Winston, Henry

Born Apr. 2, 1911, in Hattiesburg, Miss. Figure in the American labor movement.

Winston was born into a Negro working-class family. In his early years he worked as a house painter and dishwasher. He joined the Young Communist League (YCL) in 1931 and the Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA) in 1933. In 1931 and 1932 he helped organize a march on Washington, D.C., by the unemployed of Kansas City, Mo. Winston was a member of the National Executive Committee of the YCL from 1936 to 1948 and committee secretary from 1938 to 1941. From 1941 to 1945 he served in the armed forces of the United States. In 1947 he was made a member of the National Council and secretary of the National Committee of the CPUSA.

Since 1948, Winston and other leaders of the Communist Party have been repeatedly persecuted and subjected to fabricated charges. After his incarceration in 1956, Winston became seriously ill in prison and lost his sight. The pressure of public protests in the USA and the rest of the world effected his early release in 1961. In the same year, Winston was elected a member of the Executive Committee (since 1969, the Political Committee) of the CPUSA. In 1964 he was elected a member of the Secretariat of the party’s National Committee (since 1972, the Central Committee). He has been the national president of the party since 1966.

Winston has been awarded the Order of the October Revolution and the Order of Friendship of Peoples.