If the Socialist propaganda among Negroes is to be effectively carried
on, the members and leaders of the party must first understand the
Negro's attitude toward Socialism. That attitude finds its first
expression in ignorance. The mass of the Negro people in America are
ignorant of what Socialism means. For this they are not much to blame.
Behind the veil of the color line none of the great world-movements
for social betterment have been able to penetrate. Since it is not
yet the easiest task to get the white American worker—with all his
superior intellect—to see Socialism, it is but natural to expect that
these darker workers to whom America denies knowledge should still be
in ignorance as to its aims and objects.
Besides, the Negroes of America—those of them who think—are suspicious
of Socialism as of everything that comes from the white people of
America. They have seen that every movement offer the extension of
democracy here has broken down as soon as it reached the color line.
Political democracy declared that "all men are created equal," meant
only all white men. The Christian church found that the brotherhood of
man did not include God's bastard children. The public school system
proclaimed that the school house was the backbone of democracy—"for
white people only," and the civil service says that Negroes must keep
their place—at the bottom. So that they can hardly be blamed for
looking askance at any new gospel of freedom. Freedom to them has been
like one of
"those juggling fiends.
That palter with us in a double sense;
That keep the word of promise to our ear,
And break it to our hope."
In this connection, some explanation of the former political
solidarity of those Negroes who were voters may be of service. Up to
six years ago the one great obstacle to the political progress of the
colored people was their sheep-like allegiance to the Republican
party. They were taught to believe that God had raised up a peculiar
race of men called Republicans who had loved the slaves so tenderly
that they had taken guns in their hands and rushed on the ranks of the
southern slaveholders to free the slaves; that this race of men was
still in existence, marching under the banner of the Republican party
and showing their great love for Negroes by appointing from six to
sixteen near-Negroes to soft political snaps. Today that great
political superstition is falling to pieces before the advance of
intelligence among Negroes. They begin to realize that they were sold
out by the Republican party in 1876; that in the last twenty-five
years lynchings have increased, disfranchisement has spread all over
the south and "jim-crow" cars run even into the national capital—with
the continuing consent of a Republican congress, a Republican Supreme
Court and Republican presidents.
Ever since the Brownsville affair, but more clearly since Taft
declared and put in force the policy of pushing out the few near-Negro
officeholders, the rank and file have come to see that the Republican
party is a great big sham. Many went over to the Democratic party
because, as the =Amsterdam News= puts it, "they had nowhere else to
go." Twenty years ago the colored men who joined that party were
ostracized as scalawags and crooks—which they probably were. But
today, the defection to the Democrats of such men as Bishop Waiters,
Wood, Carr and Langston—whose uncle was a colored Republican
congressman from Virginia—has made the colored democracy respectable
and given quite a tone to political heterodoxy. All this loosens the
bonds of their allegiance and breaks the bigotry of the last forty
years. But of this change in their political view-point the white
world knows nothing. The two leading Negro newspapers are subsidized
by the same political pirates who hold the title-deeds to the handful
of hirelings holding office in the name of the Negro race. One of
these papers is an organ of Mr. Washington, the other pretends to be
independent—that is, it must be "bought" on the installment plan, and
both of them are in New York.
Despite this "conspiracy of silence" the Negroes are waking up; are
beginning to think for themselves; to look with more favor on "new
doctrines." And herein lies the open opportunity of the Socialist
party. If the work of spreading Socialist propaganda is taken to them
now, their ignorance of it can be enlightened and their suspicions
removed.
The Duty of The Socialist Party.
I think that we might embrace the opportunity of taking the matter up
at the coming national convention. The time is ripe for taking a stand
against the extensive disfranchisement of the Negro in violation of
the plain provisions of the national constitution. In view of the fact
that the last three amendments to the constitution contain the clause,
"Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate
legislation," the party will not be guilty of proposing anything worse
than asking the government to enforce its own "law and order." If the
Negroes, or any other section of the working class in America, is to
be deprived of the ballot, how can they participate with us in the
class struggle? How can we pretend to be a political party if we fail
to see the significance of this fact?
Besides, the recent dirty diatribes against the Negro in a Texas
paper, which is still on our national list of Socialist papers; the
experiences of Mrs. Theresa Malkiel in Tennessee where she was
prevented by certain people from addressing a meeting of Negroes on
the subject of Socialism, and certain other exhibitions of the thing
called southernism, constitute the challenge of caste. Can we ignore
this challenge? I think not. We could hardly afford to have the taint
of "trimming" on the garments of the Socialist party. It is
dangerous—doubly dangerous now, when the temper of the times is
against such "trimming." Besides it would be futile. If it is not met
now it must be met later when it shall have grown stronger. Now, when
we can cope with it, we have the issue squarely presented: Southernism
or Socialism—which? Is it to be the white half of the working class
against the black half, or all the working class? Can we hope to
triumph over capitalism with one-half of the working class against us?
Let us settle these questions now—for settled they must be.
The Negro and Political Socialism.
The power of the voting proletariat can be made to express itself
through the ballot. To do this they must have a political organization
of their own to give form to their will. The direct object of such an
organization is to help them to secure control of the powers of
government by electing members of the working class to office and so
secure legislation in the interests of the working class until such
time as the workers may, by being in overwhelming control of the
government, be able "to alter or abolish it, and to institute a new
government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing
its power in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect
their safety and happiness"—in short, to work for the abolition of
capitalism, by legislation—if that be permitted. And in all this, the
Negro, who feels most fiercely the deep damnation of the capitalist
system, can help.
The Negro and Industrial Socialism.
But even the voteless proletarian can in a measure help toward the
final abolition of the capitalist system. For they too have labor
power—which they can be taught to withhold. They can do this by
organizing themselves at the point of production. By means of such
organization they can work to shorten the hours of labor, to raise
wages, to secure an ever-increasing share of the product of their
toil. They can enact and enforce laws for the protection of labor and
they can do this at the point of production, as was done by the
Western Federation of Miners in the matter of the eight-hour law,
which they established without the aid of the legislatures or the
courts. All this involves a progressive control of the tools of
production and a progressive expropriation of the capitalist class.
And in all this the Negro can help. So far, they are unorganized on
the industrial field, but industrial unionism beckons to them as to
others, and the consequent program of the Socialist party for the
Negro in the south can be based upon this fact.