Alabama Chapter of the Communist Party USA

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## Information

### Country/State

* United States (Country)
	+ Alabama (State)

## Extra Information

### Ideology

Communism

The **Alabama Chapter of the Communist Party USA** was a successful branch of the CPUSA in the south after the Great Depression, and was successful With black citizens until it’s repression by the KKK and the police until it was eventually banned.

## Description

### Appearance

AC-CPUSA can be shown in many styles but mostly in a suit. as a party with no symbols you can add mostly anything to his/her face.

### Personality

They are a kind party, trying they're best to help end racial segregation.

### Interests

* Ending Racial segregation
* Civil Rights Movement

## History

### Background

Cheap labor in Alabama made capital investments more profitable. Cheap labor from the Birmingham Industrial Complex gave it the name "Pittsburgh of the South.” By 1910 Birmingham Alabama became one of the lowest industrial centers in the country. As a result one percent of individuals had a net worth of 35,000 while eighty percent were payed under 500 per annum. Consequently dictatorships made it possible for a small portion of a minority to take control of local politics, elected officials, and the economy of that particular region. They furthered there control by getting there hands on real estate, banking, and mining. What was known as the “valley of furnaces,” where the working poor struggled to live. By 1900, African Americans made up over fifty percent on Alabamian coal miners and there Iron and Steel workers and other percentages. This development made Birmingham one of the largest black urban centers in the South, and due to this that area’s Segregation and disfranchisement ordinances became rampant. The following years Black citizens were segregated and pushed down. Black citizens would learn more literacy than there white counterparts in the 1940’s. With these conditions the Communist International sent there organizers to the region.

### History of the Alabama Chapter of the Communist Party USA

The Sixth World Congress of the Communist International was held in 1928 to tackle the “negro question.” The American South was dominated by plantations and white elitists despite the large gatherings of Black Americans, they would place the region as a “oppressed nation.” They adopted a resolution along the lines of African Americans had the right to self-determine and had the right to secede from the union. In 1930 they furthered there resolution by realizing blacks in the north wanted integration and so made it the southern black exclusive right.

Many claimed that the south was impenetrable to communist radical politics and their organizing, the CC (Central Committee) of the CPUSA elected Birmingham (the industrial heart of the south) for the challenge, and they would place their headquarters in the district 17 chapter. The district encompassed, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Florida, Tennessee, and Mississippi. The first full time organizers (Tom Johnson and Harry Jackson who were veteran white communists), the organizers were part of trade unions in the north, they would open a office in downtown Birmingham (2117 ½ Second Ave. North) in 1929, it would close shortly after.

1928 to 1951 the AC-CPUSA played the most important role in unemployment and organizering, it would also establish the Alabama Sharecroppers Union. They would also play a part in basic civil rights such as voting, to sit on juries, as well as housing and employment equality. In the Seventh National Convention in 1930 they would decide to focus on campaign drives and organizing unemployed Black workers.

### The Fight Against Unemployment

During this time a multifaceted Struggle around unemployment which was due to a lack of jobs. The AC-CPUSA began to organize numerous mass protesting in a effort to gain money and organize money for starving workers. At one metal workers industrial league was planning on organizing on unemployed metal workers and a slew of other things. The protest gathered 2,500 people, however it had to be postponed as Harry Jackson had been detained. In 1930, Joe Burton would take over the spontaneous protests. He attempted to storm the lobby of Hotel Morris and began to demand but the police came and ended the protest. The AC-CPUSA took a leading role in organizing unemployment committees and councils that would effectively remove the evictions. The depression era hit the United States effecting the unemployment of woman and domestic workers which led to Black woman leading in organizing and leadership. Relief committees gave their demands to Welfare board, the committees would also focus on evictions, even going as far as using thick copper wires to work on houses that lost utilities.

## How Successful

The AC-CPUSA was notably successful with black citizens in the state of Alabama..

## Ideology

As a former affiliate of the communist party in USA it held communism as its ideology.

## Relationships

### Family

* Communist Party USA - Parent
* Communist Party of Hawaii - Sibling
* Communist Party of Maryland - Sibling
* Communist Party of Texas - Sibling

## References

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alabama\_Chapter\_of\_the\_Communist\_Party\_USA