Communists in Harlem during the Depression

by Mark Naison

Winner of the Ralph Bunche Award, American Political Science Association No socialist organization has ever had a more profound effect on black life than the Communist Party did in Harlem during the Depression. Mark Naison describes how the party won the early endorsement of such people as Adam Clayton Powell Jr. and how its support of racial equality and integration impressed black intellectuals, including Richard Wright, Langston Hughes, and Paul Robeson. This meticulously researched work, largely based on primary materials and interviews with leading black Communists from the 1930s, is the first to fully explore this provocative encounter between whites and blacks. It provides a detailed look at an exciting period of reform, as well as an intimate portrait of Harlem in the 1920s and 30s, at the high point of its influence and pride.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, New York, Politics, American History, African American, Race

378 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 1983

Reviews

[Brendan Campisi · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best examples of the body of more nuanced, sympathetic work on the history of American Communism that appeared from the late 1970s.

Naison gives a richly detailed account of the how the CP transformed itself from a white organization with a few Black members, isolated from Black political and social life, into a major political force in Harlem. He shows how the Party's unprecedented efforts to create an interracial political and social life for its members and supporters, and to promote an integrated vision of the American future, changed the consciousness of white Communists and appealed powerfully to Black intellectuals, while speculating that the consistently interracial character of Party life also alienated working-class Black people.

On this reading, what's struck me most is the way that Naison keeps firmly in view the fact that the Communists were navigating a complex terrain in Black politics, one where they frequently had to respond to the initiatives of other forces--integrationists, nationalists, churches--rather than the simplified picture that emerges sometimes in popular left narratives of the Communists taking on the forces of racism single-handedly. Naison shows the Communists making mistakes, correcting them, advancing and retreating, making allies and losing them; and his account is more compelling for it.

[Dan Sharber · Rating 4 out of 5]

this book was very educational. i knew a lot of the broad strokes from more general surveys on black and communist/socialist organizing in the US but this book gave very good specifics on the campaigns and strategies on the ground of the cp in harlem. and it is a period that communists/socialists can be proud of. as the history shows, the cp was the only predominately white org in the 30's explicitly working for black civil rights in all areas. while there were problems/mistakes/setbacks organizationally and politically a lot of good work was still done. too bad it ended up being squandered by stalinism...