The Omaha guide., 1945-08-11
The Communists
Put the Negroes
On Top Again

Few people have taken the trouble
to ~analyze the actual benefits or harm
the Negro, IS a group, has received
in contact with the Communist Party.
Much can be said about the history of
the Communist Party in the United
States, about its struggles and viciS-
STUDIES in the face of a majority pub
lie opinion, that it would be folly for
me to attempt a complete analysis of
communism in its relation to the Ne
gro problem here.
However, in light of the recent de-
velopments in which the Communist
Party was reconstructed following a
turbulent three-day national nven
ton in New York, attention is focused
once more on communism.
1t will be recalled that when Earl
Browder, former leader of the com
muniSt movement, was czar Of the
~"starry-eyed brigade" the Negro ques-
ton was dropped from its top posi-
ton on the red aggenda and a win
the-war, back Roosevelt program was
substituted instead. 1t might be said
that the Communist Party, before
Browder started monkeying around
with it, was making gradual inroads
into small intellectual cells among the
Negroes living in such large COM
munities as New York City, Chicago,
Detroit, Los Angeles, Cleveland, and
Philadelphia. These intelligent Ne
groes, tired of the constant struggle
against an almost impenetrable wall
Of prejudice and segregation based on
color, found in communism the state
they had long sought.
Indeed, and being f%actual, the Com
muniSt Party has to its credit many
notable achievements in defense Of
the Negro. One cannot forget the
early days of the late Anna Damon
and ScottSboro, as we'll as the Angelo
Herndon case, the defiance of evic-
ton orders on Chicago's Southside,
mass demonstrations at the Sopkin
Dress Factory in Chicago in protest
against Sweat shops" and conditions
for Negro girls working there. SINH
lar instances pile up in evidence Of a
seeming sincerity on the part Of the
communist in actually fighting the
Negroes cause.
To those of us who look at such
things effectively, it is apparent that
the communists had a political reason
in mind for diverting attention to the
Negroes cause. One reason for such a
stand is the fact that on all national !
problems confronting America, the
Negro problem is probably the most
explosive. 1t offers opportunities for
sensational developments and big
wig bankers, lawyers, and politicians
usually attempt to stave clear Of the
Negro question. Even the problem Of
the Jews is less cantankerouS when
compared with the question of wheth-
er the Negro is to be given equal
rights in the U.S.A.
Browder, BY substituting the win
the-war program over the Negro
question, undoubtedly alienated the
affections o fmany big-wig Negro
leaders and some dropped out after
publicity announcing their intentions
0 fdoing 50. Among them were Rich
ard Wright, the author of Native Son,
and Angelo Herndon whose freedom
from a Georgia chain gang was OBJ
tanned b ycommuniSt activity. There
were lesser Negro communists to drop
by the wayside during the period that
Browder was on the throne. They
saw, evidently, as did Wright and
Hemdon, that a party not actively
struggling for the liberation mentally
and physically of the American Negro
offered little for them as a sacrifice of
identity with majority opinion. !
Before Browder the Communists
went all the way on the Negro ques-
ton and undeniably distinguished
themselves as being the only group of
whites in this country who accepted
inter-marriage and social equality as
a natural state for its members, in
Guiding Negroes. That is why there
was such a rage of inter-racial mar
involving Negro men and white
sweeping the country and
confounding all the higher ups in the
extreme right wing Of public opinion.
Browder seems to have committed
himself to a policy of undoing all
these things by changing the Com
munity Party line and putting the
Reds behind the war, big business,
and other elements that the party has
fought since its early days in this
country. Now with William z. Foster