The Cry Was Unity: Communists and African Americans, 1917-36

An excellent book on an overlooked period of African-American and Communist Party history. I consider myself well-read on these topics, but was surprised to read that, during the Civil Rights period, white Northern organizers won some acceptance in the South from African-American sharecroppers and laborers as some remembered the work done by the Party to further the rights of African-Americans during the Depression. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in Depression-era history.

Taking advantage of archival material, Mark Solomon has written what might be the definitive history of the CPUSA's involvement in the black struggle during the period of the party's formation to the beginning of the popular front turn. ("The Cry was Unity: Communists and African Americans 1917-1936," U. of Mississippi).Solomon is emeritus professor at Simmons College and a member of the Committees of Correspondence. The CofC split from the CPUSA because of objections to the dogmatism and bureaucracy of the Gus Hall regime. The event that finally led to the formation of the CofC was Hall's support for the coup against Gorbachev. Some of the most prominent black members of the CP went with the CofC, including Charlene Mitchell who is co-chair of the CofC with Manning Marable, department head of African-American studies at Columbia University. Although Solomon is white, he explains in his introduction why he was drawn to the black struggle:"The environment we knew was one of spirited demonstrations to save the lives of Rosa Ingram, Willie McGhee, the Martinsville Seven, and other victims of a racist legal system. It included attending vibrant interracial dances at Rockland Palace in Harlem, sitting in awe in the back of Birdland to ask Charlie Parker to support Du Bois for the Senate, and listening to Miles Davis, engaged by the unhip Marxist Labor Youth League, which somehow thought that Davis's brilliant, elliptical bebop was right for dancing. All of that had nearly disappeared by the mid-1950s. But that defiant interracialism, grounded in the unity of cultural traditions, of shared support for all who labored for an end to oppression at home and abroad never died. Its special commitment to, and admiration for, black culture, history, and community life survived and fused with a pervasive sense that the liberation of one group was essential to the spiritual and physical freedom of all."What is significant, however, is that Solomon understands the progressive character of black nationalism as well, sparing no effort to show how the Communist Party at various points in its history embraced such initiatives. I want to focus in one particular moment in party history, which is highly revealing for the affinity black party members had for nationalism, namely the African Blood Brotherhood. Despite the separatist name, this group was the instrument of Communist Party involvement in the black struggle in the early 1920s.Cyril Briggs was the founder of the African Black Brotherhood. Born in 1888 on the Caribbean island of Nevis, he always considered himself a "race man". His father was a white plantation overseer and this accounted for Briggs's light complexion, which earned him the description of the "Angry Blond Negro" later in life, just as Malcolm X was dubbed "Detroit Red" before becoming a nationalist for similar reasons. Briggs moved to Harlem in 1905 and launched a writing career, finally landing a job with t

Mark Solomon has produced perhaps the most important study on the Black struggle in a first ever analysis of the role and contribution of the Communist party, working with Black leaders, in acknowledging and acting on the special nature of racism in America. Ultimately the party leaders learned from Balcks that racism had to be addressed as a prerequisite to fostering black/white working class unity. Unlike the liberal tradition which could only offer "reforms" within the system that produced racism and class exploitation, the Communist Party recognized racism and classism as inherent in the liberal/capitalist system. The party focused sharply on the need for fundamental change of the economic and political institutions as the only real solution for oppression and exploitation. The Party understood the drive for Black self determination was not as a contradiction of class unity. Black self-determination addressed the problem of racism by providing a people with a sense of worth which could then allow them the freedom to go further in confronting the exploitation of black/white class oppression. Lenin understood the importance of national self-determination when he developed his own nationalities policy, and the broader national struggle of colonized people to experience national independence first before uniting to dislodge global capitalism. Solomon's work is comprehensive of the period studied because he was among the first to access former USSR archives elucidating the thread of strong commitment to Black self-determination united with the working class struggle. As a result, he was able to show clearly the importance of the left to offering a real venue for articulating the systemic roots of the issues of racial and class inequalities. As a result, clarity and accuracy of policy, if not strategy, stood out in relief. Solomon plans a sequel to his present seminal work which will focus on the way the cold war affected the Black/Communist relationship and actions. He will also analyze the impact of the recent loss of the left, forcing the Black struggle back to the confines of the liberal/capitalist system. Can a system which produced the problems solve them without altering the conditions within them that produced them? Read Solomon. His work offers the most important analysis to date in understanding the essential core of these yet festering issues. The best scholarship produced on these issues in years.