Documents from the Comintern Archives on African Americans, 1919-1929

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Documents from the Comintern Archives on African Americans, 1919-1929

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/144682716

Selection of documents from the archives of the Communist International (Comintern) pertaining to its Negro Commission, the African Blood Brotherhood (ABB), and to "Negro work" in the United States. The collection reflects the evolution of Comintern policy toward African Americans, from racial equality and integration to self-determination and possible separation from the United States. Reel 1 (1919-1928) includes a sampling of ABB documents; working papers of the Negro Commission and the American Negro Labor Congress; minutes of the 1924 All-Race Assembly or Negro Sanhedrin in Chicago; various communications by Claude McKay and Lovett Fort-Whiteman to Comintern officials; a detailed discussion on race and nationality, self-determination and the Black peasantry at a 1928 joint meeting of the American delegation and the Negro Commission; and selected papers of the Comintern Executive Committee and the Workers Party of America. Reel 2 (1928-1929) continues with the Sixth Comintern Congress debates over the direction of communist policy in the U.S. toward African-Americans. Issues and individuals represented include Harry Haywood and the self-determination thesis; Comintern criticism of the Workers Party of America on the "Negro Question;" Comintern views on African American intellectual life and on such leading black organizations as the Universal Negro Improvement Association, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the Pan-African Congress Movement; conditions of black workers and peasants in the U.S.; factionalism within the U.S. communist movement; and black communists Cyril V. Briggs, James W. Ford, Otto Hall, Otto Huiswood, Richard B. Moore and George Padmore.

2 microfilm reels

New York Public Library System, NYPL

Information

SNAC Resource ID: 6829141

New York Public Library System, NYPL

Related Entities

There are 19 Entities related to this resource.

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6k17w53 (corporateBody)

Organizational History and List of Officers Organizational History 1909 Issued the “Call,” a statement calling for a conference to protest discrimination and violence against African Americans Convened the National Negro Conference on May 31 and June 1, New York, N.Y. E...

Communist Party of the United States of America

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6r31rnp (corporateBody)

The Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA), a Marxist-Leninist party aligned with the Soviet Union, was founded in 1919 in the aftermath of the Russian Revolution by the left wing members of the Socialist Party USA. These split into two groups, with each holding founding conventions in Chicago in September 1919: one which established the Communist Labor Party, and a second which established the Communist Party of America. In a 1920 Joint Unity Convention, a minority faction of t...

Huiswoud, Otto Eduard Gerardus Majella, 1893-1961

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w60g5z78 (person)

Otto Huiswoud was the first black member of the Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA), as well as one of its founders. He was born in Paramaribo, Suriname (then the Dutch colony of Surinam), on October 23, 1893, to Rudolf Huiswoud, an ex-slave, and Jacqueline Bernard Huiswoud. In Surinam, Huiswoud worked as a printing apprentice until shipping out on a Dutch banana boat in 1910. In 1913 he jumped ship in Brooklyn, New York, to escape poor conditions on board and began working o...

Communist International. Congress (6th : 1928 : Moscow, Russia)

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Communist International. Congress (4th : 1922 : Moscow, Russia)

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Communist International. Executive Committee

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w67m44h3 (corporateBody)

Haywood, Harry, 1898-1985

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6w95bx4 (person)

Black leader and former member of the American Communist Party, also known as Haywood Hall. From the description of Harry Haywood papers, 1928-1985. (University of Michigan). WorldCat record id: 34423343 Born Haywood Hall in South Omaha, Nebraska, on February 4, 1898 to the formerly enslaved Haywood and Harriet Hall, Harry Haywood changed his name by taking both his parent's first names (Harriet became Harry) when applying for a passport in 1925 to travel to the...

Huiswood, Otto.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6b27xr9 (person)

African Blood Brotherhood

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w68p9w1t (corporateBody)

Communist International. Negro Commission

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6n05336 (corporateBody)

At the Fourth Congress of the Communist International (Comintern) in Moscow in 1922, the Jamaican-born poet Claude McKay called for an "international organization of the Negro" based in the United States, with its own weekly newspaper, defense clubs and cooperative enterprises, to assume the leadership of the anti-colonial struggle worldwide. An international Negro Commission was formed, and a call for a World Negro Congress was put forth. Meanwhile six leading African American civi...

Moore, Richard B., 1953-

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w63j3fv0 (person)

Fort-Whiteman, Lovett.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w61v5gpd (person)

Briggs, Cyril V. (Cyril Valentine), 1888-1966

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6r78hkx (person)

American Negro Labor Congress

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6n33t8d (corporateBody)

Padmore, George, 1902-1959

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6j968gr (person)

George Padmore was one of a number of talented West Indians who helped shape African events in the 20th century, and he played a crucial role in developing the Fifth, and most important, Pan African Congress, intended to address the issues facing Africa due to European colonization of much of the continent. Padmore was also instrumental in organizing black labor movements from the 1930s onwards. From the description of George Padmore collection, 1933-1945. (Princeton University Libra...

Ford, James W., 1893-1957

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w65b03qg (person)

James W. “Jim” Ford (December 22, 1893 – 1957) was an activist and politician, the Vice-Presidential candidate for the Communist Party USA in 1932, 1936, and 1940. A party organizer born in Alabama and living in New York City, Ford was the first African American to run on a presidential ticket in the 20th century....

McKay, Claude, 1890-1948

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w61837fr (person)

Author, poet. Born in Jamaica. From the description of Claude McKay letters and manuscripts 1915-1952. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 122682552 From the guide to the Claude McKay letters and manuscripts, 1915-1952, (The New York Public Library. Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division.) Claude McKay (1890-1948), novelist and poet. From the description of Claude McKay collection, 1853-1990 (bulk 1922-19...

Workers Party of America

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Negro Sanhedrin (1924 : Chicago, Ill.)

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