INDEX

• Abbeville, Ala., 223
• Abolitionists, 11, 135
• Adams, John, 122
• Adams, Oscar, 80, 108, 109, 201
• Adamsville, Ala., 227
• Adkins, Addie, 22, 73
• Adult Club, 128
• Africa, 94, 122
• African Methodist Episcopal (AME) church, xi, 23, 142
• Agrarian Commission, of CPUSA, 171
• Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA), 53–54, 164, 168
• Agricultural Adjustment Administration, 53
• Agricultural Extension Service, 40, 42, 96, 173
• Agron, Leah Anne, 63, 130, 168
• Alabama, 13, 16, 34, 35, 39, 43, 49, 110, 126, 128, 133, 159–60, 170, 173, 176–77, 181, 195, 197, 199, 204;
  • “foreign country,” xi;
  • postwar failure of NAACP in, 9;
  • hit hard by depression, 14;
  • numbers of Communists in, 17;
  • FERA emergency relief for, 33;
  • evicted tenants turned to SCU, 54;
  • labor movement in, 57–74;
  • rape and murder cases in, 78–90;
  • growth and survival of CP in, 92–93;
  • Marxist pedagogy in, 93–99;
  • legitimacy for CP to exist in, 99;
  • CP hopes for improved conditions, 104;
  • Scottsboro verdict reversed, 123;
  • NNC in, 124;
  • CIO newly formed in, 132;
  • ILD dismantled in, 134;
  • national coal strike prolonged in, 138;
  • anti-Communism in labor movement, 139–41;
  • first sit-down strikes in, 144;
  • prolabor legislation for, 146;
  • urged to drop case against Scottsboro defendants, 147;
  • assessment of CIO in, 151;
  • WPA in, 152–58;
  • Workers Alliance in, 155–58;
  • population loss, 174–75;
  • antiradical statute, 214–16;
  • state of Communism after attack on Pearl Harbor, 219–21;
  • organizations failed in, 222;
  • SCHW chapter reestablished, 223;
  • Red Scare drama, 224;
  • CP disbanded in, 227;
  • CP legacy in, 228
• —northern, 170, 173;
  • CP adherents in, 17, 28, 32;
  • white tenant farmers of, 38–39;
  • Klaverns in, 74;
  • growth of AFU in, 175
• Alabama American Legion, 226
• Alabama (CIO) News Digest, 148, 189
• Alabama Committee for Human Welfare, 199, 220, 223–25
• Alabama Communist Control Law, 227
• Alabama Council of Accepted Americans, 188
• Alabama Court of Appeals, 131
• Alabama Employment Service, 21
• Alabama Farmers’ Relief Fund, 17–18
• Alabama Farmers’ Union (AFU), 165, 203, 214–15, 220, 227;
  • alliance with SCU and radicalization of, 170–72;
  • difficulties in black belt, 171–73, 175;
  • and UCAPAWA, 173–74;
  • Communist effect on, 175;
  • joins anti-Hitler campaign, 218;
  • Southern Farmer organ of, 224
• Alabama Federation of Civic Leagues, 183
• Alabama legislature, 126, 214, 225
• Alabama Organization for Political Action, 223
• Alabama Penny Savings and Loan, 3
• Alabama People's Educational Association (APEA), 223–24
• Alabama Polytechnic Institute, 42, 61
• Alabama Relief Administration, 55
• Alabama State Federation of Labor (ASFL), 44, 73;
  • angered by CP, 138–39;
  • 1936 convention, 139, 141;
  • and WPA strikes, 153–54
• Alabama State Teachers’ Association, 214
• Alabama state troops, 50, 67, 70, 121
• Alabama: The News Magazine of the Deep South, 131, 188
• Alabama Women's Democratic Club (AWDC), 188–89
• Alabama Youth Legislature, 214
• Alexander, Hubert, 217
• Alexander City, Ala., 41
• Alfred, J. H., 50
• Allen, Isabelle, 16
• Allen, James S. [pseud. Sol Auerbach], 29, 38;
  • launches Southern Worker, 16;
  • Negro Liberation, 94
• Allen, Richard, 135
• Alliance Gospel Tabernacle (Birmingham), 226
• “All of Us Together,” 13
• All-Southern Communist Party Conference (1937), 133
• All-Southern Conference for Trade Union and Civil Rights (1935), 120, 122, 129
• All-Southern Negro Youth Conferences, 212–13, 222, 226
• All-Southern Scottsboro and Civil Rights Conference (1932), 85–86
• Alston, Christopher Columbus, 200
• Altman, John W., 89, 141
• Amalgamated Association of Iron, Steel, and Tin Workers, 60, 68, 142
• Amalgamated Association of State and United States Government Relief Workers of North America, 155
• America for Americans rally, 189
• American Casting Company, 144
• American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), 72, 130–31
• American Federation of Labor (AFL), 4, 73, 76, 140, 146, 165, 170;
  • massive drive to organize textile workers, 59–60;
  • expels CIO unions, 139;
  • leaders oppose Workers Alliance racial policies, 155;
  • SCU constituency transferred to, 173
• American Negro Labor Congress (ANLC), 81
• American Revolution, 122, 209
• American Students Union, 205
• American Youth Congress, 198–99, 203
• Anderson, William, 223
• Andrews, E. E, 7
• Anniston, Ala., 8
• Anniston Star, 196
• Anti-Communism, 145, 155, 157, 186–90;
  • augments CP appeal in black communities, 99;
  • of black middle class, 110;
  • and state anti-sedition bill, 128;
  • wave of repression, 130;
  • analogy to anti-Christianity, 135;
  • and labor movement, 138–41;
  • virulence in South, 191–92;
  • in SCHW, 197–98;
  • in SNYC, 212;
  • legislation, 225–26;
  • in NAACP, 226;
  • role in CP's demise, 227. See also Dies Committee; House Un-American Activities Committee
• Antifascism, 205, 218
• Antilabor: hysteria, 4;
  • repression, 4–6, 119–20, 140, 154, 159, 166, 192;
  • violence, 131, 141, 173;
  • attitudes, 154;
  • legislation, 189, 225. See also Strike wave
• Antilynching, 81, 88, 147, 180
• Anti-poll-tax movement, 148, 155, 184, 201;
  • resolution, 139;
  • Geyer bill, 191, 213–14;
  • organizing, 199;
  • SNYC drive, 212–14;
  • “Abolish the Poll Tax Week,” 214, 217
• Anti-Poll Tax and Right to Vote Conference (1940), 214
• Antisedition: laws, 73, 126–28, 189. See also Downs literature ordinance
• Anti-Semitism, 27, 88
• Antisexism, 206
• Antiwar: activities, 98–99, 196, 214;
  • campaigns, 190;
  • platform, 192;
  • incongruous CP positions, 197;
  • pacifism, 205;
  • slogans dropped, 218;
  • Cold War, 224. See also Nazi-Soviet Pact
• “Arise You Workers,” 99
• Arkansas, 38, 170, 197, 200
• Arlington, Va., 204
• Armed forces, 221–22. See also U.S. Army
• Army welfare committees, of LYS, 218
• Artists, 71, 133, 201, 207
• Ashford, James W., 124, 200
• Association of Southern Industries, 188
• Atlanta, Ga., 7, 15, 25, 42, 63, 68, 85, 126, 168, 178, 180
• Atlanta Daily World, 52
• Atlanta University, 200, 204
• Automobiles, 37, 39
• “Autumn Blues,” 106
• Back-to-Africa movement, 3, 23
• Bagnall, Robert, 80
• Bago, John, 18
• Bakhtin, Mikhail, xii
• Baldwin County, Ala., 7, 170, 173
• “Ballad of John Catchings, The,” 179
• Ballam, John J., 133–34, 178
• Baltimore, Md., 107, 128
• Bankhead, John, 53, 161, 164, 189
• Baptists, 135, 166, 200
• Barber, Arlie K., 7, 121
• Barbershops, 95, 161
• Barnhart, Kenneth E., 87
• Bates, John Frank, 166
• Bates, Ruby, 78, 86, 90. See also Scottsboro campaign
• Beans, John, 44, 92, 223, 228
• Beard, Andrew J., 3
• Beautification project, of WPA, 154
• Beckenbridge, Tex., 13
• Beddow, Noel, 142, 144, 190
• “Bedspread Blues,” 106
• Beecher, John: “In Egypt Land,” 34
• Beidel, John, 25, 73, 114
• Belfrage, Cedric, 128
• Bell, J. R., 165
• Belle Ellen, Ala., 208
• Benevolent and Legal Aid Association, 81, 109
• Bentley, Milo, 50–51, 110–11
• Berlin, Israel, 61–62, 73
• Bessemer, Ala., 60, 66–67, 74, 90, 94, 101, 121, 126, 130, 149, 179, 213, 221, 228;
  • company houses established in, 5;
  • Colored Citizens League, 9;
  • antisedition laws, 73, 131;
  • police raids in, 121;
  • Mine Mill strike in, 146;
  • Mine Mill meeting in, 148;
  • WPA labor inequities in, 154, 156–57
• Bessemer Big Four Quartet, 149
• Bessemer Trades and Labor Council, 60, 67, 73
• Bethel Baptist Church (Collegeville), 115–16
• Bethune, Mary McLeod, 200
• Bibb County, Ala., 7
• Bible, xi, 45, 107
• “Big Sandy” (Tuscaloosa), 88
• Binkley, W. G., 129
• Birmingham, Ala., xiii-xiv, 39, 40, 48, 55, 79, 101–3, 108, 110, 120, 122, 124–31 passim, 136–37, 141–44, 147, 148, 159, 162, 168, 176–91 passim, 196, 199, 203–8, 212, 216, 223, 225;

  • emergence as industrial and mining center, 1–2;
  • black community in, 2–3, 80–81;
  • women workers in, 4;
  • workers’ villages established in, 5;
  • power of white supremacist groups, 7;
  • Socialists in, 7;
  • black migration to, 8, 174;
  • NAACP formed in, 8–9;
  • arrival of Communists, 13–14;
  • repression under criminal anarchy ordinance, 15–16;
  • Fish committee hearings, 17;
  • CP membership in, 17, 132;
  • CP relief campaign in, 18–23;
  • survival strategies in, 19, 21–23;
  • immigrants in, 27;
  • CP accused of planning race war in, 29–30;
  • election campaigns in, 31–32;
  • Reeltown victims buried in, 51;
  • SCU headquarters moved from, 54;
  • CP and labor movement in, 57–74 passim;
  • anti-Communist laws and terror in, 72–74;
  • ILD in, 80, 85–87, 90;
  • Peterson case, 83–84;
  • Murdis Dixon case, 85;
  • ILD, NAACP, and white liberal rivalry, 86–87, 89–91;
  • Marxist pedagogy in, 93–96;
  • intraracial class conflict, 115–16;
  • construction of Popular Front in, 119;
  • police and vigilante repression in, 121, 123; 1935 laundry workers’ strike, 121–22;
  • huge increase in CP vote, 132;
  • CP office and first Marxist bookstore opened in, 132–33;
  • assessment of CIO in, 151;
  • WPA workers’ movement in, 152–53, 155, 157;
  • NCPR headquarters opened in, 178–79;
  • CP regional conference in, 180;
  • SCHW debut and segregation ordinance enforced, 185;
  • reconstituted CP politics in, 195, 197;
  • CYS headquarters moved to, 198;
  • LYS membership in, 199;
  • SNYC conference (1939) and headquarters in, 201–2;
  • disintegration of NAACP branch, 213;
  • voting rights demonstration in, 213–14;
  • and Section 4902, 214–15;
  • district attorney of, 217;
  • police brutality in, 217;
  • anti-Hitler campaign in, 218–19;
  • segregation on buses, 221;
  • postwar CP exodus, 224;
  • SNYC conference (1948) in, 226;
  • violence during 1948 presidential campaign, 227. See also Church, black; Parks; Red Cross
• Birmingham Age-Herald, 42, 196
• Birmingham Board of Education, 111, 183
• Birmingham Board of Revenue, 18
• Birmingham Chamber of Commerce, 18, 130
• Birmingham City Commission, 61, 124, 215, 217;
  • proposes bond issue for relief, 19–20;
  • revokes CP parade permits, 33, 71, 76;
  • adopts anti-sedition law, 73;
  • NAACP petition to, 78;
  • election campaign for, 191. See also Jones, Jimmie
• Birmingham City Council, 227, 230
• Birmingham Community Chest, 15, 20
• Birmingham Department of Public Safety, 227
• Birmingham Industrial Union Council, 147, 149, 214, 225
• Birmingham Negro Democratic Council, 183
• Birmingham Negro Teachers’ Association, 214
• Birmingham Post, 52, 84, 131, 190
• Birmingham Reporter, 80, 108
• Birmingham-Southern College, 87, 199
• Birmingham Stove and Range Company, 144
• Birmingham Trades and Labor Council, 8–9, 29, 60, 73, 122;
  • “The Red Menace,” 138;
  • attacks John L. Lewis, 140
• Birmingham welfare board, 20, 22
• Birmingham World, 80, 110, 121, 184, 201, 214, 226
• Black, Hugo, 134, 185
• Black belt, xiv, 14–15, 17, 32, 35–37, 38–39, 44–45, 53–54, 74, 94, 96, 105, 122, 170, 174;
  • as oppressed nation, 13;
  • racial repression in, 163, 173;
  • and AFU, 171–73, 175;
  • voting in, 174. See also Cotton belt
• Blacks: percentage of miners, 5, 63, 65–66;
  • percentage in steel and iron industries, 5, 68;
  • migration of, 8, 174;
  • entry into CP opposed, 14;
  • greater interest in CP than whites, 16–17;
  • few opportunities to advance in labor movement, 69;
  • favorable impression of ILD among, 86;
  • in CIO unions, 141–42;
  • leadership in Mine Mill, 145;
  • CIO force for change for, 176;
  • in Democratic party, 177;
  • and voting rights, 182–84;
  • importance to South seen as undervalued, 186;
  • mobilized behind war, 218
• —in CP: tutored by CP comrades, 94–99;
  • and revolution in South, 100;
  • relations with white comrades, 112–13, 137, 207;
  • lack of leadership positions in, 134;
  • relationship to NAACP, 134, 181–82. See also Chauvinism, in CP
• —poor, xii, 9, 134, 172, 211, 214, 220;
  • Alabama CP composed largely of, xi;
  • relationship to black elite and CP, 3, 109, 112–13
• Black Shirt, 74
• Blast, 108
• Blocton, Ala., 8
• Blues lyrics, 209–10
• Bolden, James, 208
• Bolshevism, 190–91
• Bos well amendment, 225
• “Bourbons,” 177
• Bracey, Ed, 165, 166, 168, 229
• Bradford, E. A., 121
• Branch system, of CP, 135, 136
• Bridenthal, Kenneth, 132, 154, 155
• Brighton, Ala., 67
• British American Tobacco Company, 201
• Brooklyn College, 204
• Brotherhood of Captive Miners (later Red Ore Miners), 144, 146
• Browder, Earl, xiv, 171;
  • CPUSA presidential candidate (1936), 132;
  • speaks at CP conference, 133;
  • sets tone for Democratic Front, 184;
  • votes received in 1940 elections, 197;
  • liquidates CPUSA, 223;
  • expelled from Party, 224
• Brown, Andy [pseud. Oscar Bryant], 25, 30, 141, 148, 222
• Brown, Charlotte Hawkins, 200
• Brown, Walter, 90–91
• Brown, Warren “Red,” 132
• Bryant, H. C, 87
• Bugg, Abbie Elmore, 51
• Build the Party Conference (1937), 132
• Bullock County, Ala., 95
• Bunche, Ralph, 183
• Burke, Alice, 26, 31, 79, 86
• Burke, Donald, 26, 85–86
• Burke, Eddie, 132
• Burkett, Vester, 172
• Burnham, Dorothy, 222
• Burnham, Louis, 221–22, 223, 226, 227
• Burns, Cleatus, 69
• Burns, Frank, 15, 29
• Burns, Louise, 59
• Burton, James D., 42
• Burton, Jesse L., 174
• Burton, Joe, 18–19, 30, 85
• Business, black, 3, 80–81, 82, 108–9, 124
• Butler, J. R., 164, 169–70
• Camden, Ala., 8
• Camp Hill, Ala., 49, 51, 54, 96, 126, 222;
  • scene of 1931 shootout, 23, 41–43, 46, 48, 50, 52, 82;
  • CP refuses to disband in, 223
• Capitalism, 98, 114, 129, 177, 188, 196;
  • in agenda of Communist Political Association, 223
• Capitol Park (Birmingham), 15–16, 18, 71, 76
• Caravan Puppeteers, 208, 209, 216
• Caribbean, 94
• Carmer, Carl, 1
• Carmichael, Stokely, 229–30
• Carter, Randolph “Doc,” 115
• Cash, W. J., 79
• Castille, Florence, 225
• Catchings, John, 179
• Cather, A. H., 8, 226
• Catholics, 7
• Cavalcade: The March of Southern Negro Youth, 208–12
• Central Committee (CPUSA), 16, 18, 30, 38, 61, 86, 115, 122, 134–35, 164, 177, 195;
  • chooses Birmingham as District 17 headquarters, 14–15;
  • changes for Popular Front, 119–20, 125, 133;
  • emphasizes industrial unionism, 139, 147;
  • changes SCU leadership, 159–60;
  • launches campaign to keep America out of war, 190;
  • decides to “re-Bolshevize” Party, 192
• Central Foundry (Tuscaloosa), 68
• Chambers County, Ala., xi, 160;
  • SCU members in, 44;
  • cotton pickers’ strike and boycott, 54–55, 165;
  • cotton choppers’ strike, 161
• Chamlee, George, 51
• Chapel Hill, N.C., 178, 184
• Charleston, S.C., 40
• Charlton, Louise O., 185, 189
• Chattanooga, Tenn., xv, 13, 16, 25, 40–42, 81, 93, 122, 133, 201;
  • Scottsboro families in, 78;
  • site of SCHW meeting, 191
• Chattanooga News, 196
• Chauvinism, in CP: male, 26, 44, 46–47, 206;
  • white, 113, 134, 137, 207
• Chicago, 111., 2, 8, 16, 21, 26, 62, 123, 200
• Chicago Farm Conference (1933), 95
• Child labor reform, 6
• Children, 96, 136. See also Young Pioneers
• Christianity, 107, 108, 196, 228. See also Clergy
• Church, black, 66, 105, 128, 148–49;
  • and black resistance, 107, 135;
  • Communists urged to join, 181. See also Clergy—black; names of individual churches
• Churches, company, 149
• Citizens Army Welfare Committee, of SNYC, 218
• Citizens Committee for Equal Accommodations on Common Carriers, 228
• Citizens Scottsboro Aid Committee, 87
• City College of New York (CCNY), 63, 222
• Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), 70, 197
• Civil liberties, 76, 120, 130–31, 167, 176, 178, 184–85, 191, 214, 221, 223, 225, 228;
  • and LYS, 199;
  • work continued by LYS and SNYC, 214
• Civil rights, 66–67, 125, 151, 169, 175, 180, 191, 196, 199, 218, 220, 224, 230;
  • plank adopted by AFU, 171;
  • heightened militancy of, 192;
  • potential black movement in Birmingham, 202;
  • CP quietly influences organizations, 219;
  • NAACP increasingly vocal on, 222;
  • Truman administration supports, 225;
  • NAACP red-baited for, 226
• —movement, modern, 207, 212;
  • World War II an incubator for, 222;
  • and CP legacy, 228–31
• Civil Rights Congress, 228
• Civil War, U.S., 11, 99–100
• Civil Works Administration (CWA), 33, 54, 103
• Clanton, Ala., 130
• Clarke, Elmore (Honey), 88
• Class: intraracial conflict, xii-xiii, 80–81, 91, 108–16 passim;
  • “non-reading,” 109
• —struggle, 1, 93, 101, 106, 164, 209, 225, 228;
  • role of religion in, 107–8;
  • Southernization of, 176–77
• Clay County, Ala., 132
• Cleante, Bill, 121
• Clement, Rufus, 200
• Clergy, 82, 87, 122–23, 128, 130, 137, 196, 198
• —black, 85, 93, 107, 210, 226;
  • conflicts with CP, 111–12, 114–16;
  • support SWOC, 142;
  • some work as union organizers, 149;
  • join NAACP and NCPR in housing protest, 180;
  • cofound Right to Vote Club, 182. See also Baptists; Church, black; Elite—black; Middle class—black
• Cleveland, Ohio, 14, 79
• Coad, Mack [pseud. Jim Wright], 25;
  • background and SCU organizer, 40;
  • involvement in Camp Hill shootout, 41–42;
  • travels to Moscow, 95;
  • serves in Spanish Civil War, 132;
  • cofounds Right to Vote Club, 182
• Coal operations, 63–65. See also Miners; Mines
• Cobb, James, 166
• Cobb, Ned, 44; All God's Dangers, xv;
  • role in Reeltown shootout, 49–50, 52;
  • story adapted to stage, 230
• Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, 1
• Coke, H. D., 201
• Colburn, H. E., 181
• Cold War, 224, 226, 227
• Collective memory, xii, 99
• Collegeville, Ala., 5, 115
• Collins, “Doc,” 114
• Collins, Edwina, 155
• Collins, Pernell, 207
• Colored Citizens League of Bessemer, 9
• Columbia University, 25, 125
• Column 6, of National Hunger Marchers, 31
• “Come on to the Buryin’,” 151
• Comer, Ethel, 151
• Comintern. See Communist International
• Commissary system, 37, 65
• Commission on Interracial Cooperation (CIC), 42, 82, 85, 115
• Committee for Equal Justice for Recy Taylor, 223
• Committee of Action, 54
• Communist, 130
• Communist International (Comintern), xiii, 160, 171, 205;
  • directives, 116, 119, 190, 192, 221
• Communist Party:
• —Alabama (CP), 48, 86, 179, 196, 221;
  • composition and membership, xi, xiii, 22, 26–27, 30, 61–63, 92–93, 132, 135–36, 172, 206, 207;
  • opens office under own name, 14, 132;
  • and blacks, 17, 23, 25, 92–116, 123, 125, 181, 186;
  • campaigns, 18–20, 31–32, 33, 126–28, 182, 218–19;
  • and violence, 23, 41–45, 52, 81, 82, 217;
  • restructured, 26, 135;
  • race relations in, 28, 112–13, 207;
  • Northerners vs. Southerners in, 28–29, 126;
  • and whites, 29, 202–3;
  • Birmingham members link up to cotton belt, 37–39;
  • efforts to link northern Alabama and black belt, 38;
  • and labor unions and 1934 strike wave, 57–76 passim;
  • dual-union policies, 60, 64, 138;

  • criticizes NIRA, 61;
  • impact on labor movement assessed, 76;
  • and Citizens Scottsboro Aid Committee, 87;
  • training schools, 93;
  • travel of members, 95, 113;
  • and children, 96;
  • organizers believed to be Soviet agents, 100;
  • self-defense, 101;
  • and martyrdom, 103;
  • Christianity and black church in, 107–8;
  • at height of powers, 119;
  • praised for radical work in South, 120;
  • 1935 May Day incidents and laundry strike, 121–22;
  • “Americanism,” 122;
  • formation of NNC, 123;
  • coalition building with NAACP, 124;
  • southernization of, 126, 133, 136–37, 176–77;
  • role of Joe Gelders in, 129–31;
  • victory in Bart Logan case, 131;
  • legality of, 131–33;
  • compromises militancy on antiracism, 134;
  • county committee and section leaders, 135;
  • subsidies, 135;
  • new political line, 137;
  • Americanization of, 138, 163;
  • actions opposed by labor leaders, 138–39;
  • shop units, 139;
  • and CIO, 139, 151, 147, 148;
  • and Gadsden rubber workers, 141;
  • influence in Mine Mill, 144–46;
  • swept into WPA fray, 152;
  • organizes relief workers independently, 154–55;
  • growing prominence in Workers Alliance, 155;
  • contrasting roles in Unemployed Councils and Workers Alliance, 155–56;
  • support for New Deal consolidated, 156;
  • moderate turn of, 158;
  • weak support of SCU, 160;
  • helps usher in reform, 176;
  • focuses on Democratic candidates, 176–77;
  • isolation of, 176–77;
  • conferences, 180, 214;
  • agenda of, 185;
  • private criticisms of SCHW, 186;
  • members in unions, 190;
  • hopes for Southern Democratic Front ruined, 190;
  • effects of Nazi-Soviet Pact, 190–92, 195, 197;
  • and LYS, 198–99;
  • Birmingham last hope of, 202;
  • enveloped with “movement culture,” 207–12;
  • targets of renewed crusade, 214–15;
  • renewed radical movement in Birmingham, 217–18;
  • “invisible army” again, 219–20, 223, 231: liquidated, 223;
  • reestablished, 224;
  • goals and greater openness in policies, 225;
  • last moments and disbanding, 227–28;
  • legacy, 228–31. See also District 17, of CPUSA; International Labor Defense; Organizers–CP; Share Croppers’ Union
• —components, 17, 20, 52, 68, 135, 229. See also Central Committee; District 17, of CPUSA
• —foreign: Germany, 98, 119;
  • Soviet Union, 139;
  • India, 222
• —other states: Tennessee, 133;
  • Texas, 177
• —United States of America (CPUSA, CP), 43, 53, 61, 230;
  • relationship to Communist International, xiii;
  • ventures South for first time, 13–14;
  • national conventions, 18, 171, 180–82;
  • subsidies to CP, 132;
  • and John L. Lewis, 139;
  • ironic position toward WPA, 158;
  • shifts farm policy, 169–70;
  • decides to refashion Popular Front, 177;
  • accused of funneling cash to SCHW, 186–87;
  • “re-Bolshevization” of, 191;
  • Angela Davis in, 203–4;
  • activists work independently of, 219;
  • liquidated, 223;
  • reconstituted under Foster, 224. See also District 17, of CPUSA
• Communist Political Association, 223
• Communists:
• —Northern, 14, 29, 30, 103, 126
• —Southern, 184, 186, 199;
  • place in Southern history, xv;
  • prevalence of blacks among, 92–93;

  • squander potential, 176–77, 192;
  • and Democratic party, 177;
  • staff NCPR, 179
• Conference on the Status of the Negro under the New Deal (1935), 123
• Congress, U.S., 33, 53, 220;
  • Senate, 131, 177–78;
  • House of Representatives, 178. See also Dies Committee; Elections; House Un-American Activities Committee
• Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO), xiv, 68–69, 133, 138, 158–59, 173, 176, 184, 188, 190–91, 201, 202, 218–30;
  • newly formed in Alabama, 132;
  • and CP, 139, 147, 151, 219, 225, 227–28;
  • expelled from AFL and attacked, 139–40;
  • efforts to organize rubber workers, 140–41;
  • and anti-Communism, 140–41, 189–90;
  • and role of blacks in organizing steel industry, 142–43;
  • and Mine Mill, 144–45;
  • political action committee, 146;
  • black Communists’ agenda in, 147–48;
  • attractive milieu of, 148;
  • singing in, 149–51;
  • support from AFU, 171;
  • force for social change, 176;
  • voter registration activities of, 212;
  • conservative turn in, 221
• —industrial councils: Birmingham, 147, 149, 214, 225;
  • state, 189, 227
• —political action committee, 146
• Connor, Eugene “Bull,” 215, 220, 228;
  • enforces segregation ordinance, 185;
  • praised, 188;
  • harasses black ministers, 226;
  • writes ordinance outlawing CP, 227
• Conroy, Jack, 71
• Constitution, U.S., 39, 133;
  • First Amendment, 128
• Constitution, U.S.S.R., 133
• Convict labor, 5–6
• Cooper, Esther, 193, 207, 214;
  • background, 204–5;
  • on suspicions toward female radicals, 206;
  • arrested, 213;
  • coleads SNYC, 221–22;
  • leaves Alabama, 224
• Cooperatives, farmers, 170, 171
• Corprew, Cliff, 174
• Cotton, 51, 170, 220;
  • prices, 34, 40, 170;
  • hardships of production, 35–36, 53–54, 161;
  • culture causes hard lives for women, 36;
  • wages for picking, 43;
  • government attempts to revive economy, 53–54;
  • 1933–34 pickers’ strike 54–55;
  • 1935 choppers’ strike, 161–64;
  • 1935 pickers’ strike, 164–68. See also Agricultural Adjustment Act; Cotton Control Act; Gin Tax Act
• Cotton belt, 37, 48, 175
• Cotton Control Act, 53, 161, 164
• Couch, William T., 191
• Coughlinites, 169, 224
• “Couldn't Hear Nobody Pray,” 151
• Council of Young Southerners (CYS), 197, 198, 201
• Covington County, Ala., 7, 170, 173
• Cowherd, Yelverton, 139
• Cox, Courtland, 230
• Cox, Ebb, 69, 141, 143, 153–54;
• “Negroes in the Labor Movement,” 148
• Crawford, Bruce, 178
• Crawford, George Gordon, 5
• Crawford, W. H., 60, 68
• Crenshaw County, Ala., 48
• Criminal anarchy ordinances, 15–16, 72–73, 165
• Cripple Creek, Colo., 1
• Crisis, 204
• Croppers’ and Farm Workers’ Union (CFWU) (later Share Croppers’ Union), 38, 39, 40–41, 42, 43
• Cross, Dennis, 88
• Cross burnings, 227
• Crouch, Paul, 186
• Crow, Ray, 153
• Cullman County, Ala., 7, 17–18, 39
• Culture: black, 201, 207–8, 212, 228;
  • movement, 207, 212
• Cuney, Waring, 209, 210
• Dadeville, Ala., 41–43, 45, 52, 55, 99, 103–4, 160, 174, 205;
  • replaced as SCU administrative center, 168–69;
  • CP refuses to disband in, 223
• Daily Worker, xi, 20, 27, 32, 46, 71–72, 74, 92, 94, 100–101, 122, 126, 148, 161, 178, 193
• Dale, Thelma, 202
• Dale County, Ala., 52
• Dallas County, Ala., 54, 161–64, 173
• Dalrymple, Sherman H., 140
• Daniels, Jonathan, 230
• Davis, Angela, 203–4
• Davis, Benjamin, Jr., 224, 230
• Davis, Chester, 168
• Davis, J. W., 48
• Davis, John, 67
• Davis, John P., 123
• Davis, Sallye, 203
• Davis, Saul, 25, 103;
  • kidnapped and beaten (1934), 74, 101;
  • kidnapped (1935), 162;
  • request for funds, 172
• Dawes, “Babe,” 81
• Deacons for Defense and Justice (Louisiana), 169
• DeBardeleben, Charles, 188
• DeBardeleben, Henry T., 2
• DeBardeleben, Otis, 101–2
• Debs, Eugene, 7
• Declaration of Independence, 122
• Defense corps, Communist, 16
• De Grazia, Victoria, xi
• Democracy, 9, 114, 218–19;
  • in America expressed through verse, 208–12;
  • and Section 4902, 215
• Democratic Front, 176, 186, 201–2;
  • fashioned from Popular Front, 177;
  • only CP doorway into world of liberals, 178;
  • voting rights seen as linchpin of, 182;
  • tone set for, 184;
  • hopes in South ruined, 190, 195;
  • and Joe Gelders, 191
• Democratic party, 220;
  • progressive agenda in, 177;
  • CP focus on candidates, 177–78;
  • left wing in, 195
• Democrats, 48, 62, 182, 186;
  • Southern New Deal, 178
• Dennis, Gene, Jr., 230
• Depression, Great, xiv, 19, 23, 57, 61, 109, 129;
  • felt early by urban South, 9;
  • hits Alabama hard, 14
• DePriest, Oscar, 16
• Dibble, Eugene, 50
• Dies, Martin, 186, 189
• Dies Committee, 178, 197, 214;
  • lists “Communist front” organizations, 157;
  • launching of, 186;
  • attack on SCHW, 186, 188–89, 222;
  • assault on labor, 189;
  • took toll on SNYC, 212;
  • pressure on CIO, 221. See also House Un-American Activities Committee
• Dillard University Players Guild, 201
• Discrimination, 27, 76, 122, 161, 206;
  • in unions, 60, 64;
  • in coal mines, 63–64;
  • antiunion, 68;
  • in armed forces, in employment, and on buses, 221
• District 5, of Mine Mill, 221
• District 9, of UCAPAWA, 173
• District 17, of CPUSA, 25;
  • opens office under CP name, 14, 132;
  • committee in Fred Keith incident, 113;
  • committee implements reforms, 135;
  • women recruited in, 136;
  • attempts to turn CP into legitimate movement, 137
• District 20, of UMWA, 61
• “Dixie” (altered), 136–37, 138, 150
• Dixon, Murdis, 85
• Dobbs, Malcolm Cotton, 198, 215, 218, 225
• Dobbs, Pauline, 199, 223, 225
• Dombrowski, James, 120, 226
• Donavan, John, 155
• Double V program, 219, 221
• Douglass, Frederick, 46–47, 200, 211
• Downs, W. O., 73, 121
• Downs literature ordinance, 73, 111, 121, 124, 126, 130
• Draft Program for Negro Farmers in the Southern States (1930), 38
• Draper, Theodore, xiii
• Du Bois, W. E. B., 222
• Duclos, Jacques, 224
• Dukes, P. E., 123
• Duncan, L. N., 42
• Durr, Robert, 110, 201
• Durr, Virginia, 188
• Eason, J. H., Ill
• East, Henry Clay, 164
• East Birmingham, Ala., 115, 156, 203
• Eastern piedmont, 23, 39, 44, 52, 98;
  • concentration of CP in, xiv;
  • racial repression in, 173
• East Thomas blast furnace (Republic Steel), 68
• Edmonds, Randolph, 201
• Education, 199, 200, 203, 231;
  • Marxist, 16, 93–99, 223
• Elder, Cliff, 49–50
• Elections: Debs 1912 vote, 7;
  • 1928 presidential, 13;
  • in 1930, 17;
  • CP 1932 campaign, 31–32;
  • astounding CP vote in Elmore County, 48;
  • 1934 campaign and rallies, 76;
  • in 1932, 85;
  • 1936 presidential, 131–32;
  • 1936 bids for Congress, 169;
  • 1938 state and presidential, 177–78, 180;
  • 1940 presidential, 195, 197;
  • white primaries, 213;
  • 1940 election-day demonstration, 212–13;
  • Dobbs and Folsom races, 225;
  • 1948 presidential, 226–27;
  • 1949 union consent, 227
• Elite: white, 3, 109;
  • urban, 176
• —black: 82, 115–16, 134, 137;
  • prosperity and problems in Birmingham, 3;
  • relationship to poor blacks, 3, 109;
  • and SCU after shootout, 52;
  • oppose ILD, 80, 87, 91;
  • contrasted with CP, 81;
  • collision with CP, 108–16, 119;
  • uniting with CP, 123–24;
  • CP reluctant to court, 125;
  • greet SNYC, 201. See also Clergy—black; Middle class—black
• Elks, black, 214
• Ellis, Mark, 61, 68
• Elmore County, Ala., 50, 132, 173, 205;
  • astounding CP vote, 48;
  • and Nora Wilson case, 216
• Emerson, Harvey, 130
• Emmelle, Ala., 81
• Employee Representation Plan (ERP), 67
• Eng, Shan Ti. See Burns, Frank
• Engels, Friedrich: Communist Manifesto, 94, 107
• England, Ark., 38
• Ensley, Enoch, 1
• Ensley, Ala., 5, 14, 121, 123, 213;
  • steel workers mass meeting in, 18;
  • youth assembly in CIO Hall, 214
• Ensley Council School, 111
• Equality, racial or social, 15, 67, 141, 145, 147, 190, 208;
  • potency of slogan, 29;
  • seen as synonymous with Communism, 156
• Erickson, E. E., 178
• Escambia County, Ala., 170, 173
• Espionage Act, 133
• Ethiopia, 100, 107, 201, 122, 132;
  • “Hands Off Ethiopia” campaign, 123
• Etowah County, Ala., 140
• Etowah Rubber Workers Organization (ERWO), 140
• Europe, 3, 98, 119, 190, 191, 197, 222
• Evictions, 53–56, 58, 61, 67–68, 146, 163–65, 173;

  • prompted by Cotton Control Act, 161
• Exchange Park (Montgomery), 165
• Extraordinary National Conference (1933): “Open Letter to All Members of the Communist Party,” 61
• Fair Employment Practices Committee (FEPC), 221
• Fairfield, Ala., 5, 121, 154–55, 217
• Farmer-Labor party, 8, 131, 195
• Farmers, 37, 159, 169, 170–71, 173, 175, 181, 229;
  • in Democratic party, 177;
  • low-interest loans for, 197. See also Landlords, rural; Planters; Sharecroppers; Tenant farmers
• Farmers’ Emergency Relief Bill, 164
• Farmers’ National Relief Conference (1935), 169
• Farmers’ Union. See Alabama Farmers’ Union
• Farm hands, 174
• Farm Holiday Association, 63, 159, 169–70
• Farm Laborers and Cotton Field Workers Union (FLCFWU), 173
• Farm policy, 169–70, 175
• Farm Research Bureau, 125–26
• Farm Security Administration (FSA), 169, 174, 185
• Fascism, xiii, 95, 119–20, 122, 190, 193, 200;
  • use of Section 4902 likened to, 215
• Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), 111, 136, 223
• Federal Emergency Relief Act (FERA), 33
• Federal government, 53, 63, 152, 171;
  • crop reduction policies, 129;
  • question of supporting landlords, 164;
  • and right to organize, 175
• Fellowship of Reconciliation, 205
• “Female consciousness,” 47
• Finch, John, 41
• Finch, Tommy, 41
• Finch, V. C, 153
• Finland, 190–91, 197
• First Congregational Church (Birmingham), 87, 214
• Fish, Hamilton, 17
• Fish Committee, 17, 29
• Fisk University, 31, 205
• Florence, Ala., 139, 141
• Florida, 14, 32, 124, 133
• Folklore, 53, 100, 102
• Folsom, Jim, 225
• Ford, James, 171, 178;
  • vice-presidential candidate, 31–32, 48, 132;
  • speaks at CP conference, 133;
  • speaks at national convention, 181;
  • life used as example, 186;
  • The Negro and the Democratic Front, 186;
  • votes received in 1940 elections, 197
• Foreign policy, 191, 197. See also Ethiopia; Nazi-Soviet Pact; Soviet Union
• Foreman, Clark, 185
• Foreman, Cornelia, 22, 95, 182, 201
• Forrey, Edward, 226
• Foreman, Andrew, 31
• Fort Deposit, Ala., 165
• Forty-Fifth Street Baptist Church (Birmingham), 115
• Foster, Henry B., 88
• Foster, John “Willie,” 162
• Foster, William Z., xiv, 225;
• presidential candidate, 13, 31–32, 48;
• leads reconstituted CPUSA, 224
• Fowler, “Uncle” Ben, 86
• France, xi, 177
• Franco, Francisco, 205
• Frank, Esther. See Gelders, Esther
• Franklin, Benjamin, 133
• Franklin, Francis, 117
• Frantz, Laurent [Larry French], 214;
  • background, 179;
  • teaches voter registration classes, 182;
  • marries Marge Gelders, 199;
  • on CP racism, 207;
  • arrested, 215;
  • leaves Alabama, 224
• Frantz, Marge Gelders, 130, 193;
  • background, 129, 199, 202–3;
  • recruits Pauline Dobbs, 199;
  • on sexism, 206;
  • on CP social relations, 207;
  • arrested, 215;
  • leaves Alabama, 224
• Freedmen's Bureau, 39
• Freeman, Reverend A. M., 141
• Fuller, Helen, 197
• Gabriel. See Prosser, Gabriel
• Gadsden, Ala., 157, 140–41, 227
• Gadsden United WPA Workers, 157
• “Games and Songs for Old and Young” (book), 96–97
• Gandhi, Mohandas, 222
• Gardens, 20, 22, 40;
  • as survival strategy, 19, 35;
  • source of strikers’ relief, 69;
  • WPA jobs in, 152
• Garner, John: education in CP, 94–95, 98;
  • on Soviet agents, 100, on trickster techniques, 102;
  • on religion and CP, 107;
  • dream of, 113
• Garveyism, 8, 81. See also Negro World
• Gaston, A. G., 201
• Gastonia, N.C., 13
• Gaunt, J. M., 50
• Gelders, Esther, 128–30;
  • “The Ballad of John Catchings,” 179
• Gelders, Joseph, 168, 187–88, 214;
  • background, 128–30;
  • and Bart Logan case, 130;
  • critical link between CP and liberals, 130, 178;
  • beaten by vigilantes, 130–31;
  • investigates unionizing in rubber industry, 141;
  • rattles progressive circles, 176;
  • runs for state legislator, 177;
  • NCDPP-NCPR merger and subsequent activities, 178–80;
  • proposes right-to-vote organization, 182;
  • meets with Roosevelts and organizes conference, 184–85;
  • proposes challenging segregation laws, 186;
  • vilified for defending Soviet actions, 190–92;
  • launches Southern News Almanac, 195–96;
  • campaigns against Section 4902, 215;
  • witnesses Powers beating, 217;
  • joins Army, 222;
  • leaves Alabama, 224
• Gelders, Marge. See Frantz, Marge Gelders
• Geneva, Switzerland, 200
• Georgia (U.S.), 14–16, 25, 32, 124, 126, 132, 196, 204
• Germany, 119, 190–92, 215, 218, 219
• Geyer, Lee, 191, 213–14
• Giglio, James, 14–15
• Gilbert, McKinley, 169
• Gillmor, Dan, 196
• Gin Tax Act, 53, 164
• “Give Me That Old Time Religion” (“Give Me That Old Communist Spirit”), 105
• God, xi, 92, 107–8, 110
• Goldstein, Benjamin, 48, 87–88
• Goodgame, John W., 111
• Goodman, Ethel Lee, 156–57, 203, 205
• Good Neighbor Club, 223
• Goodwin, Ned, 102
• Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company, 140–41
• Gordon, Eugene, 46
• Gore, Quentin P., 196
• Gospel singers, 105, 114, 149
• Goucher College, 128
• Grace Hills Cemetery (Birmingham), 51
• Graham, Frank, 185, 188, 189, 197
• Gravelee, G. S., 172
• Graves, Bibb, 81, 103, 126, 167–68, 174;
  • supports AFL drive, 59;
  • vetoes antisedition bill, 128;
  • offers reward for Gelders attackers, 131;
  • ends coal strike, 138
• Graves, Howard, 55
• Gray, Alfred, 39
• Gray, Eula, 44–45, 96, 98, 205
• Gray, Mary Jane, 205
• Gray, Ralph, 40, 105, 205;
  • background, 39;
  • role and death in Camp Hill shootout, 41–42;
  • martyred, 46
• Gray, Tommy, 39, 41, 43–44, 205
• Great Britain, xi, 197
• Green, William, 139
• Greenback-Labor party, 4
• Greene County, Ala., 170
• Greensboro, Ala., 164
• Greenville, S.C., 13
• Greenwood, Ala., 5, 31, 115
• Gribb, William, 41
• Hall, Otto, 85
• Hall, Robert Fowler (Rob), 134–35, 181, 184, 187, 189;
  • on courage of Southern Communists, xv;
  • on operating underground, 119;
  • background, 125–26;
  • changes CP leadership, 126;
  • title changed, 135;
  • on CIO drive, 142, 147;
  • on Democratic Front, 176;
  • runs for Senate, 177–78;
  • suggests political approach to lobbying, 180;
  • criticizes SCHW, 186;
  • urges return to old radicalism, 192;
  • develops agenda for reconstituted movement, 195;
  • cofounds Good Neighbor Club, 223;
  • charged with Browderism, 224
• Hall, Sam, 196, 218, 223–24, 225
• Hammond, E. H., 123
• Harden, A. T., 88
• Hare, W. O., 73, 139
• Harlan County, Ky., 125
• Harlem, 122, 124, 200
• Harper, Louis, 88–89
• Harris, C. M., 3
• Harris, Gerald, Sr., 203, 215, 217
• Harris, Gerald, Jr., 203
• Harris, Lem, 169
• Hart, Hosea [pseud. Harry Williams], 160;
  • in NNC, 124;
  • president of SCU executive board, 160;
  • and STFU merger, 164;
  • elected to offices in UCAPAWA, 173–74;
  • son jailed, 174;
  • delegate to national convention, 181
• Hart, Willie Joe, 174
• Harvard University Law School, 25, 123
• Harvey, John, 123
• Hathaway, Clarence, 32, 169
• Hawes, Zilla, 120
• Haymarket Affair, 4
• Haynesville, Ala., 165–66
• Haywood, Harry, 45, 101, 159
• Health care, 200, 231
• Heflin, Tom, 169, 178
• Henderson, Donald, 168, 172, 174;
  • positions held, 164;
  • and STFU-SCU merger, 169–70;
  • leads UCAPAWA, 173
• Henderson, O'Dee, 217
• Henley, Walter, 2
• Herndon, Angelo, 11, 25, 63, 82, 100, 112, 114;
  • background, 15;
  • arrested during rally, 18;
  • Klan accusations against, 29;
  • organizes in Wilcox County, 38;
  • imprisoned, 85;
  • sees CP activities in religious terms, 107–8;
  • case of, 124, 178
• Hickory Grove, Ala., 167
• Highlander Folk School, 120, 122, 146, 150–51. See also Socialist party
• Hill, Herbert, 228
• Hill, Lister, 134, 178, 189
• Hirsch, Harry [pseud. Harry Simms], 43–45
• History, black, 46–47, 96, 135, 208, 228
• Hitler, Adolf, 98, 119, 193, 215, 218–19
• Hod Carriers. See International Hod Carriers, Building and Common Laborers Union of America

• “Hold the Fort,” 149
• Hollums, E. L., 71, 73, 126
• Holmes, Taft, 40–41
• Holt, Thad, 55, 153, 165
• Homewood, Ala., 121
• Hooper, Jimmie, 182
• Hoover, Herbert, 48
• Hope Hull, Ala., 44, 100, 165, 167
• Horton, James E., 89
• Horton, Myles, 120
• Hotel Morris (Birmingham), 19
• Houdlitch, Vance, 68
• Houseal, W. B., 191
• House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), 146, 225
• Housing, 185, 212, 225, 227
• Houston, Charles, 89
• Howard, Asbury, 228
• Howard, Esther Mae, 208
• Howard, Joe, 25, 69;
  • mass march leader, 30;
  • in “chauvinism” incident, 113;
  • SWOC organizer, 143;
  • and first Alabama sit-down strike, 144
• Howard University, 123, 164, 200, 202;
  • Law School, 89
• Howell, James D., 155–57
• Hudson, Hosea, 22, 113–15, 137, 201;
  • Black Worker in the Deep South, xv;
  • The Narrative of Hosea Hudson . . . (Painter), xv;
  • on rigors of joining CP, 11;
  • background, 24–25;
  • mass march leader, 30;
  • member of Liberation Committee, 85;
  • on police intimidation, 86;
  • and Marxist education, 94–95;
  • on CP arrival in South, 99–100;
  • respected in black community, 114;
  • on NAACP, 134;
  • early years as SWOC organizer, 143;
  • and CIO, 147–48, 223;
  • officer in Workers Alliance, 155–58;
  • delegate to national convention, 181;
  • and John Smith case, 181;
  • cofounds Right to Vote Club and subsequent voter registration efforts, 182–84;
  • rosy picture of postwar America, 221;
  • president of local, 221;
  • cofounds Good Neighbor Club, 223;
  • expelled from CIO, 225;
  • given key to city, 230–31
• Huff, W. I., 88
• Hughes, Langston, 209–10
• Hughley, Luther, 48–49
• Huntsville, Ala., 70, 81
• Hymns, 149
• Immigrants. See Migration
• Industrialists, 1, 61;
  • power in Birmingham, 2;
  • alliances with black elite, 3;
  • efforts to relieve demand for jobs, 18;
  • methods of controlling workers, 57–59;
  • attack SCHW, 188
• Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), 65, 71, 151, 190
• Informants: “stool pigeons,” 22, 103, 220;
  • in Camp Hill shootout, 41;
  • employers’ spies, 58, 111;
  • Fred Keith, 113;
  • FBI and police, 115, 136;
  • in cotton choppers’ strike, 163;
  • on Lowndes County assassination targets, 166
• Ingalls, Robert I., 2
• Ingram, Roy, 70, 121
• Ingram Park (Birmingham), 33
• Integration, 13, 212, 226
• Intellectuals, 71, 92, 129, 179, 184–85
• “Internationale, The,” 99, 105, 150
• International Hod Carriers, Building and Common Laborers Union of America, 126, 141, 153, 154
• International Labor Defense (ILD), xii, xiv, 16, 25, 26, 69, 74, 101–2, 105–6, 108, 112, 119–22, 124, 131, 148, 168, 178, 230;
  • and Scottsboro case, 23, 78–80, 86–88;
  • defense of Camp Hill sharecroppers, 42–43;
  • and Reeltown victims, 51, 110;
  • rivalry with NAACP, 78–91 passim;
  • Tom Robertson case and antilynching campaigns, 81;

  • Peterson case, 83–84, 89–90;
  • ignores Murdis Dixon rape, 85;
  • and white liberals, 86–89;
  • and Tuscaloosa lynchings, 88–89;
  • Johnson and Brown cases, 89–90;
  • assessment of, 91;
  • handbills warn police and KKK, 103;
  • campaign against black school principal, 111;
  • calls attention to mounting police and vigilante violence, 123;
  • protests antisedition bill, 128;
  • dismantled in Alabama, 134;
  • organizers kidnapped, 162;
  • and black CP members, 181;
  • SNYC likened to, 216
• International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union, 184
• International Longshoremen's Association (ILA), 71
• International Molders Union, 69
• International Seamen's Union (ISU), 71
• International Union of Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers (Mine Mill), 148, 151, 190, 227;
  • strength of Communists in, 65–67, 221;
  • calls 1934 strikes, 67–68;
  • CP organizers in, 144–45;
  • calls 1936 strike, 146;
  • launches voter registration drives, 147;
  • transformed by black workers, 148;
  • expelled from CIO, 227;
  • fight with steel workers’ union, 227–28
• International Workers’ Order, 71, 125
• International Workingmen's Day. See May Day
• Interracialism, 195, 202, 212;
  • of CP, 160, 211;
  • views of black CP members, 112–13
• Irby, W. C, 169
• Irvin, Frank B.; 88
• Isolationists, 191
• Israel, Boris [pseud. Blaine Owen], 62–63, 121, 163
• Italians, 3, 27
• Italy, 57, 122, 132
• Jackson, Al, 161, 166
• Jackson, Albert [pseud.], 160, 166. See also Johnson, Clyde
• Jackson, Augusta, 206–7;
  • background, 204;
  • editor of Calvacade, 208;
  • “The People to Lincoln, Douglass,” 211–12;
  • leaves Alabama, 224
• Jackson, Emory O., 184, 226
• Jackson, Gardner “Pat,” 169
• Jackson, Harry, 14, 18, 25, 82
• Jackson, James, 166
• Jackson, James E., Jr.: background and SNYC, 200;
  • marries Esther Cooper, 205;
  • on CP racism, 207;
  • arrested, 213;
  • “Don't Play Hitler's Game,” 219;
  • “Let Liberty Live,” 219;
  • joins armed forces, 221;
  • leaves Alabama, 224
• Jackson, Jesse, 177
• Jackson, John, 217
• Jackson, Juanita, 203
• Jackson, “Aunt” Molly, 105
• Jackson County, Ala., 78
• Jackson Foundries, 223
• Jackson Street Baptist Church (Birmingham), 111
• James, Clifford, 49–50, 51, 110–11
• James, David, 25, 61, 115
• James, John, 25
• Jasper, Thomas, 81
• Jefferson, Thomas, 122, 133, 185
• Jefferson County, Ala., 31, 63, 71, 80, 83, 131, 138, 143, 201, 225;
  • Knights of Labor in, 4;
  • Farmer-Labor party vote in, 8;
  • surge of migrants and relief rolls, 9;
  • CP spread beyond, 17;
  • survival strategies in. 19
  • demonstrations at courthouse, 31, 121, 123, 213;
  • CP vote in, 32, 132;
  • WPA labor troubles in, 153–54;
  • Workers Alliance in, 156–57;
  • number of black registered voters in, 184

• Jefferson County Board of Registrars, 182–84
• Jefferson County Committee Against Police Brutality, 217
• Jefferson County Committee Against the Poll Tax, 214
• Jemison, Robert, Jr., 2
• Jerome, V. J.: “To a Black Man,” 46
• Jesus Christ, 107, 135, 196. See also Christianity; Religion
• Jews, 25, 48, 61–62, 88, 128, 199;
  • targets of KKK, 7, 27;
  • immigrants in Birmingham, 27–28;
  • accused of being behind “Communist conspiracy,” 29
• Jim Crow, 32, 111, 185, 219;
  • alternatives to, 3;
  • effect of war on, 221
• Johnson, Charles S., 200, 205
• Johnson, Clyde [pseuds. Tom Burke, Larry Coleman, Albert Jackson], 28, 70;
  • background, 63;
  • obtains assistance for striking miners, 67;
  • forms locals, 68;
  • beating of, 72;
  • assassination attempts on, 74;
  • in “chauvinism” incident, 113;
  • in NNC, 124;
  • attempted jailing of, 130;
  • organizes poor white farmers, 132;
  • new SCU leader, 159–60;
  • uses pseudonyms, 160;
  • launches cotton choppers’ strike, 161;
  • lessons of strike, 163;
  • and union alliances, 164, 169–72;
  • plans mass cotton pickers’ strike, 164–65;
  • police search for, 166;
  • “To Those Who Fell,” 167–68;
  • marriage and heavy toll of work, 168;
  • works to reinvigorate SCU, 168–69;
  • campaigns for Lister Hill, 169;
  • asked to lobby in Washington, 172
• Johnson, Ed, 90
• Johnson, Henry “Red,” 163
• Johnson, I. C, 121
• Johnson, Joe Spinner, 163–64
• Johnson, Lemon, 167;
  • on armed self-defense, 44–45;
  • on color line, 47–48;
  • on Russian support, 100;
  • on distributing handbills, 102;
  • on anticipating King, 220
• Johnson, Tom, 14;
  • speech urging racial equality, 15;
  • burned in effigy, 16;
  • works in Cullman County, 17;
  • arrested during rally, 18;
  • leaves Alabama, 25;
  • on workers in South, 29;
  • and black cadre, 92;
  • holds classes, 93–94
• Joint Committee on National Recovery, 164
• Joint Strike Preparations Committee, 71
• Jones, Jimmie, 15, 30–31, 32, 188
• Jones, Van, 145–46
• Jones, Walter, 139
• Jordan, Hickman, 110–11
• “Joshua Fought the Battle of Jericho” (altered), 136, 180
• Joy Boys Dance Hall (Birmingham), 14
• Juries, 123
• Karam, Jimmy, 140–41
• Keith, Fred, 32, 73, 113
• Kennedy, E. E., 169
• Kennedy, Jasper, 41
• Kent, Rockwell, 181
• Kentucky, 32, 44, 125–26, 133
• Kester, Howard, 120–21, 169–70, 187–88
• Kilby, Thomas, 5
• King, Martin Luther, Jr., 220
• King's Landing, Ala., 173
• Knight, Ed, 165, 166
• Knight, Hartford, 184
• Knights of Labor, 4, 7, 31, 231
• Kraditor, Aileen, xii
• Ku Klux Klan (KKK), xi, 10, 27, 29, 75–76, 88–89, 92, 101, 103, 120, 122, 134, 141–42, 148, 169, 190, 193, 227, 231;

  • powerful Birmingham political force, 7;
  • effect on demise of NAACP, 9;
  • several members join CP, 28, 61;
  • warns William Z. Foster and disrupts CP meeting, 32;
  • with police, 33, 85;
  • with White Legion, 33;
  • rebirth of, 73–74;
  • with vigilantes, 85;
  • praised, 196;
  • Kleagles, 219;
  • appropriates Cold War language, 226;
  • full-scale war on CP, 227
• Labor, organized, 68, 73, 76, 125, 139, 146, 158, 220;
  • ignores laundry workers’ strike, 121;
  • ignores CP/SP conference, 122;
  • call for removing all Communists from, 139;
  • social equality predicted to be ruin of, 141;
  • weak support of Right to Vote Club, 184;
  • conservative climate damaging to, 189;
  • at center of radicalism again, 192;
  • greets SNYC, 201;
  • conflict with CP over international politics, 218;
  • CP quietly influences, 219;
  • racial dynamics of, 227. See also Labor movement; Unions
• Labor Advocate, 8, 29, 79, 130, 138, 140
• Labor Committee against Terrorism in Birmingham, 131
• Labor Defender, 16, 94, 126
• Labor movement, 110, 112, 133, 137, 170, 189, 196, 202, 222;
  • reorganization facilitated, 33;
  • and CP, 57–76 passim, 138–39, 147;
  • and black clergy, 114–15;
  • Communists in, 139, 143, 147, 148, 190;
  • threatened by AFL/CIO split, 139–40;
  • anti-Communism and antilabor linked, 140;
  • and AFU, 175;
  • and liberals, 184;
  • SCHW focus on, 186;
  • most leaders support anti-Communist tenets, 189
• Labor Union of Alabama, 4
• Ladies’ Auxiliary of Hodcarriers Local 810, 126
• La Follette, Robert, 8, 185
• Land grants, 171
• Landlords, rural, xii, 34–37, 39–40, 42–44, 49–55, 102–4, 164–74 passim;
  • black landlord supports SCU, 52;
  • named in CP publications, 103;
  • evict tenants, 161;
  • and fatal beating of union leader, 173
• Langley, John J., 39–40
• Lasser, David, 156
• Lauderdale, B. H., 13
• Laundry workers, 60, 70, 121–22
• Lawrence, Alton, 146
• Lawson, Elizabeth, 73
• Lawson, John Howard, 71–72, 93, 181
• League of Struggle for Negro Rights (LSNR), 81, 122
• League of Women Voters, 18
• League of Young Southerners (LYS), 223;
  • formerly CYS, 197–98;
  • new leaders and program, 198–99;
  • shares vision with SNYC, 202;
  • motivations of activists in, 202–3;
  • women in, 206;
  • envelops CP with “movement culture,” 207, 212;
  • anti-poll-tax work, 212–14;
  • co-organizes Alabama Youth Legislature, 214;
  • campaign against section 4902, 214–16;
  • police brutality cases, 217;
  • anti-Hitler campaign, 218–19;
  • CP in shadow of, 219;
  • folding of, 222
• League to Maintain White Supremacy, 226
• Lee, Howard, 197–98
• Lee County, Ala., 49–50, 55, 96, 99, 104;
  • SCU members in, 44;
  • cotton pickers’ strikes, 54–55, 167;
  • cotton choppers’ strike, 161
• Leeds, Ala., 196
• LeFlore, John, 123
• Legal defense, 86, 216
• Lemley, George, 66
• Lenin, V. I., 92, 98, 105, 136, 205, 222;
  • What Is to Be Done, 94
• Lenin School, 95, 113
• Leonard, Mary, 22, 27, 31, 86–87
• Lewis, Gilbert, 16
• Lewis, John L., 139, 140, 144
• Lewis, Walter, 14–15, 17
• Liberals, white Southern, xi, xiv, xv, 48, 64, 82, 86–89, 109, 119, 122, 125, 133, 134, 151, 160, 178, 181, 188, 190–91, 199, 220;
  • blame Communists for shootouts, 52;
  • silence on Murdis Dixon rape, 85;
  • oppose anti-sedition bill, 127–28;
  • CP's overtures to, 128, 134, 152;
  • linked to CP by Joe Gelders, 130;
  • CP alliance with, 137, 158, 178, 224;
  • squander potential, 176, 192;
  • spurred into action by CP, 176;
  • and hope for New South, 184;
  • and labor leaders, 184;
  • assume offices in SCHW, 185;
  • deteriorated relations with CP after Nazi-Soviet Pact, 190–91, 195;
  • silent on Section 4902, 216;
  • CP quietly influences, 219
• Liberation Committee. See Dixon, Murdis
• Liberator, 94, 160, 208
• Liberty Hill (Reeltown section), 50
• Lincoln, Abraham, 100, 211
• Lincoln University, 209
• Linsley, Richard, 173–74
• Lipscomb, Jim, 66
• Lipsitz, George, 99
• Literature: radical types defined, 73;
  • KKK, 74–75
• —Communist, 94, 101, 129, 191, 195;
  • arrests for possession of, 16, 73;
  • called incendiary, 52;
  • strategies to distribute, 94, 102;
  • believed printed in Russia, 100;
  • broad range of publications, 103;
  • importance of workers’ correspondence, 104;
  • virtually never attack religion, 108;
  • shop newspapers abolished, 139;
  • underground leaflets, 161;
  • draws battle lines, 177. See also Berlin, Israel; Communist; Downs literature ordinance; Education: Marxist; Seditious literature ordinances
• Lithuania, 61
• Little, Indiana, 9, 213
• Little Red Scare, 186, 190, 214. See also Red Scare
• Loans, low-interest government, 171, 197
• Local 1, of Workers Alliance, 155–56
• Local 285, of SCU, 174
• Local 1489, of SWOC, Ensley, 143
• Local 2815, of United Steel Workers of America, 221
• Locals, federal shop, 68
• Locke, Alain, 201
• Lockouts, 68, 146
• Logan, Bart [pseud. Jack Barton], 126, 130–31, 179
• Logan, Belle [pseud. Belle Barton], 126, 154
• Londa, George, 196
• Long, Henrietta, 203
• Long, Herman, 202–3
• Longs, Helen, 22, 72
• Longshoremen, 70–71, 221
• Louisiana, 13–14, 32, 133, 173;
  • Socialists organize blacks in, 7;
  • beehive of SCU activity, 168–69
• Louisiana Farmers Union, 172–73
• Lowndes County, Ala., 54, 103, 161, 164;
  • cotton choppers’ strike (1935), 161–62;
  • cotton pickers’ strike (1935), 165–68;
  • SNCC in, 229–30
• Lowndes County Christian Movement, 230
• Lumpkin, Grace, 71;
  • A Sign for Cain, 46, 78
• Lynching and murder:
• —non-CP-related, 15, 17, 23, 32, 78, 82, 90, 101, 120, 122, 180, 181, 217;

  • Robertson family and Thomas Jasper, 81;
  • A. T. Harden and Dan Pippen, Jr., 88;
  • Dennis Cross, 88–89;
  • statistics, 124
• —CP-related, 168;
  • Ralph Gray, 41;
  • J. W. Davis, 47;
  • Joe Spinner Johnson, 163–64;
  • Jim Press Merriweather, Ed Bracey, and G. Smith Watkins, 166;
  • Phillip Ruddier, 173
• Lyric Theatre (North Birmingham), 32
• McAllister, Frank, 188
• McArthur, William, 51
• McCarthyism, 186
• McGee, William, 71
• Mclntire, Gordon, 168, 172
• McKee, William, 197
• McKinley, Gilbert, 172
• McKinney, E. B., 170
• McMullen, John, 50
• Macon County, Ala., 44, 50, 54
• McPherson, Charles, 201;
  • and Peterson case, 83–84, 89–90;
  • and ILD, 86–87, 109;
  • NNC and Scottsboro case, 124
• “Magic City.” See Birmingham, Ala.
• Mann Act, 130
• Maplesville, Ala., 130
• Marine Workers’ Industrial Union, (MWIU), 71
• Marshall County, Ala., 17
• Martha Berry School, 63
• Martin, Walker, 132, 169, 172, 173
• Marx, Karl, 205, 222; Communist Manifesto, 94, 107
• Marxism (-Leninism), 93, 129, 136, 179, 191, 207, 196, 199;
  • fusion with Christianity, 108, 196
• Mason, Lucy Randolph, 184
• Mason-Dixon line, xv, 133, 174
• Masons, black, 214
• Massachusetts, 199, 134
• Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 128
• “Matt Owen” (cartoon strip), 96
• Maxey, Fred E., 197, 214;
  • “Pulpit in Print,” 196
• May Day: 1933 battle, 33, 87, 101;
  • 1934 demonstration, 71;
  • 1935 demonstration split into small meetings, 121;
  • 1938 regional conference, 180
• Mayfield, Henry O., 25, 113, 148, 201, 221;
  • travels to Moscow, 95;
  • recollections of union activities, 69, 143;
  • and Workers Alliance, 155;
  • delegate to national convention, 181;
  • cofounds Right to Vote Club, 182
• Meachem, Stewart, Jr., 121
• Meadows, B. W, 55
• Mechanization, in cotton belt, 173, 175
• Memphis, Tenn., 7, 62, 164
• Merriweather, Annie Mae, 166, 168, 229
• Merriweather, Jim Press, 166–67, 168, 229
• Merriweather, Phillip, 166
• Metal Trades Council of Birmingham, 5
• Metal Workers Industrial League, 14, 18
• Middle class, 158, 177, 186;
  • white, 9
• —black, 3, 42, 86, 90, 93, 100, 113, 116, 128, 137, 176;
  • reformism, 9;
  • mixed attitudes regarding shootouts, 52;
  • silence on Murdis Dixon rape, 85;
  • anti-Communism of, 109–10;
  • failure of leadership, 112;
  • and CP, 114, 122, 181;
  • organizations nearly overshadowed by ILD, 119;
  • role in building Democratic South, 180–81;
  • guards voting franchise, 183;
  • and Nazi-Soviet Pact, 190;
  • NAACP loses members, 213;
  • opposes radicals, 226–27. See also Clergy—black; Elite—black
• Migration: from North, 3;
  • from countryside, 3, 8–9, 28, 37, 174–75;
  • from Europe, 3–4, 27;
  • to North, 8, 224;
  • radical immigrants and CP, 228
• Miles Memorial College, 202–4
• Military Intelligence Division, U.S., 86
• Militias, black, 231
• Millbrook, Ala., 216
• Miller, Benjamin M., 42–43, 50, 79, 89–90
• Mills, 1, 3–4, 8;
  • steel, 2, 220;
  • cutbacks in, 57, 69
• Millstone, George, 132
• Milner, Estelle, 22, 39, 42
• Mine Mill. See International Union of Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers
• Miner, Dosie, 41
• Miners, 61, 63–64, 67–69, 136, 138, 146, 213;
  • coal, 2, 5, 121;
  • ore, 5;
  • hours, 57;
  • and voting rights, 183
• Mines, xii, 1, 3–5, 9, 19, 31;
  • cutbacks in, 57, 69;
  • camps, 60;
  • conditions in, 63;
  • Birmingham area, 65, 68, 213
• Miscegenation, 79
• Mississippi, 13–14, 110, 132, 173, 200
• Mitch, William, 141, 156, 214;
  • UMWA leader, 60–61;
  • and UMWA racial policies, 64;
  • and April 1934 strikes, 65, 121–22;
  • opposes coal strike, 138;
  • forced to resign and warned against red-baiting, 140;
  • appointed regional director of SWOC, 142;
  • opposes sit-down tactics and signs contract with U.S. Steel, 144;
  • claims CIO free of CP members, 190
• Mitchell, H. L., 164, 169–70, 187–88
• Mobile, Ala., 8, 123, 125, 157, 202, 230;
  • Communist work in, xiv;
  • 1934 waterfront strike, 70–71;
  • black migration to, 174;
  • 1943 riot in, 221
• Mobile Register, 125
• Mobile Trades Council, 31
• Modern Bookshop (Birmingham), 132—33, 180, 215
• Molette, Butler, 173
• Molotov, Vyacheslav, 98
• Montevallo College, 48
• Montgomery, Olen, 85
• Montgomery, Viola, 85
• Montgomery, Ala., xiv, 15, 48, 51, 90, 107, 121, 126, 128, 157, 165–66, 178, 188, 222;
  • NAACP branch, 8–9, 42;
  • Unemployed Councils, 44;
  • SCU headquarters moves to, 54;
  • Marxist study circles in, 87;
  • relief workers’ demonstration in, 152–53;
  • SCU headquarters in, 160–61;
  • black migration to, 174;
  • bus boycott, 228
• Montgomery Advertiser, 196
• Montgomery County, Ala., 50, 54, 95, 160, 167;
  • cotton choppers’ strike, 161–62
• Montgomery Improvement Association, 228
• Montgomery Reemployment Service, 165
• Mooney, Tom, 179
• Moore, Robert R., 73, 139
• Morgan County, Ala., 17
• Morrow, Frederick, 213
• Moscow, U.S.S.R., xiv, 29, 80, 113, 138, 160;
  • black CP members visit, 95
• Moser, J. T., 57, 72
• Mosley, Alice, 22, 31
• Mosley, Archie, 95
• Moss, Clinton, 52
• Moss, Sam, 52
• Moss, Thomas, 50
• Moton, Robert Russa, 42, 51
• Mountain Brooks Estates (Birmingham), 2
• Mount Olivet Baptist Church (Chicago), 200
• Mundo, Achmed, 29–30
• Murphy, Al, 49, 52, 55–56, 112, 114;
  • background, 23–25;
  • actions as SCU secretary, 44–45;
  • ideas of black self-determination, 47;
  • member of Liberation Committee, 85;
  • travels to Moscow and works in Brooklyn and Missouri, 95;
  • replaced as SCU leader, 159–60;
  • plan for cotton choppers’ strike, 161;
  • and united front agreement, 164
• Murphy, John G., 29
• Music, of black artists, 201, 208. See also Bessemer Big Four Quartet; Gospel singers; Hymns; Songs; Spirituals
• “My Mother's Got a Stone That Was Hewn Out of the Mountain” (“We Got a Stone”), 105, 149
• Myrdal, Gunnar, 183, 205
• Nashville, Tenn., 198
• Nation, 73, 126, 130
• National Agricultural Workers Union, 170
• National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, 230
• National Anti-Lynching Convention (1930), 81
• National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), xii, xiii, 92, 109, 115, 136, 141, 180, 204, 206, 213;
  • in Alabama, 8–9, 80–81;
  • presence felt after Camp Hill shootout, 42;
  • rivalry with ILD, 78–91 passim;
  • Scottsboro case, 80–81, 86–87, 124;
  • Peterson case, 83–84, 89–90;
  • ignores Murdis Dixon rape, 85;
  • ambivalent interactions with ILD and CP, 123–25;
  • and NNC, 124;
  • and black Communists, 134, 181;
  • rallies supporting SWOC, 142;
  • more activist agenda, 176;
  • and police brutality, 181;
  • weak support of Right to Vote Club, 184;
  • youth councils, 202–3;
  • develops radical program, 212–13;
  • in John Jackson case, 217;
  • CP in shadow of, 219;
  • ally of leftist groups during war, 222;
  • dissolves relations with radicals, 226, 228
• National Committee for People's Rights (NCPR), 178–79, 180, 181–82, 223, 230
• National Committee for the Defense of Political Prisoners (NCDPP), 141, 168, 230;
  • and Downs ordinance, 126;
  • and Joseph Gelders, 130;
  • victory in Bart Logan case, 131;
  • branch merges with NCPR, 178–80
• National Committee for Unity of Rural and Agricultural Workers, 164
• National Committee of Unemployed Councils, 31
• National Committee on Rural Social Planning, 169
• National Communist Election Campaign Committee, 32
• National Congress for Unemployment and Social Insurance (1935), 120
• National Convention on Unemployment (1930), 16
• National Emergency Council (NEC), 184–85
• National Farmers’ Relief Conference (1932), 49
• National Farmers’ Union (NFU), 159, 169, 171–72
• National Federation of Constitutional Liberties, 223
• National Guard, Alabama, 88
• National Hunger Marchers (1932). 31
• National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA), 33, 60–61. See also National Recovery Administration
• Nationalism, black, 195, 207, 224
• National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), 140, 146
• National Labor Union, 4
• National Maritime Union, 221, 227
• National Miners Union (NMU), 60
• National Negro Business League, 108
• National Negro Commission, of CP, 49
• National Negro Congress (NNC), 123—24, 181, 200, 222–23
• National Recovery Administration (NRA), 60, 64–65, 68, 142, 179. See also National Industrial Recovery Act
• National Students League (NSL), 63, 96, 125, 129
• National Youth Administration, 197, 203
• Nazism, 98, 190, 218
• Nazi-Soviet Pact (1939), xv, 218;
  • widespread impact of, 190–92, 195, 197, 202, 212
• “Near the Cross” (“The CIO Workers Song”), 149–50
• Neenah, Ala., 8
• Negro Civic League, 89
• Negro Federation of Women's Clubs, 3
• Negro Liberator, 122
• Negro Masonic Temple (Birmingham), 85, 157–58, 182, 207, 212
• “Negro Question,” 13, 122, 124, 134
• Negro World, 8, 85, 94
• Neighborhood relief committees, 20–23, 69, 76, 136, 220
• New Bethel Baptist Church (Birmingham), 114–15
• New Deal, 53, 56, 59, 63, 70, 120, 129, 147, 155, 159, 176, 188, 195, 197, 203, 224;
  • CP support of, 156;
  • brings changes, 160;
  • causes growth of wage labor, 173;
  • slate of, 178;
  • advocates of, 184;
  • linked with Communists, 186–87
• New England Worker, 133
• New Masses, 126
• New Orleans, La., 31–32, 129, 171, 173, 207, 209, 212;
  • SCU headquarters moves to, 168–69
• New Republic, 73, 126, 130
• News Digest. See Alabama (CIO) News Digest
• New South, 2, 184, 186
• New South, 133, 134, 148, 186, 195
• New Theater Magazine, 126
• New York, N.Y., xiv, 2, 14, 21, 63, 71, 79, 95, 99, 123, 125, 129, 133, 159, 168, 180, 199, 224
• New York Review of Books, xiii
• Niebuhr, Reinhold, 196
• “Night mail” (SCU leaflets), 102
• Nixon, Herman C, 185
• “No Mo’, No Mo’,” 92
• Norris, Clayton, 153
• Norris vs. Alabama, 123
• North, Joseph, xi North, 2–3, 13, 14, 99–100, 109;
  • greater opportunities in, 8, 37, 224;
  • CP organizers from, 14, 30, 126;
  • and CP religious beliefs, 108
• North Birmingham, Ala., 5, 20, 74, 110;
  • Garveyism in, 8;
  • CP election meeting in, 32;
  • KKK beating in, 101
• North Carolina, 14, 59, 133, 178, 217, 225
• Notasulga, Ala., 44, 49, 166
• Nunn, Reverend M., 52
• O'Connell E. T., 189
• Odd Fellows Hall (Birmingham), 180
• Old Pythian Temple (Birmingham), 51
• Oliver, Reverend C. Herbert, 226
• Oliver, Sam W., 52
• O'Neal, Socrates, 111
• O'Neal, W. J., 153
• Opelika, Ala., 222
• Opposition, 22, 100–101, 116, 202, 228;
  • African-American culture of, 93, 99, 195;
  • expressed strongly in workers’ correspondence, 103–5;
  • manifested in music, 105–7. See also Resistance, black; Trickster tradition
• Ordinances, 140, 227. See also Criminal anarchy ordinances; Downs literature ordinance; Section 4902, of Birmingham criminal code; Seditious literature ordinances; Segregation ordinance, Birmingham

• Orrville, Ala., 100, 107
• Osborne, Ollie F., 214–15
• Owens, Jesse G., 70, 76
• Owens, John, 14
• Oxford, Ala., 3
• Oxford, Miss., xv, 180
• Page, Myra, 22, 64, 71, 100, 102
• Paine, Thomas, 122, 133
• Painter, Nell, xii;
  • The Narrative of Hosea Hudson . . ., xv
• Paint Rock, Ala., 23, 78
• Park, Robert, 205
• Parker, Penny, 70
• Parker, W. S., 49–50
• Parks, 185. See also Capitol Park; Exchange Park; Ingram Park; Wilson Park
• Parsons, Lee, 31–32
• Party Builders’ Congress (1938), 203
• Pascagoula, Miss., 125
• Paternalism, racist, 37, 50, 59, 112, 186
• Patrick, Luther, 156, 178, 189
• Patterson, F. D., 202
• Patterson, Haywood, 86–87, 89. See also Scottsboro campaign
• Patterson, T., 41
• Patton, W. C, 141, 206
• Paul Robeson Club, 230 ‘
• Pearson, C. L., 55
• Pellagra, 35
• Peonage, debt, 37, 49
• People's Front, 133
• People's Theater, 207–8
• Perkins, Frances, 67
• Perry County, Ala., 39, 48
• Peterson, Henrietta, 83–84, 90
• Peterson, Willie, 83–84, 87, 89–90, 109, 141
• Pettiford, W. R., 3, 108
• Philanthropists, Southern, 115
• Phillips, Abraham, 168–69
• Phillips High School (Birmingham), 199
• Pippen, Dan, Jr., 88
• Planters, 28, 34, 37, 39, 53–55
• Plays and skits, 208
• Poetry, political, 208–12
• Point Coupee Parish, La., 169
• Poland, 190
• Police, 48, 50, 55, 71, 101, 103, 111, 115, 130–31, 136–37, 141, 153, 159, 166, 174, 215;
  • repression, 15–16, 72–73, 76, 82, 86, 120, 122, 218, 227;
  • with White Legion, 33, 71;
  • with KKK, 33, 85;
  • in Camp Hill shootout, 41–42;
  • with vigilantes, 41–42, 45, 51, 62, 88, 121, 123, 154, 162–64;
  • company, 58, 60, 65, 67–68, 142, 154, 213;
  • brutality, 61, 123, 181, 196, 199, 206, 216, 217, 221;
  • conduct waves of arrests, beatings, and raids, 71–73, 121;
  • fatal shootings by, 81, 123;
  • threaten undertaker for Reeltown victims, 110;
  • and antilynching bill, 180;
  • and segregation ordinance, 185–86;
  • and Section 4902, 214–15;
  • arrest SNYC conference delegates, 226
• Politburo, CP, 135
• Politics, 179, 185, 192;
  • social history of, xi;
  • class-based, xii, 109;
  • Southern “Jazz Age,” 7–8;
  • Popular Front, 11, 158;
  • racial, 80, 116;
  • CP approach to, 81, 131;
  • united front, 84, 119;
  • racial-sexual, 85;
  • world, 93;
  • and religion, 107;
  • CP vs. black leaders, 111–12;
  • reform, 115;
  • liberal, 136;
  • black issue-oriented, 158;
  • and SCU's decline, 159;
  • Alabama, 169–70;
  • Southern Communists standing in, 177;
  • Democratic, 177, 180;
  • coalition, 177, 192;
  • CP isolation, 178;
  • electoral, 182;
  • new conservative climate, 188–89;
  • foreign policy, 191;
  • Red Scare, 218;
  • antinuclear, 225
• Poll tax, 133, 139, 148, 155, 180, 185, 191, 208–14;
  • used to block voter registration, 182, 184. See also Anti-poll-tax movement
• Popular Front, xiv, 105, 114, 119, 125, 128, 131, 133, 135–38, 145, 151, 152, 160, 175, 182, 195, 218;
  • international Communism enters era of, 119;
  • CP strategy of, 155–56;
  • limitations, 158;
  • damage to, 176;
  • refashioned in United States, 177;
  • experiment kept alive, 192, 224;
  • CP loses mass base during, 227–28
• Populists, 4, 37, 122, 231;
  • tradition in northern Alabama, 17, 28
• Porter, William G., 42
• Post-Reconstruction era, 37, 177
• Powers, Foster, 217
• Pratt City, Ala., 121, 186, 213
• Pratt Coal and Coke Company, 1
• Press: labor, 8, 94;
  • CP, 45–46, 82, 84–85, 94, 96, 115;
  • Southern, 52;
  • sensationalism, 72;
  • linked CP to Shades Valley assaults, 82–83;
  • black, 94, 111
• Price, Arthur, Jr., 216
• Price, Victoria, 78, 90. See also Scottsboro campaign
• Prichard, Ala., 8
• Progressive party, 224, 226–27, 228
• Progressives, 133, 137, 176, 186, 178. See also Liberals, white Southern
• Progressive Voters League, 228
• Property qualifications, for voting, 213
• Prosser, Gabriel, 47, 135
• Protestants, 7
• Queenie, Boykin, 70
• Quilting, 205
• Quirt, Michael, 96
• Race, xiii, 7–8, 20, 23, 40, 69, 79–80, 82, 91, 107, 111, 112, 135, 142, 145, 165, 192, 207, 221;
  • prevalence of, xii, 2, 5;
  • prejudice, 28, 134;
  • language of, 29;
  • war, 30;
  • and tenancy, 35;
  • “question,” 83, 134;
  • Aryan, 110;
  • leaders, 220, 224;
  • relations, 223;
  • consciousness, 228
• Radcliffe College, 199
• Radios, 94, 149
• Rameau, P. Colfax, 110
• Ramsay, Erskine, 2
• Randolph County, Ala., 52, 161
• Rank-and-file committees, 64–65, 67, 69, 76, 119, 121, 145, 147, 229
• Rape, xiv, 62, 77–79, 88, 90;
  • Augusta Williams, Nell Williams, and Jennie Wood, 82–83;
  • Murdis Dixon, 85;
  • Recy Taylor, 223
• Rapier, James T., 4
• Reconstruction era, 17, 25, 39, 99, 100, 231
• Recreation, 185, 200
• “Red and the Reverend, The” (diatribe by YCL member), 111
• Red-baiting, 140, 146, 148, 156, 188, 195, 226;
  • and unemployed councils, 155;
  • in CYS, 198;
  • of NAACP, 226
• Red Cross, 115;
  • relief rolls in Jefferson County, 9;
  • and Birmingham relief needs, 20;
  • opposition to, 20, 22, 33
• “Red diaper babies,” 203
• Red Hammer, 17
• “Red Menace, The” (Birmingham Trades Council editorial), 138
• Red Mountain, Ala., 146, 227
• Red Ore Miners, 146
• Red Scare, 218, 224. See also Little Red Scare
• Red Squad, of Birmingham police, 72–73
• Reece, Florence, 105
• Reed, Reverend George W., 114–15
• Reeltown, Ala., 49–52, 110, 230
• Reemployment agency (Birmingham), 55
• Regional Labor Board, of NRA, 64, 68
• Regions: midwest and northeast, xii, 171;
  • northern Alabama, xiv, 17;
  • Birmingham-Bessemer industrial area, xiv, 21, 121;
  • Great Lakes, 2;
  • Appalachia, 39, 138;
  • Gulf Coast, 70, 170, 175;
  • southeast, 174. See also Black belt; Cotton belt; Eastern piedmont; North; South
• Relief Councils, farmers’, 38
• Relief rolls, 9–10, 54
• Relief workers, 70;
  • demonstrations and strikes of, 30–31, 152–54, 165;
  • strikes on federal projects discouraged, 138;
  • poor working conditions and wages of, 152;
  • organized by CP, 154–55;
  • difficulties of dealing with WPA, 156–57;
  • increased militancy of, 158
• Relief Workers’ League (RWL), 70
• Religion, 181;
  • role in CP, 107–8;
  • and black CP members, 114–15;
  • seen as way to approach masses in South, 135;
  • black traditions absorbed by union, 148–49;
  • social gospel, 196. See also Christianity; Clergy
• Reno, Milo, 169
• Republicanism, American, 17, 28, 61
• Republic Iron and Steel Company, 1, 65, 67, 68, 179
• Resistance, black, 93, 228;
  • rural tactics, 37, 44–45;
  • cunning forms of, 101–2;
  • and church, 107. See also Opposition; Trickster tradition
• Revolution, 13, 16, 103–4, 135, 226;
  • sexual, 79;
  • ordered from Moscow, 80;
  • in South, 100, 133;
  • John L. Lewis connected with, 140;
  • of black youth, 202;
  • social, 210;
  • civil rights, 228;
  • of 1960s, 230
• Revolutionary Policy Committee, 120
• Richard, J. B., 168–69
• Richardson, Thomas, 207
• Richmond, Va., 200–201, 207
• Rickets, 35
• Right to Vote Club, 201–2, 214, 230;
  • founding, activities, and collapse, 182–84;
  • educational function resumes, 213
• Riot, race, 221
• Rittenberg, Sidney, 199, 218
• Roach and Johnson (law firm), 84
• Roberts, Henry, 168
• Robertson, Tom, 81
• Robinson, Reid, 145, 214
• Rock Hill, S.C., 53
• Rome, Louis, 123
• Rome, Ga., 63, 159
• Roosevelt, Eleanor, 157, 184, 185
• Roosevelt, Franklin D., 53, 152, 157, 159, 177, 184, 221;
  • election of, 129;
  • reelection of, 131–33;
  • and Supreme Court, 132;
  • SCU group meets with, 168;
  • gives private hearing to Joe Gelders, 185
• Rosengarten, Dale, and Theodore Rosengarten: All God's Dangers, xv
• Ross, Mike, 145–46
• Ross, Nat, 44, 86, 108, 120, 129;
  • background, 25;
  • argues against CP rejection of prejudiced whites, 28;
  • reassesses CP, 74, 76;
  • replaced by Rob Hall, 125;
  • returns as CPUSA Southern director, 225
• Rubber workers, 140–41
• Ruddier, Phillip, 173
• Rural committees, of SNYC, 203, 205
• Rural Resettlement Administration, 168
• Russell Saw Mill, 40
• Russian Jewish background, 25, 27
• Russian Revolution, 27, 98
• Russians, 78, 100
• St. Clair County, Ala., 17, 39
• St. James Church (Birmingham), 111
• St. Landry Parish, La., 168–69
• Sanders, Dobbie, 102, 112
• Sartain, R. H., 169, 171
• Scales, Junius, 217
• School for Democracy, of APEA, 223
• Schwab, Irving, 43, 51, 88
• Scott, James C, 103
• Scottsboro campaign, 23, 32, 42–43, 74, 77, 109–10, 115, 124, 139;
  • arrest and sentencing, 78;
  • demonstrations, 79;
  • ILD vs. NAACP in, 79–81, 86–87;
  • Patterson conviction, 86–87;
  • Supreme Court reverses Alabama verdict, 123;
  • Alabama urged to drop case, 147;
  • SCHW resolution on, 185;
  • sets precedent for Nora Wilson case, 216
• “Scottsboro Song, The,” 105, 149
• Scottsboro: The Firebrand of Communism (polemic by white Alabamians), 79–80
• Sears, Ed, 67
• Sears, Reverend M., 115–16
• Section 4902, of Birmingham criminal code, 72;
  • campaign against, 215–16
• Seditious literature ordinances, 94, 130–31. See also Downs literature ordinance
• Segregation ordinance, Birmingham, 185–86, 188
• Self-determination, black, xiii, 13, 15, 17, 29, 32, 43–44, 46, 47, 56, 74, 92, 160, 211–12;
  • as CP slogan, 122, 225
• Self-help groups, 128
• Selma, Ala., xiv, 21, 90, 162–63, 222
• Senate, U.S. See Congress, U.S.
• Settlements and homes, company-owned, 57–58, 146
• Sewing clubs. See Women's auxiliaries
• Sewing project, WPA, 154, 157
• Sexism, 206–7
• Sexual revolution, 79, 91
• Shades Valley, Ala., 2, 82
• Shamblin, R. L., 88
• Sharecrop Contract, 171, 173
• Sharecroppers, xi, 1, 19, 38–43, 52–55, 74, 81, 92, 95, 102–3, 164–65, 167, 170–71, 174–75;
  • system, 34–37, 208;
  • and armed self-defense, 44–45;
  • and cotton choppers’ strike, 161;
  • distrustful of AFU, 172–73;
  • massive changes disrupt lives of, 175;
  • militance and masks of, 229–30
  • Share Croppers’ Union (SCU), xii, xiv, 32, 36, 71, 82, 94, 100, 103–5, 110, 124–25, 137, 151, 159, 172–73, 176, 178, 220;
  • born out of CFWU, 43;
  • growth and tactics of, 44–45;
  • women's strong involvement in, 46–47;
  • support from poor whites, 47–48;
  • embroiled in Reel-town shootout, 49–52;
  • calls strikes, 54–55;
  • Communist education in, 95–99;
  • “night mail,” 102;
  • decline of, 159;
  • change in leadership, 159–60;
  • executive board, 160, 168, 170–71, 173;
  • growth of, 160–61;
  • 1935 cotton workers'strikes, 161–64, 165–68;
  • alliance sought with STFU, 164, 169–70;
  • efforts to legitimize as trade union, 168–69;
  • merger with STFU opposed, 169–70;
  • alliance and merger with AFU, 170–71, 175;
  • first national convention of, 171;
  • merger with NFU, 171;
  • merger with FLCFWU and UCAPAWA, 173;
  • veterans still optimistic, 174;
  • women's collective organization in, 205;
  • dissolving affects CP demise, 227;
  • and SNCC, 229–30
• Sharecroppers Voice, 170
• Shaw, B. G., 142, 201
• Shelby County, Ala., 38, 154
• Sheppard, Tom, 84
• Sherrill, Charles [pseud. Robert Wood], 121
• Shootings, 68, 82, 83, 123, 165
• Shootouts, 40–42, 48–52
• Shores, Arthur, 181, 183–84, 217
• Shortridge, W. E., 180
• Shotgun houses, 5, 220, 231
• Simmons, Steve, 74, 101
• Simms, Harry [pseud.]. See Hirsch, Harry
• Simpson, James, 177
• Simpson, Judson, 52
• Sixth Avenue Baptist Church (Birmingham), 111, 213
• Slave insurrection law, 85
• Slaves, 1, 101, 107, 152, 211–12
• Slogans, xiii, 70;
  • Metal Workers Industrial League, 18;
  • anti-Communist, 29, 67;
  • black self-determination, 38, 43, 53, 56, 122, 225;
  • racist, 66, 170;
  • Party units, 68;
  • ILD, 90, 131;
  • Young Pioneers, 96;
  • antiwar, 98, 218;
  • STFU, 164;
  • SCU and AFU, 171;
  • voting rights, 180;
  • antifascist drop, 190;
  • SNYC, 201, 212, 219, 221;
  • of proposed black political party, 222;
  • civil rights and black power, 230
• Sloss-Sheffield Iron and Steel Company, 1, 57, 67–68
• Slum clearance, 185
• Smith, C. Dave, 70, 121, 143, 144
• Smith, Charles, 230
• Smith, John, 181
• Smith, Wesley, 168
• Smithfield, Ala., 5, 180
• Social insurance bill, 18
• Socialism, xii, xv, 76, 95, 119, 212, 195
• Socialist party (SP, SPA), 28, 120–21, 179;
  • active in Alabama during turn of century, 7;
  • rejects association with CP, 120;
  • An Appeal to the Membership of the Socialist Party, 120
• Socialists, 61, 126, 129, 137, 159, 169, 188, 197, 228;
  • Northern, 7;
  • Southern, 7, 120;
  • tradition in northern Alabama, 17, 28;
  • Andrew Forsman runs for senator on ticket, 31;
  • Communists urged to join forces with, 119;
  • and Highlander Folk School, 120;
  • and Workers Alliance, 155;
  • Christian, 195
• Social Order, 109
• Social Problems Club (Columbia University), 125
• “Solidarity Forever,” 99, 105, 136, 150
• Sombart, Werner, xii
• Songs: protest, 105, 135;
  • labor, 105, 149–51;
  • role in oppositional thought, 105–7;
  • work, 107, 201;
  • popular, 136, 150;
  • CP during Popular Front, 136;
  • nursery rhymes, 150
• South, 13, 46, 94, 150, 164, 188, 200;
  • repression in, xii-xiii, 16;
  • Communists in, xiii, 13, 28;
  • effect of Great Depression in cities, 9;
  • migration to urban centers of, 37;
  • realities of, 101;
  • interracial politics in, 112;
  • CP in, 117, 132, 225;
  • Popular Front politics in, 158;
  • Democratic party in, 177;
  • Communist isolation in, 178;
  • proclaimed center of “Negro work,” 181;
  • Democratic Front in, 182, 195;
  • civil liberties conference in, 184–85;
  • social equality in, 190;
  • progress of, 192;
  • Birmingham as CP's last hope in, 202;
  • youth work and poor white and black voters in, 214;
  • compared to Nazi Germany, 219;
  • Communist skepticism in, 221;
  • red-baiting in, 226;
  • “evolved” form of Communism in, 228
• South Africa, xiii, 58
• Southard, Mary, 199, 215
• Southard, Ordway, 199, 223, 224
• Southern Afro-American Industrial Brotherhood, 110
• Southern Christian Leadership Conference, 229
• Southern Commission on the Study of Lynching, 89
• Southern Committee for People's Rights, 178, 184, 215. See also Southern League for People's Rights
• Southern Conference for Human Welfare (SCHW), 190, 199, 201, 212, 214–15, 222, 224, 226, 231;
  • debut, 185;
  • CP reactions toward, 186;
  • charged with Communist domination, 186–90;
  • attacked for resolution opposing segregation laws, 188–89;
  • split by Soviet actions, 190–91;
  • civil rights committee, 191, 214–15;
  • criticized by Rob Hall, 192;
  • relationship to CYS, 197–98;
  • and anti-poll-tax drive, 214;
  • Victory Mobilization Day, 218;
  • CP in shadow of, 219;
  • temporarily folds, 222;
  • chapter reestablished, 223;
  • called Communist front, 225
• Southern Farmer, 224
• Southern Labor Review, 8, 140, 226
• Southern League for People's Rights, 178
• Southern Negro Youth Congress (SNYC): 220, 223, 225–27;
  • launching of, 181, 200;
  • injects new life into radical movement, 197;
  • LYS acts in concert with, 199;
  • conferences, 200–202;
  • shares vision with LYS, 202;
  • motivations of activists in, 203;
  • black female leaders in, 203–7;
  • and CP, 207–12, 219, 228;
  • Cavalcade, 208–11;
  • Communist participation in, 212;
  • voter registration and anti-poll-tax drive, 212–14;
  • Right to Vote rally, 213;
  • co-organizes Alabama Youth Legislature, 214;
  • Nora Wilson case, 216;
  • in police brutality cases, 216–17;
  • in anti-Hitler campaign, 218–19;
  • Double V program, 221;
  • sheds youth-oriented image, 222;
  • Eighth Congress, 226;
  • former activists in Montgomery bus boycott, 228
• Southern News Almanac, 195–97, 218–19, 223
• Southern Organizing Committee for Economic and Social Justice, 230–31
• Southern Policy Committee (SPC), 184–85
• Southern Tenant Farmers’ Union (STFU), 159, 164, 165, 169–70, 187
• Southern Worker, 38–41, 46, 73, 85, 94, 106, 111, 120, 135, 179, 196, 208;
  • launched in Chattanooga, 16;
  • replacement planned, 133
• Soviet Union, 15, 48, 99, 100, 120, 125, 141, 146, 220;
  • seen as new “Ethiopia,” 100;
  • invades Finland, 190–91, 197;
  • condemned and defends following Nazi-Soviet Pact, 190–92, 214;
  • German invasion of, 218
• Spain, 177
• Spanish Civil War, 71, 132, 205
• Special Committee on Un-American Activities. See Dies Committee
• Speed, Jane, 87, 215;
  • background, 27;
  • arrested, 33, 102;
  • opens Marxist bookstore, 132–33;
  • delegate to national convention, 181
• Speed, Mary Martin Craik, 27
• Spies. See Informants
• Spirituals, 107, 135–36, 201
• Stalin, Joseph, xi, xiv, 98, 100, 110, 140;
  • Foundations of Leninism, 129
• “Stand up for Jesus” (“Stand Up! Ye Workers,” 151
• Stanley, Hazel, 182
• Starnes, Joe, 178, 189
• Steel and Metal Workers’ Industrial Union, 60
• Steele, John, 153
• Steel industry, 25, 68, 142
• Steelman, J. R., 89
• Steel workers, 2–3, 5, 65, 68–69, 136, 142–44, 227–28;
  • hours, 57
• Steel Workers Organizing Committee (SWOC), 190;
  • launched, 142;
  • black workers active in, 142–43;
  • white workers defect to, 143;
  • oppose sit-down tactics, 144;
  • gain strength, 144;
  • transformed by black workers, 148;
  • importance of singing in, 149–51
• Stick Together Club, 128
• Stockham Pipe and Fittings Company, 24, 60
• Stock market crash (1929), 7, 9, 34, 108
• Stone, Olive, 48, 178
• Strikebreaking, 121, 165, 208
• Strikes: outside Alabama, 59, 63, 125, 138, 140, 221;
  • sit-down, 140, 144, 168–69, 201
• —in Alabama: led by Knights of Labor, 4;
  • of Alabama workers (1881—1936), 5;
  • coal miners’, 5, 138;
  • in iron ore mines, 6;
  • cotton pickers’, 48, 54–55, 96, 164–68, 229–30;
  • Mine Mill, 67–68, 146;
  • Birmingham laundry workers’, 121–22;
  • wildcat, on WPA projects, 138;
  • first sit-down, 144;
  • unauthorized, 144;
  • relief workers’, 153–54;
  • antigovernment, 153–54;
  • women's sewing project, 154;
  • cotton choppers’, 161–64, 165;
  • dairy workers’ and plow hands’, 163;
  • at Republic Steel, 179. See also Strike wave
• Strike wave (1934), xiv, 79, 113, 119, 129, 138, 152;
  • in coal, steel, and iron industries, 64–69;
  • laundry, packinghouse, CCC, and textile workers, 70;
  • longshoremen, 70–71;
  • opponents blame CP, 71;
  • vigilante assaults during, 74;
  • CP's role assessed, 74, 76
• Strong, Augusta. See Jackson, Augusta
• Strong, Ed, 202–6, 213–14;
  • on CYS executive board, 197;
  • background and plan for youth conference, 200;
  • helps launch CYS, 201;
  • reelected SNYC executive secretary, 202;
  • joins armed forces, 221;
  • leaves Alabama, 224
• Strong, Nathan, 67
• Student Christian Association, 205
• Student Christian Movement, 198
• Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), 229–30
• Study groups, 94, 96, 129
• Suffrage, 125, 136, 184, 208;
  • woman, 6;
  • NAACP campaign, 212;
  • SNYC campaign, 213–14. See also Voter registration; Voting rights
• Supreme Court: Alabama, 89;
  • U.S., 89, 123, 132, 134
• Survival strategies, 19, 22–23, 59, 103
• Sylacauga, Ala., 42
• Taggart, Ernest W., 87, 89, 124–25, 134
• “Tah Rah Rah Boom Dee Ay” (altered), 150
• Talbert, Comit, 55
• Talladega College, 202
• Talladega County, Ala., 203
• Tallapoosa County, Ala., xiv, 22–23, 36, 44, 47, 55, 96, 98, 104, 110, 160–61, 172–73, 205, 223;
  • CFWU launched in, 39;
  • scene of shootouts, 39–43, 49–51;
  • cotton workers’ strikes, 55, 161, 167;
  • UCAPAWA in, 174
• Tallapoosa County Youth Council, 205
• Tarrant City, Ala., 70, 73, 76, 121, 126, 168
• Tarrant City Relief Workers League, 143
• Tasker, Capitola, 44, 47, 95, 161
• Tasker, Charles, 44, 95, 161, 165, 166
• Taub, Allan, 88
• Taylor, Ed, 217
• Taylor, Glen, 226
• Taylor, Myron C, 144
• Taylor, Recy, 223
• Taylor, Wirt, 26, 31
• Temperance movement, 8
• Temple Beth Or (Montgomery), 48, 87–88
• Tenant farmers, xii, 34–40, 42–43, 47, 49, 51, 53–55, 165, 170–71, 174;
  • cash, 34;
  • share, 34;
  • evictions of, 161;
  • distrustful of AFU, 172–73;
  • massive changes disrupt lives of, 175
• Tennessee, 14, 16, 32, 120, 126, 133, 179
• Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad Company (TCI), 14, 57, 59–61, 65–67, 74, 110–11, 131, 154, 213;
  • size, 1;
  • controls workers’ lives, 5;
  • crushes 1920 strike and UMWA, 5;
  • shuts down blast furnaces, 9;
  • welfare system, 19;
  • builds and maintains segregated churches, 112;
  • and labor unions, 143–44;
  • ordered to reinstate miners, 146. See also Crawford, George Gordon
• Texas, 7, 15, 177
• Textile workers, 4, 59, 70
• Thaelmann, Ernst, 98
• Theater, 207–8
• Third International, xi
• Third Period, of Communism, 93, 105, 108, 119, 151
• “This What the Union Done,” 57
• Thomas, J. Parnell, 186
• Thomas, Norman, 129, 179, 197
• Thompson, A. J., 41
• Thompson, Louise, 71, 79
• Tobacco Stemmers and Laborers Industrial Union, 201
• Tories, 122
• Toussaint L'Ouverture, 46, 96
• Trade Unions. See Unions
• Trade Union Unity League (TUUL), 14, 23, 38, 60, 63
• Trickster tradition, 102, 114. See also Opposition; Resistance, black
• Trotsky, Leon, 29, 188, 224
• Tug well, Rex, 125
• Turner, Henry McNeil, 3, 23
• Turner, Nat, 46–47, 96
• Turney, Pete, 111
• Tuscaloosa, Ala., 8, 23, 68, 70, 84, 129;
  • scene of lynchings, 88–89
• Tuscaloosa Citizens’ Protective League, 88
• Tuskegee Institute, 42, 50–51, 202
• Underground: status, xii;
  • activities, 11;
  • status of CP, 119, 129, 131, 151, 158;
  • SCU, 159, 168;
  • Birmingham, 160;
  • Montgomery, 161. See also Literature—Communist; Opposition
• Underwood, Anderson, 149
• Unemployed councils, 31, 44, 76, 100, 158, 220;
  • demonstrate against Red Cross, 20;
  • tactics against evictions and utility cutoffs, 21;
  • white women in, 22;
  • merge with Workers Alliance, 155;
  • tactics and strategies emulated, 156
• Union Leader: A Voice of the White and Negro Farm Toilers of the South, 163
• Union Leagues, 231
• Unions, 40, 181, 221;
  • in Birmingham area in 1880s, 4;
  • in Alabama coal fields, 4–5;
  • fought for reforms after World War I, 7–8;

  • and CP during 1934 strike wave, 57–76 passim;
  • company, 67–68, 122, 143;
  • activity in Louisiana, 168–69. See also Brotherhood of Captive Miners; Employee Representation Plan; Labor, organized; Labor movement; Organizers; Red Ore Miners; Strikes; names of individual unions
• Union Theological Seminary, 198
• Uniontown, Ala., 8, 39
• United Cannery, Agricultural, Packing, and Allied Workers of America (UCAPAWA), 173–75
• United Farmers’ League, 18, 38
• United front, 160, 164, 169, 171, 179
• United May Day committees, 121
• United Mine Workers of Alabama (UMW), 4
• United Mine Workers of America (UMWA), 138–39, 141, 143–44, 148, 151, 231;
  • early history in Alabama, 4–5;
  • and NIRA, 60–61;
  • racial policies of, 64;
  • and wage code, 64–65;
  • launches voter registration drives, 147;
  • constitution of, 190
• United Office and Professional Workers Union, 225
• United Rubber Workers of America (URWA), 140–41
• United States, 122;
  • CP goals for, 117;
  • Communist isolation in, 178;
  • Popular Front in, 177;
  • intervention in European politics, 191;
  • verses on failures of, 208—12;
  • racism at home and abroad, 221
• U.S. Army, 128, 204, 222, 225
• U.S. Government. See Federal government
• U.S. Pipe Company, 17, 60
• U.S. Postmaster General, 168
• United States Steel, 5, 144
• United Steel Workers of America, 221, 227–28
• Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA), 8. See also Garveyism; Negro World
• University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa, 125, 129
• University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 178, 185, 199
• Uprisings, 38, 152
• Varsity Review, 125
• Vesey, Denmark, 47, 96
• Veterans, military, 213, 225
• Vigilance committees, CP, 22
• Vigilantes, 50, 54, 55, 94, 101, 121, 125, 137, 142, 165–66, 176;
  • with police, 41–42, 62, 74, 85, 123, 131, 162–64;
  • and Robertson lynchings, 81;
  • with KKK, 85;
  • and Joseph Gelders, 130–31;
  • and antilabor repression, 140;
  • flog elderly women, 166;
  • resisted, 167
• Vincent, Ala., 38
• Violence, xii-xiii, 8–9, 101, 137, 213. See also Evictions; Lynching and murder; May Day; Police; Rape; Riot, race; Shootings; Shootouts; Strikes—in Alabama; Strike wave; Uprisings; Vigilantes
• Virginia, 133, 178, 197
• Virginia Bridge and Iron Company, 68
• Virginia Union University, 200
• Voter registration, 212, 231;
  • drives, workshops, and other preparations, 147, 182–83, 201, 213, 221;
  • slogan, 180;
  • methods used to limit, 182–83;
  • Right to Vote Club petition, 183–84;
  • of veterans, 225;
  • and SNCC in Lowndes County, 229–30
• Voting requirements: residency, 182;
  • literacy, 182, 213
• Voting rights, 182–85, 200, 213–14, 223;
  • slogan, 180;
  • legislation supports, 225
• Wage Hour Act, 172
• Wage labor, 4, 161, 170, 173
• Wages, 111, 122, 156, 171, 174, 190, 212;
  • differentials in, 40, 64, 152, 225;
  • for picking cotton, 43, 165;
  • cuts in, 57–59, 153;
  • minimum, 64–65, 152–53;
  • rates, 152–53;
  • increases in, 154, 161, 163;
  • demanded in cotton pickers’ strike, 164–65, 167
• Wagner-Van Nuys antilynching bill, 180
• Walker County, Ala., 17, 63, 138, 153, 170–72
• Wallace, Henry, 226–27
• Wall Street, 122, 177, 191
• Ware, Dowdle, 50
• Washington, Booker T., 3, 108, 111
• Washington, Robert, 162
• Washington, D.C., 29, 31, 49, 168, 172, 205, 215, 224
• Waterfront strikes. See Longshoremen
• Watkins, G. Smith, 166, 168, 229
• Waverly, Ala., 38, 222
• “We Are Climbing Jacob's Ladder,” 136
• Weekly Review, 110
• Weems, Ruby: “The Murder of Ralph Gray,” 46
• Welch Brothers (undertakers), 110–11
• Weller, Paul, 71
• Wellman, Ted [pseud. Sid Benson], 28, 120, 129;
  • CP district leader, 25;
  • reassesses CP, 74, 76;
  • heads Tennessee party, 133
• “We Shall Not Be Moved,” 99, 105, 136, 149
• West, Belle. See Logan, Belle
• West, Don, 63, 126, 197;
  • “The Awakening Church,” 196
• West, Mabel Jones, 189
• Western Federation of Miners, 65
• Western Union, 72
• West Highland Jubilee Singers, 149
• West Point, Ga., 52
• White, Alf, 52
• White, M.D.L., 183
• White, Walter, xiii, 123–24, 213;
  • and Camp Hill sharecroppers, 42–43;
  • and Scottsboro case, 80, 86–87;
  • and Peterson case, 83–84, 89;
  • fearful of Communist links, 228
• White-collar workers, 156–57
• White Legion, 76, 79, 120, 121–22, 188;
  • with KKK, 33;
  • with police, 33, 71;
  • fights Communism, 73
• Whites: poor, 9, 99, 125, 132, 182, 211, 214, 218;
  • in CP, 30, 112–13, 207;
  • supremacy, 93, 142–43, 170, 188, 226;
  • Southern, 3–4, 28, 30, 117. See also Chauvinism, in CP; Liberals, white Southern
• Wicks, Harry, 44
• Wiggins, Ella May, 105
• Wilcox County, Ala., 38
• Wildcat strikes, 138, 156
• Wilkins, Roy, 84
• Williams, Aubrey, 224
• Williams, Augusta, 82
• Williams, Claude, 196
• Williams, Dent, 83
• Williams, Eugene B., 209–11
• Williams, Frank, 23
• Williams, Nell, 82–83
• Wilmore, Gayraud, 107
• Wilson, Adrienne, 216
• Wilson, Homer, 146
• Wilson, J. M., 41
• Wilson, Nora, 216
• Wilson Park (Birmingham), 16
• Winston, Henry, 200
• Winston County, Ala., 17, 170–71
• Witcher, Willie, 165–66, 229
• Wobblies, xi, 228. See also Industrial Workers of the World
• “Woman question,” 99, 206–7
• Women: housewives, xi, 92;
  • leave farms to work in Birmingham area, 4;
  • effects of economic downturn upon, 21;

  • hard lives in cotton culture, 36;
  • labor exploited, 59;
  • role in 1934 strike wave, 69;
  • equality of, 120;
  • encouraged and discouraged in CP, 136;
  • ignored in political vision, 211
• —black, 88, 209–10;
  • compared with men in sharecropping, 36;
  • in company communities, 69;
  • vs. white women, 79;
  • march in support of jury rights, 123
• —black, in CP, 79;
  • drawn to CP by relief needs, 21–22;
  • strong role in campaigns, 33;
  • strong role in SCU distorted, 46;
  • presumed promiscuity of, 85;
  • raise children to be Communists, 96;
  • methods of distributing literature, 102;
  • young, well-educated SNYC leadership, 203–7;
  • more concerned with racism than with sexism, 206. See also Chauvinism, in CP; Share Croppers’ Union; Southern Negro Youth Congress
• —black working: in Birmingham, 4;
  • regarded as unorganizable and unimportant, 6;
  • in laundry workers’ strike (1935), 121;
  • in sewing project strike, 154;
  • treated badly on WPA projects, 154, 156–57
• —white, 36, 78, 82, 88, 90, 189, 216;
  • middle-class initiate reform movement, 6;
  • “most precious property,” 29, 79, 85;
  • tenant farmers attend SCU meetings, 47;
  • urged to work as strike breakers, 121
• —white, in CP, 22;
  • roles in CP, 26–27;
  • and black men, 79;
  • presumed promiscuity of, 85;
  • concerns and grievances of, 206. See also Chauvinism, in CP
• —white working: in Birmingham, 4;
  • attracted to unemployed councils, 22
  • Women's auxiliaries, 44, 46, 47, 52, 69
• Women's International Congress against War and Fascism (1934), 47, 95
• Wood, A. W, 111
• Wood, Jennie, 82
• Woodlawn, Ala., 5, 82
• Woodruff, R. E., 165–66
• Woodward Iron Company, 1, 57, 67
• Work, Monroe, 52
• Workers: industrial, xi;
  • iron, 2–3;
  • lumber, 4, 40;
  • bakery, 60;
  • laundry, 60, 70, 121–22;
  • packinghouse, 70;
  • correspondence published in tabloids, 103–7, 133, 196;
  • domestic, 156–57, 184, 203;
  • dairy, 159, 163;
  • plow-hands, 163;
  • tobacco, 201;
  • dock, 221. See also Relief workers; Rubber workers; Steel workers; Textile workers
• —black, xii, 4, 9–10, 93, 109, 112, 116, 134, 147, 157, 190, 208, 212;
  • numbers in mines and mills, 2;
  • in UMWA, 5;
  • relations with white workers, 6, 28, 139;
  • evaluation of CP from afar, 99;
  • and industrial organizing, 141–42;
  • strongest adherents of SWOC, 142–43;
  • given toughest tasks in steel industry, 143;
  • stage Alabama's first sit-down strikes, 143;
  • transform unions, 148–49;
  • and importance of songs in labor movement, 149–51;
  • CIO alternative to CP for, 151;
  • and WPA, 152–58;
  • encouraged to register to vote, 155;
  • alienated by CP's moderate turn, 158;
  • responsible for increased civil rights militancy, 192;
  • in 1943 Mobile riot, 221
• —white, xiii, 9–10, 128, 139, 190;
  • relations with black workers, 6, 28, 139, 143;
  • in textile industry, 59;
  • in rubber industry, 141;
  • and SWOC, 142–43;
  • and company union, 144, 146;
  • some attracted to Mine Mill, 146

  • in WPA demonstration, 153;
  • flight from Workers Alliance, 155–56;
  • in Mobile riot, 221;
  • secessionists in Mine Mill, 227
• Workers Alliance of America, xiv, 155–58, 202–3
• Workers School (New York), 95, 129
• Working class, xii-xiii, 101, 146–47, 221;
  • CP emphasis returns to, 195;
  • youth, 201. See also Workers
• Working Woman, 22, 46, 47, 94
• Working Woman Club, 128
• Works Progress Administration (WPA), 138, 146, 151, 203;
  • launching of and uprisings on projects, 152;
  • layoffs, low wages, and poor working conditions, 152, 154, 157;
  • strikes, 153–54;
  • withdrawal of Hod Carriers from, 154;
  • and CP reorganizing of workers, 155;
  • and Workers Alliance, 155–58;
  • imposes difficulties on black women, 157;
  • ironic position of CPUSA toward, 158;
  • demonstrations of Montgomery workers, 165;
  • discriminatory hiring practice reversed, 174
• Work Together Clubs, of NNC, 222
• World Congresses, of Communist International: sixth (1928), 13;
  • seventh (1935), 95, 119, 122, 129, 160, 169
• World War I, 19, 34, 37, 98, 107, 128;
  • postwar period, 5, 7–8
• World War II, xv, 124, 146–47, 210, 214, 220–22, 226;
  • “imperialist war,” 190;
  • postwar period, 223–24
• World Youth Conference (1936), 200
• Wright, Ada, 87
• Yankees, 99, 230
• YMCA College, 200
• Young, Art, 135
• Young, Kyle, 41, 50
• Young Communist League (YCL), 18, 23, 30, 43, 44, 47, 70, 95–96, 99, 104, 111, 123–24, 126, 129, 199, 200, 205, 230
• Young Pioneer, 96
• Young Pioneers, 96, 99, 230
• Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA), 6, 87, 136
• Young Worker, 94, 96, 102, 104
• Youth, xi, 197, 202, 214;
  • white, 92;
  • black, 96, 200–201, 202, 203, 210, 213
• Youth Congress. See Southern Negro Youth Congress
• Youth councils. See National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
• Youth V for Victory Committee, of LYS, 218