How far have we come since 1928?
A century-old communist pamphlet laid out 12 grievances that are still unresolved.
I buy old books and documents that interest me or have historical value. For a couple of dollars, I purchased a communist pamphlet from 1928 that outlined the political, social, and financial demands of African Americans. I compared where we are today to where we were then. This is the first of two parts.
In the late 1950s, American Opinion, an anti-communist group associated with the John Birch Society and headquartered in Belmont, Massachusetts, began circulating a pro-communist pamphlet titled American Negro Problems. The pamphlet was first published in 1928 and urged “Negroes” to join the Communist Party. Why did an anti-communist organization dig up a communist pamphlet from 1928 and start distributing it to its followers? The far-right activist wanted to use the pamphlet to prove that the African American Civil Rights movement was rooted in and inspired by communism.
There were 12 demands in the pamphlet that the anti-communist wanted to prove were an evil plan to cause “racial strife in America”. But reading the demands today, it is incredible that they associated evil with such demands as Black voting rights, equal access to hotels and restaurants, abolition of Jim Crow laws, a federal anti-lynching law, school integration, equal jury service, and ending laws against interracial marriage.
John Pepper was a Hungarian Communist Revolutionary, born in Budapest in 1886. His birth name was József Pogány. He held positions in the Hungarian Soviet Republic and served as an official of the Communist International (Comintern) in Moscow. He embedded himself deeply in the American Communist Movement and was deeply involved in the American Communist Party. In 1925, he was heading the Information Department of the Comintern’s Executive Committee in Moscow.
During the summer and fall of 1928, the Sixth World Congress of the Communist International was held in Moscow. The delegates debated the “Negro question.” The congress spent much time on the subject and recognized the plight of African Americans, especially in the Southern states. Pepper wrote an article on the topic that appeared in the Communist International press and later in American Communist Party publications. In October 1928, it was published in the journal The Communist (apt name) as American Negro Problems. The American Communist Party then turned the article into a pamphlet. It is unknown whether it was ever presented formally, but it was widely distributed and printed for American consumption. Pepper noted that the pamphlet articulated the Black community's demands.
Pepper was a proud communist. He believed in revolutions for the world’s proletariat. He wanted to overthrow capitalism and help organize Black workers under the Communist Party. He believed racism in America was something that should be incorporated into the communist fight. In this pamphlet, he went further left by suggesting a Black national liberation movement and even a political party in the South. Thirty years after the initial publication, anti-communists distributed the same pamphlet as evidence of a sinister plan.
Pepper eventually rubbed some party members the wrong way. He became involved in factional struggles inside the international Communist movement. His association with Jay Lovestone (who clashed with Joseph Stalin over control of the American Communist Party) eventually damaged his position as Stalin consolidated control. He returned to the Soviet Union. During Stalin’s Great Purge, he was arrested and executed in Moscow on February 8, 1938, at age 51.
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An examination of the original twelve demands shows a clear misunderstanding or outright dismissal of the African American situation in America. Not one of these demands is radical. As a matter of fact, these are only common rights that all people should have, nothing outrageous at all. It may be difficult to read these demands and understand why anyone would consider them radical. Here are the demands as presented in the pamphlet:
- Abolition of the whole system of race discrimination. Full racial, political, and social equality for the Negro race.
- Abolition of all laws which result in segregation of Negroes. Abolition of all Jim Crow laws. The law shall forbid all discrimination against Negroes in selling or renting houses.
- Abolition of all laws which disfranchise Negroes.
- Abolition of laws forbidding intermarriage of persons of different races.
- Abolition of all laws and public administration measures which prohibit or in practice prevent Negro children or youth from attending general public schools or universities.
- Full and equal admittance of Negroes to all railway station waiting rooms, restaurants, hotels, and theaters.
- Federal law against lynching and the protection of the Negroes masses in their right of self-defense.
- Abolition of discriminatory practices in courts against Negroes. No discrimination in jury service.
- Abolition of the convict lease system and of the chain gang.
- Abolition of all Jim Crow distinctions in the Army, Navy, and civil service.
- Immediate removal of all restrictions and all trade unions against the membership of Negro workers.
- Equal opportunity for employment, wages, hours, and working conditions for black and white workers. Equal pay for equal work for black and white workers.
What happened to the twelve demands as a whole?
This is how I would score this document:
One of the first things you may notice is that number 7, aniti lynching law, was not achieved until 2022. Demand 7 also calls for the right to self-defense. Today it is generally known that all citizens have a right to defend themselves. Trayvon Martin, a teenager, was attacked and killed not for what he did, but for what he was perceived to be. A jury agreed that the perception of a Black person, a youth in this case, is a good enough reason to deny him his right to defend himself. That’s just one example of a demand that we are still dealing with. Two other quick notes: these demands are so normal and so obvious; I find it almost a farce that these demands are a “Program of racial strife for the United States.” As stated by the far-right group that redistributed this pamphlet.
One last thought about this document: at least 10 of those demands are current problems, and by no small means. Marrying a White person is not much of a problem today. However, housing discrimination, employment and pay, and integrated schools are still very much with us. For Part II, I will elaborate on each demand and figure out where we stand today as a democratic, capitalist nation.
