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The theory of intercommunalism was developed by Heuy P. Newton

Ella Baker

Reverend G.W. Slater, Jr.

Hubert harrison

Benjamin Mays

Mass Party Organizing Committee

Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters

Young Negroes’ Cooperative League

Citations

Seeing Red in the Black Church: Marxist Thought and African American Christianity

J. M. Floyd-Thomas j.floyd-thomas@vanderbilt.edu

Notable Africa-American Socialist's

Pre-Harlem Rennisance

Peter H. Clark

George W. Slater Jr.

George Washington Woodbey

Harlem Rennisance (1920s Harlem)

Claude McKay

A Phillip Randolph

Rev. Egbert Ethelred Brown

Frank Rudolph Crosswwaith

Richard B. Moore*

Wilfren Adolphus Domingo *

Hubert Harrison*

Civil Rights and Black Power Era (1950s-1970s)

Bayard Rustin

Ella Baker

Arthur Kinoy

Victoria Garvin

Paul Roberson

Huey P. Newton

The Rise of African American Socialism

Peter H. Clark is most often referred to as the first African American socialist. Clark was a well established educator and associated with a number of political parties. In 1877 he joined the Workingmen's Party, a socialist party that would precursor the Socialist Labor Party of America. Clark vocally supported the efforts of underrepresented African American strikers in Louisville, Kentucky during the violent Great Railroad Strike of 1877. As an established representative of the Workingmen's Party, Clark travelled from his hometown Cincinnati to Louisville in advocacy of the strikes and urged African Americans to support the socialist party to further the progression of their goals for fair wages and capitalist control of government. Local chapters of the Workingmen's Party in Louisville, refused to advocate on behalf of African American laborers; many were exempted from labor unions and fair wages in the aftermath of the strikes.

July 1918 cover of The Messenger

Following the Great Migration of African American's fleeing the South, and the events of World War 1 (WW1); the Harlem Renaissance acted as a catalyst for many of the radical African American socio-political movements of the early 20th century. During the 1910s the predominantly African-American populated neighborhood of Harlem, Manhattan, was home to many emerging African American activists, intellectuals, and artists that cultivated a community centered around the progression of peoples of African descent. Harlem became home to both African Americans, and immigrant Afro-Caribbean and African peoples. A. Phillip Randolph and Chandler Owens are two of the most well known socialists of the Renaissance, most notably they began the Messenger literarily magazine in 1917, which frequently featured articles advocating for African American support for socialism. Many African Americans began to engage in radical political ideology following the

The Church and Socialism

The church has emerged as a location for community organization and radicalization through out African American history. Harlem based Reverend E. Ethelred Brown and the Los Angeles based preacher George Washington Woodbey utilized their churches as a stages to educate African Americans on Socialist ideology. The Unitarian Reverend Brown arrived to Harlem from Jamaica in 1920 where he was introduced to a number of intellectual and political radicals of the time including Claude McKay and Frank Crosswaith, and indoctrinated into socialist ideology. By 1928 Brown was the Reverend of his own church, the Hubert Harrison Memorial Church, where he preached on behalf of he gave religious sermons and sermons advocating for socialism. Rev. Brown believed that socialism was a logical socio-political ideology to represent his religious philosophy, and the ideals of socialism shared the same interests of African American and Afro-Caribbean peoples to attain economic and labor equality. Rev. Brown was hired by the Socialist Party of America as a speaker and the Christian socialist publication World of Tomorrow as the office secretary. George Washington Woodbey was a Californian minister and representative delegate of the Soclialist Party of America from 1904 to 1908.

Hubert Harrison Memorial Church pamphlet

African-Americans and the American Socialist Party

During 1920s and 30s many African-American backers of predominantly white socialist parties such as the American Socialist Party felt disgruntled by the lack of consideration and respect from white counterparts within the organizations and abandoned Socialist ideology for Communism or Anarchism. Many African Americans engaging in socialist discourse during this period maintained both class-analysis and racial awarenss. Due to their unique circumstances of racial segregation and racial violence a socialist African American could not disconnect race from class issues. Activists such as Cyril Briggs creator and editor of the Communist magazine, The Crusader, rejected African American support of socialism and alternatively advocated for African-American support of Communism arguing that .............. Hubert Harrison was hired by the American Socialist Party after criticizing its lack of African American advocacy and delegates in 1911; in 1914 he left the party due to its lack of support for peoples of color and transitioned to support the International Workers of the World. He continued to advocate as a socialist but centered his efforts around African American advocacy. W.E.B. DuBois was a practicing socialists before his brief membership with the Socialists Party of America from 1911 to 1912, he left the party in support Woodrow Wilson over the party candidate Eugene V. Debs. After his egress from the party he continually criticized it for its lack of follow-through on claims of racial inequality, as many of its labor unions remained segregated. A. Philip Randolph maintained a significant relationship with the party,

In 1922 Frank Crosswaith backed by the Socialist Party of America ran for Congressman of of New York. For many of African Americans and whites this was one the largest political platform platform attained by an African American Socialist. Crosswaith was a student of the Rand School of Social Science, a school opened by the Socialist Party of America, he

The Rise of African American Socialism

Explicit involvement of African Americans in socialism proceeded the Civil War and the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863, as African American transitioned from the colloquial standards of enslavement to being paid laborers. African American workers experienced unfair wages and unsafe working conditions, as their class status conflated with their social status as African Americans. Socialism was adopted by African Americans as socio-political-economic platform based in equality that would provide laborers with equal opportunity and pay. Peter H. Clark is most often referred to as the first African American socialist. Clark was a well-established educator and associated with a number of political parties. In 1877 he joined the Workingmen's Party, a socialist party that would precursor the Socialist Labor Party of America. Clark vocally supported the efforts of underrepresented African American strikers in Louisville, Kentuckyduring the violent Great Railroad Strike of 1877. As an established representative of the Workingmen's Party, Clark traveled from his hometown Cincinnati to Louisville in advocacy of the strikes and urged African Americans to support the socialist party to further the progression of their goals for fair wages and capitalist control of government. Local chapters of the Workingmen's Party in Louisville, refused to advocate on behalf of African American laborers; many were exempted from labor unions and fair wages in the aftermath of the strikes. July 1918 cover of The Messenger Following the Great Migration of African American's fleeing the South, and the events of World War 1 (WW1); the Harlem Renaissance acted as a catalyst for many of the radical African American socio-political movements of the early 20th century. During the 1910s the predominantly African-American populated neighborhood of Harlem, Manhattan, was home to many emerging African American activists, intellectuals, and artists that cultivated a community centered around the progression of peoples of African descent. Harlem became home to both African Americans and immigrant Afro-Caribbean and African peoples. A. Phillip Randolph and Chandler Owens are two of the most well-known socialists of the Renaissance. Most notably they began the Messenger, a radical literary magazine in 1917, which frequently featured articles advocating for African American support for socialism.

The Church and Socialism

The church has emerged as a location for community organization and radicalization throughout African American history. Harlem based Reverend E. Ethelred Brown and the Los Angeles based preacher George Washington Woodbey utilized their churches as a stage to educate African Americans on Socialist ideology. The Unitarian Reverend Brown arrived in Harlem from Jamaica in 1920 where he was introduced to a number of intellectual and political radicals of the time including Claude McKay and Frank Crosswaith, and indoctrinated into socialist ideology. By 1928 Brown was the Reverend of his own church, the Hubert Harrison Memorial Church, where he preached on behalf of he gave religious sermons and sermons advocating for socialism. Rev. Brown believed that socialism was a logical socio-political ideology to represent his religious philosophy, and the ideals of socialism shared the same interests of African American and Afro-Caribbean peoples to attain economic and labor equality. Rev. Brown was hired by the Socialist Party of America as a speaker and the Christian socialist publication World of Tomorrow as the office secretary. George Washington Woodbey was a Californian minister and representative delegate of the Socialist Party of America from 1904 to 1908. He believed that socialism was morally aligned with Christianity and that the the problems faced by African Americans would be solved as the issues of class were solved. Unlike his predecessor Peter H. Clark, and many of those who would follow him as African Americans in socialism, he did not believe in race first ideology, rather he believed in that class should be the primary concern of socialist and issues of race will be secondarily solved in the process of class equality. Hubert Harrison Memorial Church pamphlet

African-Americans and the American Socialist Party

During 1920s and 30s many African-American backers of predominantly white socialist parties such as the American Socialist Party felt disgruntled by the lack of consideration and respect from white counterparts within the organizations and abandoned Socialist ideology for Communism or Anarchism. Many African Americans engaging in socialist discourse during this period maintained both class-analysis and racial awareness. Due to their unique circumstances of racial segregation and racial violence a socialist African American could not disconnect race from class issues. Hubert Harrison was hired by the American Socialist Party after criticizing its lack of African American advocacy and delegates in 1911; in 1914 he left the party due to its lack of support for peoples of color and transitioned to support the International Workers of the World. He continued to advocate as a socialist but centered his efforts around African American advocacy. W.E.B. DuBois was a practicing socialists before his brief membership with the Socialists Party of America from 1911 to 1912, he left the party in support Woodrow Wilson over the party candidate Eugene V. Debs. After his egress from the party he continually criticized it for its lack of follow-through on claims of racial inequality, as many of its labor unions remained segregated. A number of African-Americans involved with the Socialist Party transitioned from support to of socialism, to communism, or rejected socialism as a whole due to many of its white proprietors "class first" rhetoric.Harlem radicals such as Richard B. Moore, left the party to support the more revolutionary and race-focused ideologies of communist parties. Cyril Briggs another early 1900s Harlem radical, rejected joining in socialist parties, rather he asserted that African Americans and Afro-Caribbean's should adopt communist militancy to ensure they would not be ignored by the reformist principals of white upper-class led socialists organizations

Not all African Americans left the the Socialist Party of America after involvement, despite its "class first" rhetoric. 1922 Frank Crosswaith backed by the Party ran for Congressman of New York. Crosswaith was a student of the Rand School of Social Science, a school opened by the Socialist Party of America. Crosswaith was an adamant backer of the Party, and idealized its class reformist ideologies as being ideal for African American socio-economic progressionHarlem activist, unionist, and politician A. Phillip Randolph joined the Party in 1916, the party would go on to financially support his radicalized magazine The Messenger, and would back him on a number of political ventures including running for comptroller and secretary of state in New York. They would each remain active members of the Party late into their lives, as they went on to lead and participate in various labor and union organizations.