Sign-In
Cart
Black Liberation / Red Scare: Ben Davis and the Communist Party
Hardcover
Biographies GeneralGeneral Racism & Ethnic StudiesSocial Movements
Publisher Price: $44.99
ISBN13: 9780717808915
Publisher: International Publishers
Published: Mar 12 2021
Pages: 460
Weight: 1.86
Height: 1.19 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
Black Liberation/Red Scare is a study of an African American Communist leader,
Ben Davis, Jr. (1904-64). Though it examines the numerous grassroots campaigns
that he was involved in, it is first and foremost a study of the man and secondarily a
study of the Communist party from the 1930s to the 1960s. By examining the public
life of an important party leader, Gerald Horne uniquely approaches the story of how
and why the party rose and fell.
Ben Davis, Jr., was the son of a prominent Atlanta publisher and businessman who
was also the top African American leader of the Republican party until the onset of
the Great Depression. Davis was trained for the black elite at Morehouse, Amherst,
and Harvard Law School. After graduating from Harvard, he joined the Communist
party, where he remained as one of its most visible leaders for thirty years. In 1943,
after being endorsed by his predecessor, Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., he was elected to
the New York City Council from Harlem and subsequently reelected by a larger
margin in 1945. Davis received support from such community figures as NAACP
leader Roy Wilkins, boxer Joe Louis, and musician Duke Ellington. While on the
council Davis fought for rent control and progressive taxation and struggled against
transit fare hikes and police brutality.
With the onset of the Red Scare and the Cold War, Davis-like the Communist party itself
was marginalized. The Cold War made it difficult for the U.S. to compete with Moscow for
the hearts and minds of African Americans while they were subjected to third-class
citizenship at home. Yet in return for civil rights concessions, African American organizations
such as the NAACP were forced to distance themselves from figures such as Ben Davis. In
1949 he was ousted unceremoniously (and perhaps illegally from the City Council. He was
put on trial, jailed in 1951, and not released until 1956, when the civil rights movement was
gathering momentum. His friendship with the King family, based upon family ties in Atlanta,
was the ostensible cause for the FBI surveillance of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
COINTEL-PRO, the counterintelligence program of the FBI, which was aimed initially at
the CPUSA, made sure to keep a close eye on Davis as well. But when the civil rights
movement reached full strength in the 1960s Davis's controversial appearances at college
campuses helped to set the stage for a new era of activism at universities.
Davis died in 1964. According to Horne, the time has now come when he, along with
his good friend Paul Robeson and W. E. B. DuBois, should be regarded as a premier leader
of African- Americans and the U.S. Left during the twentieth century.
Also from
Horne, Gerald
The Counter Revolution of 1836: Texas slavery & Jim Crow and the roots of American Fascism
Horne, Gerald
Paperback
The Counter-Revolution of 1776: Slave Resistance and the Origins of the United States of America
Horne, Gerald
Paperback
China Changes Everything: An anthology by social justice activists, journalists and commentators
Horne, Gerald
Luqman, Jacqueline
Flounders, Sara
Paperback
The White Pacific: U.S. Imperialism and Black Slavery in the South Seas After the Civil War
Horne, Gerald
Paperback
Facing the Rising Sun: African Americans, Japan, and the Rise of Afro-Asian Solidarity
Horne, Gerald
Hardcover
Storming the Heavens: African Americans and the Early Fight for the Right to Fly
Horne, Gerald
Paperback
The Bittersweet Science: racism, racketeering and the political economy of boxing
Horne, Gerald
Paperback
State of the Union 1994: The Clinton Administration and the Nation in Profile
Horne, Gerald
Caplan, Richard
Feffer, John
Paperback
State of the Union 1994: The Clinton Administration and the Nation in Profile
Feffer, John
Horne, Gerald
Caplan, Richard
Hardcover
Also in
Biographies General
Bluesland: Portraits of Thirteen Major American Blues Masters
Pete Welding (ED.)
Toby Byron (ED.)
Hardcover
Karl Popper - The Formative Years, 1902 1945: Politics and Philosophy in Interwar Vienna
Hacohen, Malachi Haim
Hardcover
The Children of Athena: Greek Intellectuals in the Age of Rome: 150 Bc0-400 AD
Freeman, Charles
Hardcover
Make It a Double: From Wretched to Wondrous: Tales of One Woman's Lifelong Discovery of Whisky
Sackier, Shelley
Hardcover
The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race
Isaacson, Walter
Hardcover
An Enemy Such as This: Larry Casuse and the Fight for Native Liberation in One Family on Two Continents Over Three Centuries
Correia, David
Hardcover
Agents of Chaos: Thomas King Forçade, High Times, and the Paranoid End of the 1970s
Howe, Sean
Hardcover
Someday Mija, You'll Learn the Difference Between a Whore and a Working Woman: A Memoir
Martinez, Yvonne
Paperback
The Secret Life of the Savoy: Glamour and Intrigue at the World's Most Famous Hotel
Williams, Olivia
Paperback
The Badger: The Life of Bernard Hinault and the Legacy of French Cycling
Fotheringham, William
Paperback
The Devil's Diary: Alfred Rosenberg and the Stolen Secrets of the Third Reich
Wittman, Robert K.
Kinney, David
Paperback
Florence Kelley and the Nation's Work: The Rise of Womens Political Culture, 1830-1900
Sklar, Kathryn Kish
Paperback
The Rise and Fall of Anne Boleyn: Family Politics at the Court of Henry VIII
Warnicke, Retha M.
Paperback
A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win World War II
Purnell, Sonia
Hardcover
Living with a Wild God: A Nonbeliever's Search for the Truth about Everything
Ehrenreich, Barbara
Paperback
Seafaring Women: Adventures of Pirate Queens, Female Stowaways, and Sailors' Wives
Cordingly, David
Paperback
The Butcher, the Embezzler, and the Fall Guy: A Family Memoir of Scandal and Greed in the Meat Industry
Cherington, Gretchen
Paperback
Gift of Power: The Life and Teachings of a Lakota Medicine Man
Erdoes, Richard
Lame Deer, Chief Archie Fire
Paperback
My Own Devices: True Stories from the Road on Music, Science, and Senseless Love
Dessa Wander
Hardcover
Nobody's Girl: A Memoir of Surviving Abuse and Fighting for Justice
Giuffre, Virginia Roberts
Hardcover
How to Be Okay When Nothing Is Okay: Tips and Tricks That Kept Me Alive, Happy, and Creative in Spite of Myself
Lawson, Jenny
Hardcover
Family of Spies: A World War II Story of Nazi Espionage, Betrayal, and the Secret History Behind Pearl Harbor
Kuehn, Christine
Hardcover
Dangerous, Dirty, Violent, and Young: A Fugitive Family in the Revolutionary Underground
Dohrn, Zayd Ayers
Hardcover
A Walk in the Park: The True Story of a Spectacular Misadventure in the Grand Canyon
Fedarko, Kevin
Paperback
Catch the Devil: A True Story of Murder, Deception, and Injustice on the Gulf Coast
Colloff, Pamela
Hardcover
Homeschooled: A New York Times Bestselling Memoir and Read with Jenna Pick
Merrill Block, Stefan
Hardcover
Through Mom's Eyes: Simple Wisdom from Mothers Who Raised Extraordinary Humans
Jones, Sheinelle
Hardcover