Guide to the John Poulos and Constantine Poulos Papers TAM.114 : Greek and Greek-American Radicalism Collection ca. 1921-1978 (Bulk 1940-1950)
There are also two separate collections relating to the murder of George Polk in Greece: (1) The Newsmen’s Commission Records, with a guide and (2) the Polk Papers, with a preliminary guide, see at the end of this entry, below.
Among the library’s labor collections, those of greatest interest would be the George Litsios Papers, 3 linear feet, 1926-1980, containing records of Greek Fur Workers, Local 70, and of Litsios’ role as a dissident and activist in the Rank and File Committee within the local union. Includes Greek-language material. Also, the Communications Workers of America, Local 1180 records, which include papers of long-time president of the local, Arthur Cheliotis. The CWA, Local 1180 records are described in this guide.
[Note: If the links to guides don’t work, you can find them on the Tamiment Library’s web site, in the list to be found by clicking “Collections/Finding-Aids.”]
GREEK AMERICANS IN THE SPANISH CIVIL WAR
The Library also holds subject files on Greek and Greek-American volunteers, and on individual volunteers, in the Spanish Civil War; these are part of our Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archive (ALBA). They are not described on the web site, but can be ordered in our Reading Room. Other material on Greek-American volunteers can be found in general records, and in the photograph collections in the ALBA archive.
It should be understood that it is entirely possible that scattered references to Greek-American political and labor activity may be found in many of the library’s other large collections (the hotel workers records, bakery workers union records, Transport Workers, Communist Party USA records, etc.).
Email contact for The Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives:
PAPERS (1936 – 1954), (Bulk 1946-1948) – 5.0 Linear Feet
Collection Number: Tamiment 178
PROVENANCE: Gift of William Roe Polk, 199x
ACCESS: There are no restrictions on research use of the collection.
PRELIMINARY INVENTORY OF MATERIALS RELATING TO THE LIFE AND MURDER OF GEORGE W. POLK
Received on January 10, 1996, in one large carton which contained three smaller boxes. The contents, some 4.33 linear feet, have been transferred to eleven (11) hollinger boxes, each holding 5 linear inches of material.
This collection contains: I. GWP writings – broadcasts and cables, diaries, notebooks, short stories, Middle East Mosaic (book ts.); II. Clippings, cables re GWP murder, clips collected by GWP; III. Family Correspondence, incl. WRP (William Roe Polk – brother), ARP (Adelaide Roe Polk – mother); Capt. James H. Polk -ancestor (returned to donor); IV. GWP memorabilia, awards, memorials; V. Photographs – GWP, WRP, other family.
Bx 1 GWP’s collection of news clippings about Greece, 1946-48, loose; also contains an unsigned, 3 p. account, dated 5/17/47, of a trip, [presumably] by GWP to the village of Kaito; also a 17 p. typescript, dated 4/25/1946, by Vivian R. Fletcher “Only democracy can prevent a modern Greek tragedy,” [bx 1 is a flat, drop front box, containing 3 linear inches of material]
Bx 2 Clippings re GWP murder, envelopes, May – August, 1948
Bx 3 Clippings re GWP murder, envelopes, Sept – November, 1948
Bx 4
GWP Alaska Diary, #1, 11/17/1936 – 11/25/1937
GWP Alaska Diary, #3, 6/6/1938 – 9/6/1938
GWP Los Angeles to Rome Diary, #1, 11/24/1938 – 4/22/1939
GWP Los Angeles to Rome Diary, #2, 4/23/1939 – 8/9/1939
[the above four items have been temporarily returned to William R. Polk – 3/99]
Cables, telegrams, letters of sympathy – May, 1948
NBC Overseas Press Club Memorial Center Dedication ” 1954
Bx 5 Address books, appointment diary, etc.
“Credo” [6/28/1936], childhood photo
Letters (in envelopes) of Mrs. Adelaide Roe Polk (mother of GWP) 1947-1948
Letters (in envelopes) to Mrs. Adelaide Roe Polk, other family ltrs, c. 1948-1954
Letters (flat) letters of GWP, 1945-1948; also some ltrs to GWP from mother, and some ARP ltrs re her trip to Greece after learning of GWP’s death.
Bx 6 [permanently returned to William R. Polk — except for the the first item, temporarily returned]
Middle East Mosaic [title of a bk project conceived by GWP in March, 1946]. File contains chronologically arranged typscripts by GWP (some 150 pages), written in various cities in the Middle East, 1946-47; also some GWP corr, 1946-48, re this project and related articles he sought to publish.
Polk family letters, folded, in approximately 100 small envelopes, c. 1878-1890; most are ltrs received by Capt. James H. Polk, of Mississippi, Texas, other points in the South. (These have been returned to the donor).
Polk family photos, approx 16 images, c. early 20th century, in an envelope addressed to Adelaide Roe Polk [mother of GWP]
Bx 7 GWP cables to CBS New York for 1946
GWP cables to CBS New York for 1947-1948
CBS broadcasts re GWP murder, 6/19/48, 9/9/48
UP cables re GWP murder, other cables, ARP corresp re receipt of cables
GWP letters to family, 1946-1948 (were in envelope “Mrs. A.R. Polk, 424A N. Maple Dr., Beverly Hills, CA)
GWP Awards and Memorials, 1943-1950; includes his WWII citations; posthumous honors, and programs, correspondence clippings related thereto Photos (2) of Lt. GWP, 11/20/1943 – accepting Presidential Naval Unit Citation
Bx 8 GWP broadcasts, January – June, 1947 – copy #2
GWP broadcasts, July – December, 1947 – copy #2
Overseas Press Club; Polk Award (LIU); misc; all c. 1949-1953
GWP cables to CBS, 1947, copy #1
GWP cables to CBS, 1948, copy #1
Movie project on life of GWP – 1948
Japan, notes on — n.d.
Alaska short stories, c. 1937 (gathered by ARP 7/3/48)
Alaska short stories [file 2], c. 1937
Notebook, c. 1938-1939
World War II short stories
Black Cats” (WWII short story)
Short stories, various (to receive individual folders); Bear stories [Alaska], Japan, Port Said,
[the above items in box 8 have been temporarily returned to William R. Polk — 3/99]
Filipinos, Mussolini, French Meal, etc., c. 1937-1938
Short stories, various (to receive individual folders); China, FDR, etc.
Bx 9 GWP broadcasts, 1946 ” originals
GWP broadcasts, 1947 ” originals
GWP broadcasts, 1946 – copy #2
Short stories [2], WWII (“Mr. America; self-interview)
GWP notebooks [2], Greece, 1948
Middle East Mosaic, notebook [outline]
GWP CBS cables, 1947
An American Broadcast Story: a collection of broadcasts made by George Polk (compiled into book form in 1951 by M.S.R.S.)
Untitled GWP article on Filipino independence, c. 1940
Clippings, misc. collected by GWP, c. 1939-1940
Clippings, misc. re GWP � 1948
Bx 10 GWP misc (letters, clips, photos) – mostly 1945
Alaska Kodak film 1937; letters from GWP 1939
Polk family corresp re GWP — 1948-1949
Condolence letters
Letters of introduction for GWP, 1st trip to orient — 1937
WRP corresp — 1945, 1947
WRP – photos of, 1946-1947
Overseas Press Club – 1957
LIU – GWP award – 1959
GWP passport, visa
GWP Alaska memorabilia — [temporarily returned to WRP – 3/99]
Ltrs for WRP 1949 — [temporarily returned to WRP – 3/99]
Clippings, misc.
Bx 11 ARP – WRP correspondence, 1944
Clippings, Romeike press service – October, 1948
GWP clippings 1955-1956
Rea G. Polk – letters re GWP estate, etc. – 1950
WRP misc. corresp – 1950-1951
ARP letter – 1950
GWP broadcast ts. from Alexandria – 1946-1947
GWP cables – 1947-1948
Colleagues – broadcasts re GWP murder – excerpts
ARP corresp 1950
WRP corresp 1947-1951
GWP to ARP 10/1947
misc.
Historical and Biographical Note: The following biographical narratives were submitted by Eric G. Poulos, the son of John Poulos and nephew of Constantine Poulos:
John Poulos (1911-1980), activist and documenter of Greek and Greek-American radicalism, and a son of Greek immigrants, was born in 1911 in Lynn, Massachusetts. While in his twenties, and a food worker, he organized Food Workers Local 701 of the AFL and led the fledgling union into the emerging CIO. Assigned by John L. Lewis to be the Chief Organizer for the emerging CIO for the north shore of Massachusetts (Lynn, Revere, Salem, Peabody, Chelsea, Swampscott) he was a delegate to the CIO founding convention in 1938. A Marxist, Poulos belonged to, and served on the national committee of the Socialist Workers Party, a Trotskyist organization. Later, in the 1940s he joined the Workers Party, also a Trotskyist organization. He served on its central committee, and wrote extensively for its newspaper, Labor Action. He was a leader in the United Auto Workers, but by the late 1950s was blacklisted for his radical views. Remaining politically active, he was involved in the fight for civil rights, against the war in Vietnam and against the Greek military dictatorship (1967-74). In the 1970s Poulos became an activist scholar of Greek studies, traveling many times to Greece and setting up a collection on Greek radicalism at the Tamiment Library. He died on December 20, 1980.
Constantine (“Connie”) Poulos (1916-1986), John’s younger brother, was born in 1916. As a journalist he almost defined the image of the “dashing”war correspondent. In 1940 he was founder and editor of The Hellenic Spectator, a monthly of politics and the arts. With the outbreak of World War II, Constantine took a job as a journalist for the Overseas News Agency. Assigned to report on the Greek resistance, in 1943 he became the first correspondent to enter occupied Greece, where he made his way to the mountains and lived with the resistance, the National Liberation Front (EAM-ELAS). His articles were carried in the Boston Globe, the New York Post among other papers and throughout the Greek press. He had a forty year association with the Nation for which he wrote longer interpretative pieces. When Athens was liberated in 1944, a photo of Poulos on the shoulders of the guerillas was carried in newspapers throughout the world with the caption “Liberator of Athens.” Poulos was an eyewitness to the pitched battles of the December 1944 days in Athens and historians still refer to his dispatches even today as the most authoritative. His nose for news enabled him to “find” many of the top secret memos to and from Lincoln MacVeagh, U.S. Ambassador in Athens to Washington (some of them were about Poulos!). Also those to London from Athens. From Athens he went to cover Poland where the newly installed communist government, upset by his objective reporting, expelled him. He covered the rest of the Balkans and filed dispatches from Rumania, Bulgaria and Hungary. He traveled to Jerusalem where his disclosure of a secret agreement by Winston Churchill to keep Jewish refugees out of Palestine got Poulos arrested. The British elections that year (1945) found the Labor Party attacking Churchill and raising the demand “Free Poulos.” He was freed but expelled from Palestine.
Returning to Greece, Poulos served as a liaison and translator between American officials and resistance notables. He urged that the EAM-ELAS be given at least an equal voice in the government being shaped for postwar Greece. No supporter of the KKE, he freely acknowledged the communist leadership of EAM-ELAS, but felt that the resistance fighters needed to be included in a regime which guaranteed their political rights. This view ran counter to what became American policy, and Poulos was expelled from Greece under vague charges that he was “pro-communist”. Again Poulos was able to “find” memos marked ” top secret,” from the highest levels in Washington where Truman’s Secretary of War (now called “Defense”), Robert Patterson wrote Poulos” publisher demanding he be sacked. In 1948 Poulos was a member of Walter Lippman’s commission to review the facts of the murder of his friend George Polk. Poulos was the only member of the commission to register a dissent at the official Greek government’s version.
Poulos returned to the United States and was contracted by Holt, Rinehart publishing to write a book about recent Greek history. Most of the manuscript was completed. It ended there. But inspired by the efforts of journalist and author Elias Vlanton (Who Killed George Polk?) to uncover the truth, noted journalist Alexander Cockburn published an expose in the Nation magazine in 1987 where he printed the complete 1950 confidential memo from the State Department to Holt, Rinehart, “requesting” they not publish Poulos” book and Holt, Rinehart’s response that, of course, they would respect the wishes of the State Department. The book was never published.
Poulos bought a weekly newspaper in Jamestown, NY, where he was to win a Pulitzer Prize for community journalism. He was able to get an editorial position at Holiday magazine (1965-70), and wrote about the Greek Junta for The Nation. Constantine Poulos died June 3, 1986.
Both collections contain materials associated with the subject matters mentioned in the above biographies but in addition there are lengthy memoirs, by both brothers, about growing up in an immigrant Greek community in Lynn, Massachusetts in the 1920’s and 30’s. Also included is correspondence with Professor Lefteris Stavrianos (University of California) who was working on a biography of Constantine Poulos.
Submitted by Eric G. Poulos
02/19/07