Descendant of slaves and slave owners, Oneil Cannon came to Los Angeles after service in WWII from Plaquemines Parish in Louisiana.  He became a printer, working for Charlotta Bass, who owned the California Eagle Newspaper which served South Central, Watts, Willowbrook area of Los Angeles.  Recruited by the Communist Party in the early 1950's, Oneil campaigned to integrate the Printers  Union, suffering discrimination as a black man and as a Communist.  He worked as an organizer from within the Communist Party for the next thirty years.