The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1932-12-21
MASS ANGER
SWEEPS SOUTH
White, Negro Workers
in Mighty Protest

Especial Wire 10 Daily Worker,
BIRMINGHAM, Ala, Dec.
2O.-Negro troopers in the
heart of Alabama's BLACK
Belt herOicalIy defended
themselves on Monday against
an organized bloody terror
launched by Alabama land
lords and their police in an at
tempt to break up the Share Crop
pers Union, which has been orga-
nizing the efforts of the troopers
to improve their conditions.
Three leaders of the Negro troopers
were killed by sheriff lynch gangs.
and several MORALLY wounded. in
Guiding a member of the Commu-
mist Party. The landlord press adj
mits that at least four of the sher-
ifs and possemen were wounded. two
seriously. That press is now en-
gagged in a rabid campaign of lynch
Indictment against the Negroes.
First Blow Against Leader of Share
Choppers.
The landlords directed the first
blow Of their new terror drive against
Cliff James, Negro cropper and
leader Of the Share Choppers Union
in Notasulga, Tallapoosa County.
Notasulga is only a few miles from
Camp Hill where in July, 1881, land
lords and their police shot up .
meeting of the union.
Mondays attack by the landlords
and their police was opened when
armed deputies visited the cabin Of
Cliff James and attempted to seize
his mule and COW. They pointed
their guns threateningly at James,
but were driven off by other CROP
pers who at once rallied to the de-
Tense Of their leader.
The deputies later returned with q
lynch gang at their backs and
opened fire on the troopers. These
lynch gangs had to be recruited
from adjoining counties because Of
the strong sympathies of the local
white troopers with the struggles of
the Negroes.
BY this time, $50 troopers had
gathered in the cotton patch around
James cabin and a pitched battle
enSued, with the Negroes heroically
resisting the landlord police terror.
In addition to the choppers reported
killed and wounded, six of their
Io-e 4
threatened with lynching. Lynch
gangs, organized and led by land
lords and sheriffs are hunting down
the choppers with the possibility that
many more have since been killed.
Heart of Struggle Area.
The terror is taking place in the
heart Of the choppers struggle in
Tallapoosa, Macon, Lee, Chambers,
and Elmore counties.
1t comes on the heels of a partial
victory wrested from the landlords
by the union for the right of the
troopers to sell their own cotton.
The attack Is aimed at crushing tho
union and is directed against both
the Share Choppers Union and the
Communist Party, which supports
the struggles of the Negro troopers.
The boss press in Birmingham and
throughout the BLACK Belt is cali
ling for a mass lynching against the
Negroes. already terming the ire
mendous struggle a race riot" All
the reactionary forces and their re
formist tools who defended the lynch
verdicts against the innocent Scots
boro boys and the Camp Hill attack
on the troopers are rallying to. the
support OF the terror.
Premeditated Attack.
The organized, premeditated char
acter OF the landlord police terror is
shown by % the fact that the local
leader Of the Share Choppers Union
was picked out for the first attack;
(2) by the preliminary organization
a., A0osznSuEn 81 RAes NJ