Current Search: African American communists--United States (x)
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Title
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Not by words, but by deeds: Communists and African Americans during the Depression era.
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Creator
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Linsin, Christopher Edward., Florida Atlantic University, Goings, Kenneth W.
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Abstract/Description
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Historians misread the impact of Communism on working-class blacks during the Depression by focusing on membership as a measure of success. The Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA) sought wide influence, not wide membership. During the early 1930s the CPUSA influenced the black proletariat by advocating social equality. This advocacy distinguished the CPUSA from other black ameliorative organizations--like the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and...
Show moreHistorians misread the impact of Communism on working-class blacks during the Depression by focusing on membership as a measure of success. The Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA) sought wide influence, not wide membership. During the early 1930s the CPUSA influenced the black proletariat by advocating social equality. This advocacy distinguished the CPUSA from other black ameliorative organizations--like the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the National Urban League--that called for only the economic and political emancipation of African Americans. By the last half of the 1930s the CPUSA, readily embracing the Kremlin's call for a Popular Front against fascism, began to work in coalitions with liberal-bourgeois agencies. This work within these moderate organizations, in addition to a moderation of the black proletariat and a movement left of black ameliorative agencies, eroded CPUSA influence in African America.
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Date Issued
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1993
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PURL
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http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/14890
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Subject Headings
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African American communists--United States, Communist parties--United States
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Format
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Document (PDF)
