Maurice Sugar was born August 12, 1891, in Brimley, Michigan (now Superior Township), the son of ethnic Jewish parents who had emigrated to America from Lithuania, which was then part of the Russian Empire.
[3] Kalman Sugar eventually joined the Socialist Party of America in 1918, but it was under the influence of his son, not vice versa, as in the more typical case of so-called "red diaper babies.
"[3] Growing up in Brimley, Sugar was exposed to the culture of a variety of nationalities, as a large number of immigrants from French Canada, Sweden, Finland, and Germany were employed in the dominant timber industry of Michigan's Upper Peninsula.
"While Sugar would retain a Jewish identity, growing up in a largely non-Jewish environment created in him a strong melting-pot outlook.
[6] The reason for the Sugars' move was not cultural, however, but related to the belief of his parents that Maurice and his sister and brothers were being poorly educated in Brimley.
[10] He read socialist literature prolifically and was particularly influenced by the philosophical writings of Joseph Dietzgen as well as the historical studies of Gustavus Myers and Charles Edward Russell.
Sugar gained an additional following on the basis of his measured public lectures on a wide range of social, economic, and political themes.
Immediately after the declaration of war, a bill calling for a military draft had been introduced in Congress, which was passed and signed into law by President Woodrow Wilson on May 17, 1917.
In 1934, Sugar defended James Victory, an African-American veteran of World War I who was accused of slashing the face of a white woman in an alley and stealing her purse.
"[1] Recorded with the Manhattan Chorus on 29 April 1937, the song encourages union members to hold a sitdown strike in response to mistreatment by company bosses.
Sugar's papers, consisting of over 60 linear feet of material, are housed at the Walter P. Reuther Library at Wayne State University in Detroit.
The Maurice Sugar Papers are held by the Walter P. Reuther Library of Labor and Urban Affairs at Wayne State University in Detroit.
Topics covered include UAW legal matters and factionalism, the Ford Hunger March, the House Un-American Activities Committee, and radical politics.