The producers news. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1918-1937, 1934-06-28
BY JOHN HOWARD LAWSON

ingham, in shacks IN the suburbs.
The workers talked in low voice;
some neighbor might be caves
one of the comrades
might be. Swallowed by detectives;
raids were likely; few days be-
fore, masked men drove up In four
automobiles to a house where an
LID. meeting was in progress, /
and had left a fiery cross on the /
lawn. The discovery of Negro and
white comrades at a meeting might
be the cause for a lynching.
In this conspiratorial atmosphere,
in slow, thoughtful, hating words,
an epic story was unfolded; the
drama of the awakening Southern
prolet ariat-a drama so gigantic
in its implications that 1t is pre-
sumptuous for me to attempt to
touch on it in a few hastv para
graphs. | have no actual record
of these conversations. l was able
to note down only certain phrases,
which give no real indication Of
the strength or of the simplicity of
what was said.
l was particularly interested in
two questions: first, the race prob
lem, concerning which / had heard
such misleading phrase-mongering
among upper-class people; second
the effect of the terror on Commu-
mist activity. | asked these ques-
tons dozens of times, and answers
gave me a new perspective on the
character and extent of the work
ing class movement in the South.
The destruction of the deeply
ingrained idea of black inferiority
is a slow and bitter task. Among
the dispossessed white workers
the pitiful racial myth is the only
compensation for hunger and fol
, misery.
Many present party members
, were members of the Klan four Of
five years ago, at the time wher
: the demagogic promises of the
2 Klansmen were making a consid
cradle impression on the working
< class. One evening l met six un
j employed men gathered in cabil
o on the hills south Of Birmingham
e A heavy rain was falling, and mos
e members of the group had wake
d for miles wading almost hee-des
e in mud to reach the meeting. On
IS man had been a Klansman. Ar
e other had been a Wobbly. 81
= takes time to make 'em see clea
re on the Negro problem" said tn
(. former Klansman. Sometime
i you feel like it was no good goin
2 on talking, like talking to COOS
: that can't do nothing but cackl'
W but you got to go slow yc
e got to explain and then expla'
d. some more the funny part
ed it is, the harder a man fights {
u this race question, the more pref
he dice he shows, the straighter h
le sees it once he gets to understai
seems like l was that way m
e self; l had so much prejudice
ut me had to spill it all out befO
tie 1 could see straight" The form
nd Wobbly broke in: eve all chang
Sc lot, we plowed a lot of grou
or in two years and there's a lot mo
he to be plOwed."
ar Communism has met with CO..
s. siderable success in blowing
he of ground" on the race issl
es, White workers emphasized Il
continually.
IN eve can't be free unless all t
ole workers are free" !. -. GAS 10
.on as there's a differential in col
g. we're going to have a different
Jus in wages" eve can't imprC
I'VE our condition as long as Their
the other working people little woI
lr- off than we are" -~---.-
Sed Communist children are play
a a part in the campaign again
ct race prejudice. They are carryi
of the battle into the schools. P
led ties of Young Pioneers, VIII
six colored and white children play
lice gether, have been broken up
red police on several occasions.
and talked to a 14-year-old girl,
an Young Pioneer leader: "The WI
in children get very angry at me, ;
hey throw rocks at me, but tell tn
lite 1 like Negroes and Pm going ri
to on liking them"
he The thing that the South
the ruling class is unwilling and
ar able to see is that white men |
npt women workers are tearing dc
INST the wall of race prejudice. Owe
gro year ago, eight workers were
an rested when a meeting was raiC
The Four Of these were Negroes g
= is four were Southern whites. ]
wo- police were so Infatuated at find
lily, native white Communists v
'oal colored people that they dii
the garded their own jim-crow ru
ant and threw all eight of them
nds the same cell in jefferson coU
ny Jail. This case has never b
tied settled, it has never been dismi.
gis- and never brought to trial, becs
at the authorities don't dare per
nan the testimony Of these South
md white men in open court.
nus Relief authorities estimate
his one-third Of the population
no Birmingham is destitute. In m
IN workers homes that / visi
!. there was no furniture, no Ii
over and in many cases almost no +
hen l saw a whole Negro family Z
ing along a street in Birming
nese in a wagon which was tilted a
alriy angle of forty-five degrees bee