American Republican politician, minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Church, and college administrator. Bo ...

, the first black senator in the United States. Cayton was forced to seek employment at age 15 as a telephone operator due to a series of unfortunate financial events. He attended the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW and informally U-Dub or U Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington, United States. Founded in 1861, the University of Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast of the Uni ...

, but dropped out due to the

Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...

. It was during his time at the University of Washington that he first was introduced to

communism Communism () is a political sociology, sociopolitical, political philosophy, philosophical, and economic ideology, economic ideology within the history of socialism, socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a ...

. In the 1930s, the Communist Party's primary concerns included workers' rights and racial tensions. In a letter to a friend, Cayton stated, "in the beginning I was drawn to the Party because I believed that in a socialist system there would be no racism." At some point in the 1930s, he moved from Seattle to San Francisco.

Career and activism

Cayton was particularly active in 1934; during that year he joined the Northwest District of the Communist Party, organized the Communist Party's Seattle chapter of the

League of Struggle for Negro Rights The League of Struggle for Negro Rights was organized by the Communist Party USA, Communist Party in 1930 as the successor to the American Negro Labor Congress. The League was particularly active in organizing support for the "Scottsboro Boys", nin ...

, and participated in the 1934 West Coast waterfront strike in San Francisco. In 1940, he filed a discrimination suit against a San Francisco restaurant that refused service to him,

Paul Robeson Paul Leroy Robeson ( ; April 9, 1898 – January 23, 1976) was an American bass-baritone concert artist, actor, professional American football, football player, and activist who became famous both for his cultural accomplishments and for h ...

, and five others. In 1941, Cayton moved to Los Angeles where he became the director of the State Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) Minorities Commission and Vice President of the California State CIO Council. After this he moved to New York City where he served from 1945 to 1947 as the Executive Secretary of the

National Negro Congress In African-American history, the National Negro Congress (NNC; 1936–ca. 1946) was an African-American organization formed in 1936 at Howard University as a broadly based coalition organization with the goal of fighting for Black liberation; it ...

(NNC). Under his leadership the NNC petitioned the UN Director-General to recognize the "denial of constitutional rights to 13,000,000 U.S. Negroes." Cayton returned to San Francisco in the 1950s. In 1960, he was the first manager of St. Francis Square, a housing development in San Francisco built by the International Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union and the Pacific Maritime Association. Later he became the deputy director of the San Francisco Housing Authority and deputy mayor for social programs. Cayton died on Saturday, November 4, 1995, in San Francisco, California.

References

External links

Richard S. Hobbs oral history interviews with Revels Cayton

Telegram from Revels Cayton and the National Nego Conference to W.E.B. Du Bois.

Photo of Revels Cayton
from the San Francisco University State Archives {{DEFAULTSORT:Cayton, Revels 1907 births 1995 deaths University of Washington alumni African-American history of Washington (state) Activists for African-American civil rights American civil rights activists African-American communists Activists from Washington (state) Activists from the San Francisco Bay Area African-American history in Seattle