Table Of ContentBlack Liberation/
Red Scare
Ben Davis and
the
Communist Par
V
Gerald Horne
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Black Liberation/Red
Scare
Ben Davis and the
Communist Party
GERALD HORNE
Black Liberation!Red Scare is a study
of an African-American Communist
leader, Ben Davis, Jr. (1904-64). Though
it examines the numerous grassroots
campaigns that he was involved in, it is
first and foremost a study of the man and
secondarily a study of the Communist
party from the 1930s to the 1960s. By
examining the public life of an important
party leader, Gerald Horne uniquely ap-
proaches the story of how and why the
party rose—and fell.
Ben Davis, Jr., was the son of a promi-
nent Atlanta publisher and businessman
who was also the top African-American
leader of the Republican party until the
onset of the Great Depression. Davis was
trained for the black elite at Morehouse,
Amherst, and Harvard Law School.
After graduating from Harvard, he
joined the Communist party, where he
remained as one of its most visible lead-
ers for thirty years. In 1943, after being
endorsed by his predecessor, Adam
Clayton Powell, Jr., he was elected to the
New York City Council from Harlem and
subsequently reelected by a larger mar-
gin in 1945. Davis received support from
such community figures as NAACP
leader Roy Wilkins, boxer Joe Louis, and
musician Duke Ellington. While on the
council Davis fought for rent control and
progressive taxation and struggled
against transit fare hikes and police bru-
tality.
With the onset of the Red Scare and
the Cold War, Davis—like the Commu-
nist party itself—was marginalized. The
(Continued on back flap)
Black Liberation/
Red Scare
•V
Black Liberation/
Red Scare
Ben Davis and the
Communist Party
Gerald Horne
DELAWARE
Newark: University of Delaware Press
London and Toronto: Associated University Presses
© 1994 by Associated University Presses, Inc.
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[0-87413-472-2/94 $10.00 + U pp, pc.]
Associated University Presses
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Canada L5G 4L8
The paper used in this publication meets the requirements
of the American National Standard for Permanence of Paper
for Printed Library Materials Z39.48-1984.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Horne, Gerald.
Black liberation/red scare : Ben Davis and the Communist Party /
Gerald Horne,
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-87413-472-2 (alk. paper)
1. Davis, Benjamin J. (Benjamin Jefferson), 1903-1964. 2. Afro-
American communists—United States—Biography. 3. Communism—
United States—History. I. Title.
HX84.D28H67 1994
324.273'75'08996073—dc20
[B] 92-53778
CIP
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Contents
Acknowledgments 7
Introduction 9
1. Origins of a Black Revolutionary 17
2. The Making of a Black Revolutionary 27
3. The Road to the Communist Party 35
4. To Be a Professional Revolutionary 53
5. Squeeze Play, 1940-1942 83
6. A Turning Point in U.S. History, 1943 97
7. “Browderism,” 1944 119
8. Unity and Struggle, 1945 137
9. Victory, 1945 154
10. Cold War Coming, 1946-1947 167
11. Red Scare Coming, 1948 192
12. “The Trial of the Century”, 1949 210
13. Purged from the Council, 1949 227
14. Fighting Back, 1950-1951 244
15. Jailed for Ideas, 1951-1955 254
16. Party Wars, 1956-1959 271
17. When Black and White Unite, 1958-1959 285
18. Black Communist in the 1960s 305
Notes 326
Selected Bibliography 406
Index 425
The illustrations appear as a group following page 226.
Acknowledgments
This study was aided immeasurably by the cooperation of the family of Ben
Davis, particularly his widow, Nina Goodman, his niece Jean Carey Bond
and his sister, Johnnie Carey. It was aided in a different way by the largesse
of the Schomburg Center of the New York Public Library (which provided a
generous grant and access to their numerous collections, which formed the
backbone of this work) and the librarians of Sarah Lawrence College and
the University of California at Santa Barbara. They all merit my most sin-
cere thanks.
My editor and various readers have been helpful as well, along with the
staff of the Black Studies Department at the University of California-Santa
Barbara.
The endnotes provide a guide as to how and where this research was con-
ducted, yet I want to thank the libraries of Columbia University, New York
University, Yale University, Howard University, Providence College, Har-
vard Law School, Boston University, Emory University, University of
California-Los Angeles, Stanford University, the Federal Bureau of Inves-
tigation, and the University of Wisconsin; the State Historical Society of
Wisconsin, the New York Police Department, the New York Public Library,
the Municipal Archives of New York City, and the Communist party were
also helpful. I also thank those who consented to allow me to conduct an in-
terview. This type of history will be continuing for some time to come since
archives are just opening and collections are now becoming accessible; I par-
ticularly look forward to the complete opening of the archives of the Comin-
tern in Moscow, which should allow us to answer many questions.
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