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Elaine Black Yoneda (September 4, 1906 - May 29, 1988) was a labor and civil rights activist, member of the Communist Party and candidate for political office in California.

Early years
Yoneda was born Rose Elaine Buchman in Connecticut on September 4, 1906 to Russian Jewish immigrants. Raised in Brooklyn, New York by parents who actively supported labor causes and the Russian revolution, Yoneda demonstrated little interest in the movement herself. In 1920 Yoneda's family briefly relocated to San Diego, California, where her father ran a dry goods store and Elaine attended local public schools. By 1924 the family was living in Los Angeles, where Yoneda attended a meeting of the Young Workers League at the encouragement of her parents. At the meeting Yoneda met another disinterested child of labor activists, Edward Francis Russell, Jr. They married in 1925 and Yoneda gave birth to their daughter Joyce in 1927.

Politicization
In 1930, after witnessing the harassment of unemployment demonstrators by the Los Angeles Red Squad, Yoneda became more active in the labor movement, once observing a demonstration in which the Red Squad assaulted an elderly woman. Prompted by the injustices she had observed, Yoneda joined the International Labor Defense (ILD) and by 1931 she was working for the ILD office as a clerical worker. One of her duties was to bail out individuals who had been jailed for their participation in strikes and demonstrations. Yoneda bailed out Japanese American demonstrator Karl "Hama" Yoneda, who had been beaten and arrested by the Los Angeles Police Department. Shortly thereafter, Yoneda separated from Edward Russell and in 1935 she and Karl Yoneda traveled to Washington State where they could legally be married.

After relocating to San Francisco with Karl sometime in the early 1930s, Yoneda continued her activities in the civil rights, labor, and union movements, and also joined the Communist Party and worked for the ILD as a district secretary. Yoneda’s work with the ILD included supporting striking agricultural workers and visiting prisoners such as Tom Mooney and others who had been arrested under the Criminal Syndicalism laws. Yoneda herself was arrested in Dolores Park, San Francisco for participating in a rally against the Criminal Syndicalism laws in March of 1935. Yoneda became known as the “Red Angel” for her work in defending union members and labor demonstrators in the San Francisco waterfront and General Strike of 1934. She was the only woman who sat on the steering committee of the 1934 General Strike. Yoneda participated in many high-profile labor and civil rights activities such as the Salinas Lettuce Strike, National Scottsboro Week and Spanish Civil War relief. Her political work throughout the 1930s culminated with her running for the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1939 on a platform of free day care, low cost housing, and civil rights. She was defeated.

Internment
Upon the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941, Yoneda’s husband and the couple’s two year old son, Tommy, were sent to the internment camp in Manzanar, California. Yoneda entrusted her daughter Joyce into the care of her parents and remained with Karl and Tommy in the camp until Karl began volunteering intelligence for the United States and she was allowed to move back to San Francisco with her son. \

Later years and death
After the war and Karl’s return home, the family purchased a chicken ranch near Petaluma, CA. Yoneda kept up her activities in labor and civil rights movements, acting as chair for the Sonoma chapter of the Civil Rights Congress. The farm was sold in 1960 and the family returned to San Francisco, where Yoneda remained active in union, civil rights, and labor movements. She remained involved with a variety of labor organizations, including the International Longshore and Warehouse Union’s Women’s Auxiliary and the Office Workers Union, and also participated in peace movements and various civil rights cases, including the Wilmington Ten. The Yoneda family made annual pilgrimages to Manzanar and were active with the Japanese American Citizens League in campaigning for redress and reparations for Japanese Americans incarcerated during World War II.

Yoneda persevered in her devotion to political activity up until her death. She attended a longshoremen’s rally supporting the Rev. Jesse Jackson’s presidential campaign the day before she died of a heart attack on May 29, 1988.