Chart shows year-by-year membership numbers in District 12. Click second tab for interactive map of Party membership by district year by year after 1922. District 12 encompassed Washington, Oregon, and Idaho through much of this period with Seattle serving as District headquarters. These maps are hosted by Tableau Public and may take a few seconds to respond. If slow, refresh the page. See more CP maps at the Mapping American Social Movements Project.
More maps and a detailed explanation of sources can be found at our companion Mapping American Social Movements Project.The membership data are from internal Communist Party records. The numbers from 1922 to 1934 reflect average dues collections per year or part of year. From 1937 to 1945 the data are for party registrations at the start of the year. Party officials estimated that registered membership exceeded dues collections by 10-20%.
Sources: The following documents can be found in Files of the Communist Party of the USA in the Comintern Archives (IDC publishers): The Membership of Our Party (1922); Membership Figures According to Dues Payments (1923)(1924)(1925 January-June) all in Dello 739; Communist Party USA Social and Industrial Composition of Jan. 1, 1928 (Dello 1358); 1934 (Dello 3457); Table B (Dello 2723); Dues Sales by District (Dello 2723); Organizing Department (Dello 2723); 1932 Average Dues Paying Membership (Dello 2723); Material for American Discussion (Dello 4083). From the Earl Browder Papers,1891-1975 (ProQuest microfilm), reel 3: Registration 1944-1945.
Vote charts and maps are based on data from Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research. United States Historical Election Returns, 1824-1968 [Computer File]. ICPSR00001-v3. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 1999-04-26. http://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR00001.v3.
Research and data compilation: James Gregory, Rebecca Flores
Maps: James Gregory