Communism and International Equality, Kyle Golobish
Communism and the American civil rights movement have long been intertwined. This had many consequences for example most civil rights leaders were monitored 24/7 by the FBI because of possible communist ties. The connection between these two groups largely comes from shared common values as well as a plethora of shared members. Including communists in the civil rights movement forces the cili rights movement to be view from an international lens. This is because a key tenant of communism is that desire to have the whole world involved as well the many communist movements were lead by the USSR and the comintern(an organization that specifically lead the international communist movement). Viewing the civil rights movement as something inherently international is exactly what Nikhil Pal Singh argues in his book Black is a Country. He says "...black activists pursued theirs visions of global transformation...by sharpening the dialectic of race and the nation at home..."(Singh, 132, Ftn. 1). For Singh viewing the civil rights movement at anything other than international is simply a lie. A very international event for the civil rights movement was the Scottsboro case. The event case captured the attention the world, this was mostly due to the communist taking the case and forcing that international attention. James A. Miller, Susan D. Pennybacker and Eve Rosenhaft argue in their article Mother Ada Wright and the International Campaign to Free the Scottsboro Boys that the communist used mother Ada Wright(the mother of one the boys involved in the case) to create that international attention but they did it a way that suppressed black autonomy. The communist constantly played up stereotypes for sympathy as well as having "White activists dictated to blacks, using them when they wanted them, discarding them when they did not"(Miller et Al., Ftn. 2). There was another case that gained similar notoriety to the Scottsboro case this case also relied on that communist ties but lacked the suppression of black autonomy, the Herndon Case.
The case started when a young communist was trying to organize workers in Georgia when he was arrested for attempted insurrection. He fought the accusation all the way to the supreme court wit the help of the communist party of the USA. Herndon with this trial used it for the benefit of the party publishing You Can Not Kill The Working Class with the goal of educating northerners to life in the south.
In his writing we see him rise through the ranks to lead the protest that eventually got him arrested. You see him thrive with in the communist party. We also see in the media much more flattering images of the Herndon. Here we see him in his jail cell, however apart from location Herndon retains a distinguished position. He is seated and in a formal pose, there is little in the image that is overtly use gain sympathy.
The Herndon case demonstrates the black autonomy in full force. He used this case to help himself gain notoriety after the fact and continued to be influential in the civli rights movement. He would go on to write a book, Let me live, about his life and experience. The Herndon case operates in contrasts to the argument made by Miller, that the communist party squashed black autonomy. The Herndon case shows the success of black autonomy with in the communist party.
TEACHING:
Reading the media around both cases shows the differences in the way the communist party approached the two cases. This allows Singh and Miller to be reexamined, both distance black autonomy from the communist party but focus on international aspects of the civil right movement. The Herndon case juxtaposed to the Scottboro case allows us to see a difference in the approach of the party. One where the problematic nature of many of their action as well as the beneficial thing it did. Perhaps more importantly we can apply that to the modern day, here we see the difference of 2 methods of supporting a cause. This could be very powerful in teaching about how to approach similar situations in our own lives and making judgements on other groups that might act in similar way to the CPUSA.
NOTES:
Digital Research Process
Footnotes:
1.Singh, Nikhil Pal. Black Is a Country: Race and the Unfinished Struggle for Democracy. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2005.
2. “Mother Ada Wright and the International Campaign to Free ...” Accessed March 31, 2020. https://www.jstor.org/stable/2651612.
