Harry Haywood
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Harry Haywood (February 4, 1898 – January 4, 1985) was an American political activist who was a leading figure in both the
Communist Party of the United States The Communist Party USA, officially the Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA), is a communist party in the United States which was established in 1919 after a split in the Socialist Party of America following the Russian Revo ...
(CPUSA) and the
Communist Party of the Soviet Union "Hymn of the Bolshevik Party" , headquarters = 4 Staraya Square, Moscow , general_secretary = Vladimir Lenin (first) Mikhail Gorbachev (last) , founded = , banned = , founder = Vladimir Lenin , newspaper ...
(CPSU). His goal was to connect the political philosophy of the Communist Party with the issues of race. In 1926, he joined other African-American Communists and travelled to the Soviet Union to study the effect of Communism on racial issues found in the United States. His work there resulted in his selection to be the head of the Communist Party's Negro Department. The party platform changed by the late 1930s and began to stray away from advocating for African-American self-determination. As the party's platform changed over time, Haywood lost his stance within the party. His work also included creating a group to help the Scottsboro boys case. Haywood was also an author. His first book was ''Negro Liberation'', published in 1948. After he was expelled from his affiliating party, he wrote an autobiography called ''Black Bolshevik'', which was also published in 1978. He contributed major theory to
Marxist Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...
thinking on the
national question ''National question'' is a term used for a variety of issues related to nationalism. It is seen especially often in socialist thought and doctrine. In socialism * ''Social Democracy and the National Question'' by Vladimir Medem in 1904 * ''So ...
of
African Americans African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...
in the
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
. He was also a founder of the
Maoist Maoism, officially called Mao Zedong Thought by the Chinese Communist Party, is a variety of Marxism–Leninism that Mao Zedong developed to realise a socialist revolution in the agricultural, pre-industrial society of the Republic of Ch ...
New Communist movement The New Communist movement (NCM) was a diverse left-wing political movement principally within the United States, during the 1970s and 1980s. The NCM were a movement of the New Left that represented a diverse grouping of Marxist–Leninists and ...
.


Biography


Early years

Harry Haywood was born Haywood Hall, Jr., on February 4, 1898, in South Omaha, Nebraska, to former slaves Harriet and Haywood Hall, from Missouri and West Tennessee, respectively. They had migrated to Omaha because of jobs with the railroads and meatpacking industry, as did numerous other southern blacks. South Omaha also attracted White immigrants, and ethnic Irish had established an early neighborhood there. Haywood was the youngest of three sons."Harry Haywood"
Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives, accessed January 15, 2009
In 1913 after their father was attacked by whites, the Hall family moved to
Minneapolis, Minnesota Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origins ...
. Two years later in 1915 they moved to
Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...
. During
World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, he served with the
Eighth Regiment Eighth is ordinal form of the number eight. Eighth may refer to: * One eighth, or ⅛, a fraction, one of eight equal parts of a whole * Eighth note (quaver), a musical note played for half the value of a quarter note (crotchet) * Octave, an int ...
, a black United States regiment. Upon his return to Chicago, the younger Hall was radicalized by the bitter
Red Summer Red Summer was a period in mid-1919 during which Terrorism in the United States#White nationalism and white supremacy, white supremacist terrorism and Mass racial violence in the United States, racial riots occurred in more than three dozen ...
of 1919, especially the Chicago race riot, in which mostly ethnic Irish attacked blacks on the South Side. Hall was influenced by his older brother Otto, who joined the Communist Party in 1921 and invited Hall to enter the secret
African Blood Brotherhood The African Blood Brotherhood for African Liberation and Redemption (ABB) was a U.S. black liberation organization established in 1919 in New York City by journalist Cyril Briggs. The group was established as a propaganda organization built on th ...
. He was also influenced by theories he read of in
Vladimir Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov. ( 1870 – 21 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin,. was a Russian revolutionary, politician, and political theorist. He served as the first and founding head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 to 19 ...
's '' State and Revolution'' as a teen. He stated, in his autobiography ''Black Bolshevik'', that "this work was the single most important book I had read in the entire three years of my political search and was decisive in leading me to the Communist Party."


Career with the Communist Party USA

Harry Haywood began his revolutionary career by joining the
African Blood Brotherhood The African Blood Brotherhood for African Liberation and Redemption (ABB) was a U.S. black liberation organization established in 1919 in New York City by journalist Cyril Briggs. The group was established as a propaganda organization built on th ...
in 1922, followed by the
Young Communist League The Young Communist League (YCL) is the name used by the youth wing of various Communist parties around the world. The name YCL of XXX (name of country) originates from the precedent established by the Communist Youth International. Examples of YC ...
in 1923. Soon after in 1925, he joined the
Communist Party, USA The Communist Party USA, officially the Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA), is a communist party in the United States which was established in 1919 after a split in the Socialist Party of America following the Russian Revo ...
(CPUSA). After joining the CPUSA, Haywood went to
Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...
to study; it was on his passport application that he first adopted the pseudonym "Harry Haywood", deriving it from the first names of his mother and father. In Moscow, he studied first at the
Communist University of the Toilers of the East The Communist University of the Toilers of the East (KUTV) (russian: link=no, Коммунистический университет трудящихся Востока; also known as the Far East University) was a revolutionary training scho ...
in 1925, then at the
International Lenin School The International Lenin School (ILS) was an official training school operated in Moscow, Soviet Union, by the Communist International from May 1926 to 1938. It was resumed after the Second World War and run by the Communist Party of the Soviet Unio ...
in 1927. The anticolonial revolutionaries he met while in Moscow included Vietnamese leader
Ho Chi Minh (: ; born ; 19 May 1890 – 2 September 1969), commonly known as ('Uncle Hồ'), also known as ('President Hồ'), (' Old father of the people') and by other aliases, was a Vietnamese revolutionary and statesman. He served as Prime ...
. He began to advocate for African-American concerns, arguing that they were captives in the United States and that "they must embrace nationalism in order to avoid the harmful effects of integration." He stayed until 1930 as a delegate to the Communist International (
Comintern The Communist International (Comintern), also known as the Third International, was a Soviet Union, Soviet-controlled international organization founded in 1919 that advocated world communism. The Comintern resolved at its Second Congress to ...
). There he worked on commissions dealing with the question of African Americans in the United States, as well as the development of the "Native Republic Thesis" for the
South African Communist Party The South African Communist Party (SACP) is a communist party in South Africa. It was founded in 1921 as the Communist Party of South Africa (CPSA), tactically dissolved itself in 1950 in the face of being declared illegal by the governing Na ...
. Haywood worked to draft the "Comintern Resolutions on the Negro Question" of 1928 and 1930, which stated that African Americans in the Southern part of the
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
made up an oppressed nation, with the right to
self-determination The right of a people to self-determination is a cardinal principle in modern international law (commonly regarded as a ''jus cogens'' rule), binding, as such, on the United Nations as authoritative interpretation of the Charter's norms. It stat ...
up to and including
secession Secession is the withdrawal of a group from a larger entity, especially a political entity, but also from any organization, union or military alliance. Some of the most famous and significant secessions have been: the former Soviet republics le ...
. He would continue to fight for this position throughout his life. In the CPUSA, Haywood served on the
Central Committee Central committee is the common designation of a standing administrative body of Communist party, communist parties, analogous to a board of directors, of both ruling and nonruling parties of former and existing socialist states. In such party org ...
from 1927 to 1938 and on the
Politburo A politburo () or political bureau is the executive committee for communist parties. It is present in most former and existing communist states. Names The term "politburo" in English comes from the Russian ''Politbyuro'' (), itself a contraction ...
from 1931 until 1938. He also participated in the major factional struggles internal to the CPUSA against
Jay Lovestone Jay Lovestone (15 December 1897 – 7 March 1990) was an American activist. He was at various times a member of the Socialist Party of America, a leader of the Communist Party USA, leader of a small oppositionist party, an anti-Communist and Centr ...
and
Earl Browder Earl Russell Browder (May 20, 1891 – June 27, 1973) was an American politician, communist activist and leader of the Communist Party USA (CPUSA). Browder was the General Secretary of the CPUSA during the 1930s and first half of the 1940s. Duri ...
, regularly siding with William Z. Foster. Haywood was
General Secretary Secretary is a title often used in organizations to indicate a person having a certain amount of authority, power, or importance in the organization. Secretaries announce important events and communicate to the organization. The term is derived ...
of the
League of Struggle for Negro Rights The League of Struggle for Negro Rights was organized by the Communist Party in 1930 as the successor to the American Negro Labor Congress. The League was particularly active in organizing support for the " Scottsboro Boys", nine black men sentenced ...
, but he was active in issues involving working-class Whites as well. In the early 1930s, while head of the CPUSA Negro Department, he led the movement to support the Scottsboro Boys; organized miners in West Virginia with the National Miners Union; and was a leader in the struggles of the militant
Sharecroppers' Union The Sharecroppers' Union, also known as SCU or Alabama Sharecroppers’ Union, was a trade union of predominantly African American tenant farmers (commonly referred to as sharecroppers) in the American South that operated from 1931 to 1936. Its aim ...
in the
Deep South The Deep South or the Lower South is a cultural and geographic subregion in the Southern United States. The term was first used to describe the states most dependent on plantations and slavery prior to the American Civil War. Following the war ...
. In 1935 he led the "Hands off
Ethiopia Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...
" campaign in
Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...
's Black South Side to oppose Italy's invasion of Ethiopia. When eleven Communist leaders were tried under the
Smith Act The Alien Registration Act, popularly known as the Smith Act, 76th United States Congress, 3d session, ch. 439, , is a United States federal statute that was enacted on June 28, 1940. It set criminal penalties for advocating the overthrow of th ...
in 1949, Haywood was assigned the task of research for the defense.


Military service

Haywood's military career included service in three wars. His interest in military combat began when his friends recalled tales of their service in the Eighth Illinois, Black National Guard Regiment. During
World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, he served with the
Eighth Regiment Eighth is ordinal form of the number eight. Eighth may refer to: * One eighth, or ⅛, a fraction, one of eight equal parts of a whole * Eighth note (quaver), a musical note played for half the value of a quarter note (crotchet) * Octave, an int ...
, a black United States regiment. In the
Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebelión, lin ...
, like many Americans there, he fought for the
Popular Front A popular front is "any coalition of working-class and middle-class parties", including liberal and social democratic ones, "united for the defense of democratic forms" against "a presumed Fascist assault". More generally, it is "a coalition ...
with the
Abraham Lincoln Battalion The Lincoln Battalion ( es, Batallón Abraham Lincoln) was the 17th (later the 58th) battalion of the XV International Brigade, a mixed brigade of the International Brigades also known as the Abraham Lincoln Brigade. It was organized by the Com ...
of the
International Brigades The International Brigades ( es, Brigadas Internacionales) were military units set up by the Communist International to assist the Popular Front government of the Second Spanish Republic during the Spanish Civil War. The organization existed f ...
. Haywood held the position of Regimental Commissar in the
XV International Brigade The Abraham Lincoln Brigade ( es, Brigada Abraham Lincoln), officially the XV International Brigade (''XV Brigada Internacional''), was a mixed brigade that fought for the Spanish Republic in the Spanish Civil War as a part of the Internationa ...
during the
Battle of Brunete The Battle of Brunete (6–25 July 1937), fought west of Madrid, was a Republican attempt to alleviate the pressure exerted by the Nationalists on the capital and on the north during the Spanish Civil War. Although initially successful, the Rep ...
. While in Spain he,
Langston Hughes James Mercer Langston Hughes (February 1, 1901 – May 22, 1967) was an American poet, social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist from Joplin, Missouri. One of the earliest innovators of the literary art form called jazz poetry, Hug ...
and Walter Benjamin Garland broadcast from Madrid in support of the Republican cause. During
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, he served in the Merchant Marine, where he was active with
National Maritime Union The National Maritime Union (NMU) was an American labor union founded in May 1937. It affiliated with the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) in July 1937. After a failed merger with a different maritime group in 1988, the union merged w ...
.


The Comintern and the Black Belt nation

During his four-and-half-year stay in the
Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
(1925–1930), Harry Haywood held dual membership in both the CPUSA and the CPSU. As a member of the CPSU, he traveled extensively in the Soviet Union's
autonomous republics An autonomous republic is a type of administrative division similar to a province or state. A significant number of autonomous republics can be found within the successor states of the Soviet Union, but the majority are located within Russia. Man ...
, and participated in the struggles against both the
Left Opposition The Left Opposition was a faction within the Russian Communist Party (b) from 1923 to 1927 headed ''de facto'' by Leon Trotsky. The Left Opposition formed as part of the power struggle within the party leadership that began with the Soviet fou ...
headed by
Leon Trotsky Lev Davidovich Bronstein. ( – 21 August 1940), better known as Leon Trotsky; uk, link= no, Лев Давидович Троцький; also transliterated ''Lyev'', ''Trotski'', ''Trotskij'', ''Trockij'' and ''Trotzky''. (), was a Russian ...
and the
Right Opposition The Right Opposition (, ''Pravaya oppozitsiya'') or Right Tendency (, ''Praviy uklon'') in the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) was a conditional label formulated by Joseph Stalin in fall of 1928 in regards the opposition against certain m ...
led by
Nikolai Bukharin Nikolai Ivanovich Bukharin (russian: Никола́й Ива́нович Буха́рин) ( – 15 March 1938) was a Bolshevik revolutionary, Soviet politician, Marxist philosopher and economist and prolific author on revolutionary theory. ...
. In these struggles and in others, Haywood was on the side of
Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secreta ...
. With the Comintern, Haywood was assigned to work with the newly created Negro Commission. In his major work ''Negro Liberation'', he argued that the root of the oppression of Blacks was the unsolved agrarian question in the
South South is one of the cardinal directions or Points of the compass, compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both east and west. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Pro ...
. He believed that the unfinished bourgeois democratic revolution of
Reconstruction Reconstruction may refer to: Politics, history, and sociology *Reconstruction (law), the transfer of a company's (or several companies') business to a new company *'' Perestroika'' (Russian for "reconstruction"), a late 20th century Soviet Unio ...
had been betrayed in the Hayes- Tilden
Compromise of 1877 The Compromise of 1877, also known as the Wormley Agreement or the Bargain of 1877, was an unwritten deal, informally arranged among members of the United States Congress, to settle the intensely disputed 1876 presidential election between Ruth ...
. It abandoned African Americans to
plantations A plantation is an agricultural estate, generally centered on a plantation house, meant for farming that specializes in cash crops, usually mainly planted with a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. The ...
as
tenant farmers A tenant farmer is a person (farmer or farmworker) who resides on land owned by a landlord. Tenant farming is an agricultural production system in which landowners contribute their land and often a measure of operating capital and management, ...
and
sharecroppers Sharecropping is a legal arrangement with regard to agricultural land in which a landowner allows a tenant to use the land in return for a share of the crops produced on that land. Sharecropping has a long history and there are a wide range ...
, faced with the Redeemer governments, the system of
Jim Crow laws The Jim Crow laws were state and local laws enforcing racial segregation in the Southern United States. Other areas of the United States were affected by formal and informal policies of segregation as well, but many states outside the Sout ...
, and the terror of the
Ku Klux Klan The Ku Klux Klan (), commonly shortened to the KKK or the Klan, is an American white supremacist, right-wing terrorist, and hate group whose primary targets are African Americans, Jews, Latinos, Asian Americans, Native Americans, and ...
and other paramilitary groups. According to Haywood, the rise of
imperialism Imperialism is the state policy, practice, or advocacy of extending power and dominion, especially by direct territorial acquisition or by gaining political and economic control of other areas, often through employing hard power (economic and ...
left
blacks Black is a racialized classification of people, usually a political and skin color-based category for specific populations with a mid to dark brown complexion. Not all people considered "black" have dark skin; in certain countries, often in ...
frozen as "landless, semi-slaves in the South." He believed that a distinct African-American nation had developed that satisfied the criteria laid out by Stalin in his ''
Marxism and the National Question Marxism is a left-wing to far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand class relations and social conflict and a dialectical ...
'': a historically constituted, stable community of people, formed on the basis of a common language, territory, economic life, and psychological makeup manifested in a common culture. Because African Americans in the South constituted such a nation, Haywood believed the correct response was a demand for self-determination, up to and including the right to separate from the United States. Their "national territory" was historically the South, and they deserved full equality everywhere else in the United States. Haywood believed that only with genuine political power, which from a Marxist point of view included control of the
productive forces Productive forces, productive powers, or forces of production (German: ''Produktivkräfte'') is a central idea in Marxism and historical materialism. In Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels' own critique of political economy, it refers to the combinat ...
, such as land, could African Americans obtain genuine equality. Their gaining of equality was a prerequisite for broader
working class The working class (or labouring class) comprises those engaged in manual-labour occupations or industrial work, who are remunerated via waged or salaried contracts. Working-class occupations (see also " Designation of workers by collar colou ...
unity. Most of those in the CPUSA who disagreed with Haywood considered the question of African-American oppression a matter of
racial prejudice Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one race over another. It may also mean prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism ...
with moral roots, rather than an economic and political question of national oppression. They saw it as a problem to be solved under
Socialism Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the e ...
and in no need of special attention until after the institution of the revolutionary
Dictatorship of the Proletariat In Marxist philosophy, the dictatorship of the proletariat is a condition in which the proletariat holds state power. The dictatorship of the proletariat is the intermediate stage between a capitalist economy and a communist economy, whereby the ...
. They criticized him for falling "into the bourgeois liberal trap of regarding the fight for equality as primarily a fight against racial prejudices of whites." To this charge, Haywood countered that the category of "
race Race, RACE or "The Race" may refer to: * Race (biology), an informal taxonomic classification within a species, generally within a sub-species * Race (human categorization), classification of humans into groups based on physical traits, and/or s ...
" is a mystification. He believed that relying on race and ignoring economic questions could only alienate African Americans and inhibit working-class unity. Following the Great Migration of millions of blacks to the North and Midwest, accompanied by their
urbanization Urbanization (or urbanisation) refers to the population shift from rural to urban areas, the corresponding decrease in the proportion of people living in rural areas, and the ways in which societies adapt to this change. It is predominantly t ...
, critics attempted to use
statistics Statistics (from German language, German: ''wikt:Statistik#German, Statistik'', "description of a State (polity), state, a country") is the discipline that concerns the collection, organization, analysis, interpretation, and presentation of ...
to counter the Black Belt theory and show there no longer was a black nation centered in the South. In his 1957 article, "For a Revolutionary Position on the Negro Question", Haywood responded that the question of an oppressed nation in the South was not one of "nose counting." Harry Haywood's book, ''Negro Liberation'', published first in 1948, was the first major study of the African-American national question written by an African-American Marxist. According to Haywood in his autobiography,
Paul Robeson Paul Leroy Robeson ( ; April 9, 1898 – January 23, 1976) was an American bass-baritone concert artist, stage and film actor, professional football player, and activist who became famous both for his cultural accomplishments and for his p ...
subsidized his work on the project by offering $100 a month. It was translated and published in Russian, Polish, German, Czech and Hungarian. It was reprinted in 1976 by Liberator Press, the publishing arm of the October League. According to Haywood, "The position of the book was not new, but a reaffirmation of the revolutionary position developed at the Sixth Comintern Congress in 1928. The heart of this position is that the problem is fundamentally a question of an oppressed nation with full rights of self-determination. It emphasized the revolutionary essence of the struggle for Black equality arising from the fact that the special oppression of Blacks is a main prop of the system of imperialist domination over the entire working class and the masses of exploited American people. Therefore the struggle for Black liberation is a component part of the struggle for
proletarian revolution A proletarian revolution or proletariat revolution is a social revolution in which the working class attempts to overthrow the bourgeoisie and change the previous political system. Proletarian revolutions are generally advocated by socialists ...
. It is the historic task of the working-class movement, as it advances on the road to socialism, to solve the problem of land and freedom of the Black masses." On the other hand, Haywood went on to write, "What was new in the book was the thorough analysis of the concrete conditions of Black people in the post-war period. I made extensive use of population data; the 1940 census, the 1947 Plantation Count and other sources, in order to show that the present day conditions affirmed the essential correctness of the position we had formulated years before." Because of this and other works,
Robert F. Williams Robert Franklin Williams (February 26, 1925 – October 15, 1996) was an American civil rights leader and author best known for serving as president of the Monroe, North Carolina chapter of the NAACP in the 1950s and into 1961. He succeede ...
called Harry Haywood "one of the modern pioneers in the Black liberation struggle." Especially since 1998, leading historians in the US have had access to Comintern documents about the "Self-Determination in the Black Belt theory". These demonstrate the pioneering role of the Communist Party in the Deep South from 1929 on. The documents show the Party's efforts toward unity among all workers in the South, the international impact of the defense of the Scottsboro Boys, the organization of inter-racial unions in the Deep South, and a unified Black protest movement in the United States culminating in the formation of the
National Negro Congress The National Negro Congress (NNC) (1936–ca. 1946) was an American organization formed in 1936 at Howard University as a broadly based organization with the goal of fighting for Black liberation; it was the successor to the League of Struggle for N ...
in 1935 and the
Southern Negro Youth Congress The Southern Negro Youth Congress was an American organization established in 1937 at a conference in Richmond, Virginia. The Southern Negro Youth Congress consisted of young leaders who participated in the National Negro Congress. The first gath ...
in 1937. Inspired by the
self-determination theory Self-determination theory (SDT) is a macro theory of human motivation and personality that concerns people's innate growth tendencies and innate psychological needs. It pertains to the motivation behind people's choices in the absence of extern ...
(and other factors), these movements also contributed to heightened activity of the
Civil Rights Movement The civil rights movement was a nonviolent social and political movement and campaign from 1954 to 1968 in the United States to abolish legalized institutional Racial segregation in the United States, racial segregation, Racial discrimination ...
starting in the 1950s driven by the continuity of what historians are now calling the " Long Civil Rights Movement". The pressure of McCarthyism labeled the activity for civil rights as an automatic Communist threat. In the South, even the
NAACP The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is a civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E.&nb ...
was outlawed as a Communist threat. The Comintern documents are housed at the Tamimment Library at
New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, the ...
. Some books published using them as source documents are listed below under General Readings.


Expulsion from the CPUSA

Following the death of Stalin in 1953 and
Nikita Khrushchev Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev (– 11 September 1971) was the First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964 and chairman of the country's Council of Ministers from 1958 to 1964. During his rule, Khrushchev s ...
's rise to power, the CPUSA followed Khrushchev's policy of
destalinization De-Stalinization (russian: десталинизация, translit=destalinizatsiya) comprised a series of political reforms in the Soviet Union after the death of long-time leader Joseph Stalin in 1953, and the thaw brought about by ascension ...
and "
peaceful coexistence Peaceful coexistence (russian: Мирное сосуществование, translit=Mirnoye sosushchestvovaniye) was a theory, developed and applied by the Soviet Union at various points during the Cold War in the context of primarily Marxist ...
". Long an admirer of
Mao Zedong Mao Zedong pronounced ; also romanised traditionally as Mao Tse-tung. (26 December 1893 – 9 September 1976), also known as Chairman Mao, was a Chinese communist revolutionary who was the founder of the People's Republic of China (PRC) ...
, Harry Haywood was one of the pioneers of the
anti-revisionist Anti-revisionism is a position within Marxism–Leninism which emerged in the 1950s in opposition to the reforms of Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev. Where Khrushchev pursued an interpretation that differed from his predecessor Joseph Stalin, ...
movement born out of the growing
Sino-Soviet split The Sino-Soviet split was the breaking of political relations between the People's Republic of China and the Soviet Union caused by doctrinal divergences that arose from their different interpretations and practical applications of Marxism–Len ...
. He was driven out of the CPUSA in the late 1950s along with many others who took firm anti-revisionist or pro-Stalin positions. The CPUSA's decision to change its position on the African-American national question was a central factor in Haywood's expulsion. Though the CPUSA had not been as active in the South since the dissolution of the Sharecroppers Union, in 1959 the CPUSA officially dropped its demand for self-determination for African Americans there. (The demand had been dropped earlier when Browder liquidated the party in 1944.) The CPUSA instead held that as American
capitalism Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their operation for Profit (economics), profit. Central characteristics of capitalism include capital accumulation, competitive markets, pric ...
developed, so too would Black-White unity. In 1957 he wrote "For a Revolutionary Position on the Negro Question" (later published by Liberator Press) but was unsuccessful at changing the direction of the Party. In 1959, Haywood, although no longer a functioning party member, attempted to intervene one last time. He wrote "On the Negro Question", which was distributed at the Seventeenth National Convention by and in the name of
African Blood Brotherhood The African Blood Brotherhood for African Liberation and Redemption (ABB) was a U.S. black liberation organization established in 1919 in New York City by journalist Cyril Briggs. The group was established as a propaganda organization built on th ...
founder
Cyril Briggs Cyril Valentine Briggs (May 28, 1888 – October 18, 1966) was an African-Caribbean American writer and communist political activist. Briggs is best remembered as founder and editor of ''The Crusader,'' a seminal New York magazine of the New Ne ...
. This was not effective, however, as most of Haywood's potential allies had already been expelled from the CPUSA in the name of combatting "left"-sectarianism and
dogmatism Dogma is a belief or set of beliefs that is accepted by the members of a group without being questioned or doubted. It may be in the form of an official system of principles or doctrines of a religion, such as Roman Catholicism, Judaism, Islam o ...
. In Haywood's view, "White
chauvinism Chauvinism is the unreasonable belief in the superiority or dominance of one's own group or people, who are seen as strong and virtuous, while others are considered weak, unworthy, or inferior. It can be described as a form of extreme patriotis ...
" in the party, rather than an accurate analysis of the economic issues, had caused the change in position. He also argued that the change prevented the CPUSA from giving appropriate leadership as the
Civil Rights Movement The civil rights movement was a nonviolent social and political movement and campaign from 1954 to 1968 in the United States to abolish legalized institutional Racial segregation in the United States, racial segregation, Racial discrimination ...
developed. He believed the Party was left behind actions of Dr.
Martin Luther King Jr. Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King Jr.; January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American Baptist minister and activist, one of the most prominent leaders in the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968 ...
and the
NAACP The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is a civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E.&nb ...
. The Party was even more alienated from the militant Black Power Movement that was to follow.


Political Activities 1950s–1980s

Haywood and his wife
Gwendolyn Midlo Hall Gwendolyn Midlo Hall (June 27, 1929 – August 29, 2022) was an American historian who focused on the history of slavery in the Caribbean, Latin America, Louisiana (United States), Africa, and the African Diaspora in the Americas. Discovering ex ...
were among the founders of the Provisional Organizing Committee for a Communist Party (POC), formed in
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
in August 1958 by 83 mostly Black and Puerto Rican and White trade unionists, mainly coal miners from
Williamsport, Pennsylvania Williamsport is a city in, and the county seat of, Lycoming County, Pennsylvania, United States. It recorded a population of 27,754 at the 2020 Census. It is the principal city of the Williamsport Metropolitan Statistical Area, which has a popula ...
and maritime workers including Al Lannon, Director of the Maritime Section of the CPUSA for many years, all delegates from the CPUSA. Its membership included
Coleman Young Coleman Alexander Young (May 24, 1918 – November 29, 1997) was an American politician who served as mayor of Detroit, Michigan, from 1974 to 1994. Young was the first African-American mayor of Detroit. Young had emerged from the far-left ele ...
, later elected the first black mayor of Detroit, and Theodore W. Allen, best known later for his "White skin privilege" theory and widely acclaimed historical writings. According to Haywood, the POC rapidly degenerated into an isolated, dogmatic, ultraleft sect, completely removed from any political practice. Nevertheless, the (POC) did release many highly trained organizers from the dead hand of the CPUSA as the civil rights and the black power movement began to hit the streets. In 1964, Haywood worked in Harlem with Jesse Gray, leader of the Harlem Rent Strike and Tenants' Union later elected to the New York State Legislature from Harlem. Haywood worked with Malcolm X in 1964 until his assassination in 1965, and with James Haughton and Josh Lawrence in Harlem Fight-Back, then in Oakland, California, in 1966, then in Detroit, Michigan, with the
Detroit Revolutionary Union Movement The Dodge Revolutionary Union Movement (DRUM) was an organization of African-American workers formed in May 1968 in the Chrysler Corporation's Dodge Main assembly plant in Detroit, Michigan. History Detroit labor activist Martin Glaberman est ...
(DRUM) and the
League of Revolutionary Black Workers The League of Revolutionary Black Workers (LRBW) formed in 1969 in Detroit, Michigan. The League united a number of different Revolutionary Union Movements (RUMs) that were growing rapidly across the auto industry and other industrial sectors ...
. Haywood then returned to Mexico for a short time and then to the United States permanently in 1970 invited by
Vincent Harding Vincent Gordon Harding (July 25, 1931 – May 19, 2014) was an African-American pastor, historian, and scholar of various topics with a focus on American religion and society. A social activist, he was perhaps best known for his work with and wr ...
, then Director of the Institute for the Black World in
Atlanta, Georgia Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...
. In 1964, Haywood began to become involved with the New Communist Movement, the goal of which was to found a new
vanguard The vanguard (also called the advance guard) is the leading part of an advancing military formation. It has a number of functions, including seeking out the enemy and securing ground in advance of the main force. History The vanguard derives fr ...
Communist Party on an anti-revisionist basis, believing the CPUSA to have deviated irrevocably from Marxism-Leninism. He later worked in one of the newly formed
Maoist Maoism, officially called Mao Zedong Thought by the Chinese Communist Party, is a variety of Marxism–Leninism that Mao Zedong developed to realise a socialist revolution in the agricultural, pre-industrial society of the Republic of Ch ...
groups of the New Communist Movement, the October League, which became the Communist Party (Marxist-Leninist). In the CP(M-L) Haywood served on the Central Committee. He published his
autobiography An autobiography, sometimes informally called an autobio, is a self-written account of one's own life. It is a form of biography. Definition The word "autobiography" was first used deprecatingly by William Taylor in 1797 in the English peri ...
''Black Bolshevik'' although some of his important writings and political life during the 1960s were edited out. For example, the manuscript he wrote with the acknowledged collaboration with Gwendolyn Midlo Hall and was dedicated to
Robert F. Williams Robert Franklin Williams (February 26, 1925 – October 15, 1996) was an American civil rights leader and author best known for serving as president of the Monroe, North Carolina chapter of the NAACP in the 1950s and into 1961. He succeede ...
was not mentioned. This work, circulated in mimeographed form from early 1964 throughout California and the Deep South, deeply influenced the armed self-defense movement against the
Ku Klux Klan The Ku Klux Klan (), commonly shortened to the KKK or the Klan, is an American white supremacist, right-wing terrorist, and hate group whose primary targets are African Americans, Jews, Latinos, Asian Americans, Native Americans, and ...
during 1964 and 1965 and projected a slogan widely picked up throughout the Deep South that we must pose our own challenge to order and stability to counter the challenge posed by "
massive resistance Massive resistance was a strategy declared by U.S. Senator Harry F. Byrd Sr. of Virginia and his brother-in-law James M. Thomson, who represented Alexandria in the Virginia General Assembly, to get the state's white politicians to pass laws and p ...
" by Southern politicians and racist terrorists. ''Black Bolshevik'' became an important book widely cited by scholars and read by the wider public as well. Through it and his other writings, Haywood provided
ideological An ideology is a set of beliefs or philosophies attributed to a person or group of persons, especially those held for reasons that are not purely epistemic, in which "practical elements are as prominent as theoretical ones." Formerly applied prim ...
leadership far beyond the New Communist Movement. Haywood's theoretical contributions had a substantial impact on the major, and numerous warring factions of the New Communist Movement well beyond his own CP(M-L), including, for example, the League of Revolutionary Struggle (Marxist-Leninist), the early Revolutionary Communist Party, the
Revolutionary Workers Headquarters Revolutionary Workers Headquarters (RWH) was a U.S. Marxist-Leninist organization that formed out of a split from the Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP) in 1977. After Mao Zedong, leader of the Communist Party of China, died in 1976, the majori ...
and the Communist Workers Party. Nonetheless, lack of experience,
sectarianism Sectarianism is a political or cultural conflict between two groups which are often related to the form of government which they live under. Prejudice, discrimination, or hatred can arise in these conflicts, depending on the political status quo ...
, and voluntarism played a major role in keeping the young Maoist groups from taking a strong leading role. In his last published article, Haywood wrote that the New Communist movement spent too much time and energy seeking the "franchise" of governments and parties outside the United States without validating itself among the people of our own country. Haywood's theoretical contributions to questions of African-American national oppression and
national liberation Wars of national liberation or national liberation revolutions are conflicts fought by nations to gain independence. The term is used in conjunction with wars against foreign powers (or at least those perceived as foreign) to establish separat ...
remain highly valued by the Ray O. Light Group, which developed out of an anti-revisionist split from the Communist Party USA in 1961,
Freedom Road Socialist Organization The Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO) is a Marxist–Leninist organization in the United States. It formed in 1985 amid the collapse of the Maoist-oriented New Communist movement that emerged in the 1970s. The FRSO's component groups ...
, which was originally formed from the mergers of several New Communist Movement groups in the 1980s, and the
Maoist Internationalist Movement The Maoist Internationalist Movement (MIM) was a clandestine revolutionary communist organization based primarily in the United States. MIM claimed to adhere to a radical ideology called "MIM Thought". MIM listed a sole PO box in Ann Arbor, Michi ...
as well as by many black revolutionaries and activists today. Haywood's role in the black protest movements during the 1960s through the 1980s can be studied at the Harry Haywood Papers, Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Books Division, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in New York City and Harry Haywood Collection, Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Haywood's theoretical innovations have been influential in a range of scholarship including
historical materialism Historical materialism is the term used to describe Karl Marx's theory of history. Marx locates historical change in the rise of class societies and the way humans labor together to make their livelihoods. For Marx and his lifetime collaborat ...
, geography, Marxist education, and social movement theory, among others.


Marriage and family

In 1920, Haywood married a woman named Hazel, but they separated the same year. While he was in Los Angeles in the late 1930s or 1940, he married Belle Lewis, whom he had known for years. They divorced in 1955. In 1956, Haywood married Gwendolyn Midlo, a Jewish activist from
New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans
Merriam-Webster.
; french: La Nouvelle-Orléans , es, Nuev ...
,
Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...
. She has been active in civil rights throughout her life. She also has become a prominent historian of slavery in the United States and Latin America, and of the African diaspora. She made her academic career at
Rutgers University Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a Public university, public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's ...
. They had three children, whom Midlo Hall mostly provided for alone. They are Dr. Haywood Hall (b. 1956), Dr. Rebecca Hall (b. 1963), and a third child from a previous marriage, Leonid A. Yuspeh (b. 1951.) Haywood and Midlo Hall remained married until his death in 1985. Between 1953 and 1964, they collaborated on numerous articles, including some published in ''Soulbook Magazine'', founded in
Berkeley, California Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland and Emer ...
, in 1964. She did not follow him into the New Communist Movement, and they mostly lived apart after late 1964. Shortly before Haywood's expulsion from the Communist Party, he moved with his family to
Mexico City Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital and largest city of Mexico, and the most populous city in North America. One of the world's alpha cities, it is located in the Valley o ...
,
Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...
. During these years, Midlo Hall earned her bachelor's and master's degrees in history at Mexico City College. She returned with Haywood to the United States in 1964 working as a temporary legal secretary, started teaching in North Carolina in 1965, enrolled in graduate school in 1966, and earned her doctorate in 1970 at the
University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...
. From there, she went to work as an assistant professor at
Rutgers University Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a Public university, public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's ...
, where she made her academic career and advanced to full professor. Midlo Hall has taught ''Africans in the Atlantic World'' at
Michigan State University Michigan State University (Michigan State, MSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan, the fi ...
, as Adjunct Professor of History.


Death and legacy

Haywood died in January 1985, and was buried in
Arlington National Cemetery Arlington National Cemetery is one of two national cemeteries run by the United States Army. Nearly 400,000 people are buried in its 639 acres (259 ha) in Arlington, Virginia. There are about 30 funerals conducted on weekdays and 7 held on Sa ...
in
Arlington, Virginia Arlington County is a county in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The county is situated in Northern Virginia on the southwestern bank of the Potomac River directly across from the District of Columbia, of which it was once a part. The county is ...
. (
Columbarium A columbarium (; pl. columbaria) is a structure for the reverential and usually public storage of funerary urns, holding cremated remains of the deceased. The term can also mean the nesting boxes of pigeons. The term comes from the Latin "'' colu ...
Court 1, Section LL, Column 7, 2nd Row from bottom. Interred under birth name "Haywood Hall.") He had a service-related disability and spent the last few years of his life at a
Veterans Administration The United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is a Cabinet-level executive branch department of the federal government charged with providing life-long healthcare services to eligible military veterans at the 170 VA medical centers and ...
medical facility. The Harry Haywood papers are housed at the
Bentley Historical Library The Bentley Historical Library is the campus archive for the University of Michigan and is located on the University of Michigan's North Campus in Ann Arbor. It was established in 1935 by the regents of the University of Michigan. Its mission is ...
,
University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...
,
Ann Arbor, Michigan Ann Arbor is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the county seat of Washtenaw County, Michigan, Washtenaw County. The 2020 United States census, 2020 census recorded its population to be 123,851. It is the principal city of the Ann Arbor ...
, and at the Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Books Division,
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture is a research library of the New York Public Library (NYPL) and an archive repository for information on people of African descent worldwide. Located at 515 Malcolm X Boulevard (Lenox Avenue) b ...
,
New York Public Library The New York Public Library (NYPL) is a public library system in New York City. With nearly 53 million items and 92 locations, the New York Public Library is the second largest public library in the United States (behind the Library of Congress ...
, New York City. In Richard Wright's autobiographical novel ''
Black Boy ''Black Boy'' (1945) is a memoir by American author Richard Wright, detailing his upbringing. Wright describes his youth in the South: Mississippi, Arkansas and Tennessee, and his eventual move to Chicago, where he establishes his writing care ...
(American Hunger)'', the character of Buddy Nealson is said to represent Haywood.


See also

*
Communists in the United States Labor Movement (1919–37) Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a so ...
* Communists in the United States Labor Movement (1937–50) *
The Communist Party USA and African-Americans The Communist Party USA, ideologically committed to foster a socialist revolution in the United States, played a significant role in defending the civil rights of African Americans during its most influential years of the 1930s and 1940s. In that ...
*
Civil rights movement (1896–1954) The civil rights movement (1896–1954) was a long, primarily nonviolent resistance, nonviolent action to bring full Civil and political rights, civil rights and equality under the law to all Americans. The era has had a lasting impact on Society ...
* Timeline of Racial Tension in Omaha, Nebraska *
Black nationalism Black nationalism is a type of racial nationalism or pan-nationalism which espouses the belief that black people are a race, and which seeks to develop and maintain a black racial and national identity. Black nationalist activism revolves ar ...
*
Black separatism Black separatism is a separatist political movement that seeks separate economic and cultural development for those of African descent in societies, particularly in the United States. Black separatism stems from the idea of racial solidarity, an ...


Footnotes


Other sources consulted

*
Max Elbaum Max Elbaum is an American author and left-wing activist. He has written extensively about the New Left, Civil Rights Movement and anti-war movement. His book on the "new communist movement” of the 1970s and 1980s, '' Revolution in the Air: Six ...
, ''Revolution in the Air: Sixties Radicals Turn to Lenin, Mao, and Che.'' New York: Verso, 2006. * William Z. Foster, ''History of the Communist Party of the United States.'' New York: International Publishers, 1952. * Lance Hill,''Deacons for Defense: Armed Resistance and the Civil Rights Movement.'' Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2004. * Robin D.G. Kelley, ''Hammer & Hoe: Alabama Communists During the Great Depression.'' Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1990. * William Eric Perkins, "Harry Haywood (1898-1985)," in
Mari Jo Buhle Mari Jo Buhle (born 1943) is an American historian and William R. Kenan Jr., William J. Kenan Jr. University Professor Emerita at Brown University. Early life and education Buhle was born in 1943 as Mari Jo Kupski. She graduated from North Chi ...
,
Paul Buhle Paul Merlyn Buhle (born September 27, 1944) is a (retired) Senior Lecturer at Brown University, author or editor of 35 volumes including histories of radicalism in the United States and the Caribbean, studies of popular culture, and a series of ...
,
Dan Georgakas Dan Georgakas ( el, Νταν Γεωργακάς; 1938–2021) was an American anarchist poet and historian, who specialized in oral history and the American labor movement, best known for the publication ''Detroit: I do mind dying: A study in u ...
, Eds. ''Encyclopedia of the American Left.'' New York: Garland, 1990. * Cedric J. Robinson, ''Black Marxism: The Making of the Black Radical Tradition.'' Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2000.


Works

* ''The Communist Position on the Negro Question.'' With
Earl Browder Earl Russell Browder (May 20, 1891 – June 27, 1973) was an American politician, communist activist and leader of the Communist Party USA (CPUSA). Browder was the General Secretary of the CPUSA during the 1930s and first half of the 1940s. Duri ...
and
Clarence Hathaway Clarence A. "Charlie" Hathaway (8 Jan 1892 – 23 January 1963) was an activist in the Minnesota trade union movement and a prominent leader of the Communist Party USA, Communist Party of the United States from the 1920s through the early 1940s. H ...
. New York: Workers Library Publishers, 1931.
''Lynching: A Weapon of National Oppression.''
With Milton Howard. New York: International Publishers, 1932. * ''The Road to Negro Liberation: Report to the Eighth Convention of the Communist Party of the USA.'' New York: Workers Library Publishers, 1934.
''The South Comes North in Detroit's Own Scottsboro Case''.
New York:
League of Struggle for Negro Rights The League of Struggle for Negro Rights was organized by the Communist Party in 1930 as the successor to the American Negro Labor Congress. The League was particularly active in organizing support for the " Scottsboro Boys", nine black men sentenced ...
, n.d.
930s The 930s decade ran from January 1, 930, to December 31, 939. Significant people * Al-Muqtadir * Constantine VII * Pope John XI * Pope Leo VII * Al-Qahir * Al-Radi * Al-Ash'ari Abū al-Ḥasan al-Ashʿarī (; full name: ''Abū al-Ḥa ...
* ''Negro Liberation.'' New York: International Publishers, 1948. —Reissued by Liberator Press, Chicago, 1976. * Articles from ''Soulbook'', 1965–1967. * Harry Haywood, ''For a Revolutionary Position on the Negro Question.'' Chicago: Liberator Press, 1975. * Harry Haywood, ''Black Bolshevik: Autobiography of an Afro-American Communist''. Liberator Press, Chicago: 1978.


Further reading

* Dawson, Michael C. ''Black Visions. The Roots of Contemporary African-American Political Ideologies''. University of Chicago Press, Chicago: 2001. * Foster, William Z. ''History of the Communist Party of the United States''. International Publishers, New York: 1952. * Foster, William Z. ''The Negro People in American History''. International Publishers, New York: 1954. * Gilmore, Glenda Elizabeth. ''Defying Dixie. The Radical Roots of Civil Rights 1919–1950''. W.W. Norton & Company, New York 2008. * Howard, Walter T. ''Black Communists Speak on Scottsboro. A Documentary History''. Temple University Press, Philadelphia: 2008. * Howard, Walter T. ''We Shall Be Free!: Black Communist Protests in Seven Voices.'' Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press, 2013. * Kelley, Robin D. G. ''Hammer and Hoe: Alabama Communists During the Great Depression''. University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill: 1990. * Kelley, Robin D. G. and Betsy Esch
"Black Like Mao: Red China and Black Revolution"
in ''Afro-Asia: Revolutionary Political and Cultural Connections Between African Americans and Asian Americans''.
Fred Ho Fred Ho (; born Fred Wei-han Houn; August 10, 1957 – April 12, 2014) was an American jazz baritone saxophonist, composer, bandleader, playwright, writer and Marxist social activist. Biography He was born in Palo Alto, California,John Steven ...
and Bill V. Mullen, Eds. Duke University Press, Durham: 2008; pp. 97–155. * Solomon, Mark.''The Cry Was Unity. Communists and African Americans, 1917–1936''. University of Mississippi Press, Jackson: 1998.


External links


Harry Haywood Internet Archive
Important texts from New Communist Movement groups based on theories put forward by Haywood.

May 2006 text presented by Freedom Road Socialist Organization to the
Workers Party of Belgium The Workers' Party of Belgium (french: Parti du Travail de Belgique, PTB; nl, Partij van de Arbeid van België, PVDA; ) is a Marxist and socialist political party in Belgium. It is one of the few Belgian parties that is a fully national party, r ...

Harry Haywood Papers
Bentley Historical Library, Ann Arbor, Michigan. {{DEFAULTSORT:Haywood, Harry 1898 births 1985 deaths Activists for African-American civil rights Members of the Communist Party USA African-American life in Omaha, Nebraska American Comintern people Marxist theorists American Maoists Abraham Lincoln Brigade members African-American politicians Anti-revisionists Politicians from Omaha, Nebraska American sailors Military personnel from Omaha, Nebraska United States Army soldiers African-American trade unionists American expatriates in the Soviet Union Burials at Arlington National Cemetery Communist University of the Toilers of the East alumni International Lenin School alumni African-American communists African-American history of Nebraska African-American Marxists