The daily worker., 1935-02-15
Maurice Sugars
BrilliantDefenSe
OfJameS Victory
By del

>
Court, 1910 BarIum Tower, De-
troit. Price, cents.
Reviewed by
A. B. MAGL
THIS is a document of first-rate
importance. 1t is important be-
cause it tells the story of the
frame-up Of a Detroit Negro worker,
James Victory, which attracted
nationwide attention. frame-up
that was defeated. 1t is important
because it is an eloquent defense of
Negro rights and a blow against
the system of persecution and op-
preston Of the Negro people. 1t is
important because it is a model of
labor defense technique-of the use
Of the courts to expose the capital
ist frame-up system, to accuse the
accusers. And it is important be-
cause it sheds light on the charac-
ter of man who for more than 20
years has been an outstanding
fighter for the rights of labor and
who today is candidate for the
office of judge in the very court in
which this trial took place.
was present at the trial last
summer when Maurice Sugar made
this speech to the jury. There was
at stake the life of mana SEN
tence Of guilty would have meant
life Imprisonment for James Vic
tory. I recall the tremendous i'm
preston that speech made on the
crowded courtroom. In cold type
1t loses none of its eloquence, none
of the passion of its denunciation
of the persecution of the Negro
masses, none of the calm logic and
irony with which it tore to shreds
the entire fabric of this vicious
frame-up.
James Victory was accused of
having attacked and robbed
white woman on the night of May
II, 1884. He was arrested after a
frenzied man-hunt, whipped on by
the Hearst newspaper, the Detroit
Times, during which the police ar
rested every Negro seen in white
neighborhood. Despite the fact that
there wasn't the slightest evidence
against Victory, that the "iden-
tification" was obviously framed,
that witness after witness, both
black and white, testified to his &C
tivities on the evening in question
and to his unimpeachabls charac-
ter, this innocent Negro worker
would as he himself declares in a
statement on the opening page of
the pamphlet, most certainly have
been railroaded to life imprison-
ment had it not oeen for the splen-
did fight put up in his behalf by
Maurice Sugar and the protest
campaign organized by the Interna-
tional Labor Defense.
AGAIN and again Sugar protested
"a the attempts to bar Negroes
from the courtroom. Toward the
end, after again warning the jury
against race prejudice, against be-
ing influenced by stories that came
from the poisoned press" he de-
scribed the double exploitation of
the Negro workers and pointed to
the way out.
In this case, as in hundreds of
other labor cases, Maurice Sugar
served without fee. Today, under
the slogan of "All Labor Unites to
Elect Fighter" practically the en-
tire Detroit labor movement, in
cluding the Detroit and Wayne
County Federation of Labor CA. F.
of L. Mechanics Educational So
ciety of America, the Society of
Designing Engineers, the Trade
Union Unity League, the Commu-
mist Party, etc, has in fact united
to place him where he can even
more effectively serve the workers.
That's hard thing to do in city
dominated by the open shop auto
companies, but it can be done.
This pamphlet, distributed in thou
sands of copies. especially among
the Negro people, will help to do it.