Alabama Communists during the Great Depression

396 Pages·2010·7.72 MB·English

HAMMER AND HOE
THE FRED W. MORRISON SERIES IN SOUTHERN STUDIES
HAMMER AND HOE
ALABAMA
COMMUNISTS
DURING
THE
GREAT
DEPRESSION
ROBIN D. G. KELLEY
.
THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA PRESS CHAPEL HILL AND LONDON
O 1990 The University of North Carolina Press
All rights reserved
Manufactured in the United States of America
The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Committee
on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council on Library Resources.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Kelley, Robin D. G.
Hammer and hoe : Alabama Communists during the Great Depression I
by Robin D. G. Kelley.
p. cm.+The Fred W. Morrison series in Southern studies)
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 0-8078-1921-2 (alk. paper).-ISBN 0-80784288-5 (pbk :
alk. paper)
I. Communism-Alabama-History-20th century. 2. Communists-
Alabama-History-20th century. 3. Depressions-l 929-Alabama.
I. Title. II. Series.
HX9 1 .A2K45 1 990
324.276 1 '075'09042-dc20
In memory of Hosea Hudson, griot of Alabama radicalism,
whose assiduous note-taking and impeccable memory made
this book possible, and for Diedra Harris-Kelley, whose love,
criticism, encouragement, and heroic tolerance for living in pov-
erty made this book a reality

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CONTENTS
Preface xi
Acknowledgments xvii
Abbreviations xxi
Prologue. Radical Genesis:
Birmingham, 1870-1930 1
PART 1. THE UNDERGROUND, 1929-1935
ONE An Invisible Army: Jobs, Relief, and the Birth
of a Movement 13
TWO In Egyptland: The Share Croppers' Union 34
THREE Organize or Starve!: Communists, Labor, and
Antiradical Violence 57
FOUR In the Heart of the Trouble: Race, Sex, and
the ILD 78
FIVE Negroes Ain' Black-But Red!: Black
Communists and the Culture of Opposition 92
PART 11. UP FROM BOLSHEVISM, 1935-1939
SIX The Road to Legality: The Popular Front in
Birmingham, 1935-1937 119
SEVEN The CIO's in Dixie! 138
EIGHT Old Slaves, New Deal: Communists and the
WPA 152
NINE The Popular Front in Rural Alabama 159
TEN The Democratic Front 176
viii CONTENTS
PART Ill. BACK TO THE TRENCHES, 1939-1 94 1
ELEVEN The March of Southern Youth! 195
Epilogue. Fade to Black: The Invisible Army in
War, Revolution, and Beyond 220
Notes 233
Bibliography 301
Index 335
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ILLUSTRATIONS
Black convict laborers, Banner Mine, Alabama 6
A1 Murphy 24
Hosea Hudson 26
Sharecropping family, near Eutaw, Alabama 35
Lemon Johnson, SCU secretary of Hope Hull, Alabama,
local 45
Company suburb 58
Clyde Johnson 62
"Meat for the Buzzards!" 66
Anti-Communist handbill distributed by the
Ku Klux Klan 75
"Fight Lynch Terror!" 97
"Smash the Bamers!" 98
District 17 secretary Robert Fowler Hall 127
Sit-down strike, American Casting Company,
Birmingham, 1937 145
Share Croppers' Union membership card 162
Eugene "Bull" Connor, Birmingham city
commissioner 187
League of Young Southerners 198
Ethel Lee Goodman 204
Segregated audience in Montgomery awaits Henry
Wallace, 1948 229