Cyril Briggs
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Cyril Valentine Briggs (May 28, 1888 – October 18, 1966) was an African-Caribbean American writer and
communist Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...
political activist. Briggs founded the African Blood Brotherhood (ABB), a small but historically important radical organization dedicated to advancing the cause of
Pan-Africanism Pan-Africanism is a nationalist movement that aims to encourage and strengthen bonds of solidarity between all Indigenous peoples of Africa, indigenous peoples and diasporas of African ancestry. Based on a common goal dating back to the Atla ...
. He founded and edited its publication, ''The Crusader'', a seminal New York magazine of the
New Negro Movement The Harlem Renaissance was an intellectual and cultural revival of African Americans, African-American music, dance, art, fashion, literature, theater, politics, and scholarship centered in Harlem, Manhattan, New York City, spanning the 1920s a ...
of the 1920s.


Biography


Early years

Cyril Valentine Briggs was born on May 28, 1888, on the
Caribbean The Caribbean ( , ; ; ; ) is a region in the middle of the Americas centered around the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, mostly overlapping with the West Indies. Bordered by North America to the north, Central America ...
island of
Nevis Nevis ( ) is an island in the Caribbean Sea that forms part of the inner arc of the Leeward Islands chain of the West Indies. Nevis and the neighbouring island of Saint Kitts constitute the Saint Kitts and Nevis, Federation of Saint Kitts ...
, part of the
West Indies The West Indies is an island subregion of the Americas, surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, which comprises 13 independent island country, island countries and 19 dependent territory, dependencies in thr ...
. His father, Louis E. Briggs, was a
white White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...
plantation overseer; his mother, Mary M. Huggins, was of African-Caribbean descent.Minkah Makalani, ''For the Liberation of Black People Everywhere: The African Blood Brotherhood, Black Radicalism, and Pan-African Liberation in the New Negro Movement, 1917–1936.'' Urbana, IL: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2004; p. 60. In accord with the racial caste system in colonial Nevis, the
biracial The term multiracial people refers to people who are mixed with two or more races and the term multi-ethnic people refers to people who are of more than one ethnicities. A variety of terms have been used both historically and presently for mul ...
Briggs was regarded as "
coloured Coloureds () are multiracial people in South Africa, Namibia and, to a smaller extent, Zimbabwe and Zambia. Their ancestry descends from the interracial mixing that occurred between Europeans, Africans and Asians. Interracial mixing in South ...
" despite his extremely light complexion. While accorded the benefit of a quality colonial education, he was not accepted as a potential member of the island's ruling elite due to their hostility to racial equality. As a youth Briggs worked as an assistant in the library of a local clergyman, where he was first exposed to political works critical of
imperialism Imperialism is the maintaining and extending of Power (international relations), power over foreign nations, particularly through expansionism, employing both hard power (military and economic power) and soft power (diplomatic power and cultura ...
.Makalani, ''For the Liberation of Black People Everywhere,'' p. 61. He would later move to become a writer himself, taking jobs with the ''St. Kitts Daily Express'' and the ''St. Christopher Advertiser.'' Recognized for his promise as an aspiring writer, in his later teenaged years Briggs was awarded a scholarship to study journalism at the university level. He ultimately turned down this opportunity, however, emigrating to the United States in July 1905 to join his mother, who had already emigrated there. When he was young he was known as a wise kid.


Journalistic career

Little is known about Briggs' first seven years in America, as he never wrote of the experience in his extremely short autobiographical notes housed in the
Marcus Garvey Marcus Mosiah Garvey Jr. (17 August 188710 June 1940) was a Jamaican political activist. He was the founder and first President-General of the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League (UNIA-ACL) (commonly known a ...
Papers at
UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the C ...
. Briggs' first American writing job came in 1912 at the ''
Amsterdam News The ''Amsterdam News'' (also known as ''New York Amsterdam News'') is a weekly Black-owned newspaper serving New York City. It is one of the oldest newspapers geared toward African Americans in the United States and has published columns by s ...
''.Daren Salter
"Briggs, Cyril (1888-1966)"
BlackPast.org BlackPast.org is a web-based reference center that is dedicated primarily to the understanding of African-American history and Afro-Caribbean history and the history of people of Sub-Saharan African ancestry. In 2011, the American Library Associ ...
, January 19, 2007.
In 1917, shortly after
Hubert Harrison Hubert Henry Harrison (April 27, 1883 – December 17, 1927) was a West Indian-American writer, orator, educator, critic, race and class conscious political activist, and radical internationalist based in Harlem, New York. He was described by a ...
founded the Liberty League and ''The Voice'', Briggs founded the African Blood Brotherhood (ABB), one of the seminal groups of African-American associations. His goal was to stop lynching and
racial discrimination Racial discrimination is any discrimination against any individual on the basis of their Race (human categorization), race, ancestry, ethnicity, ethnic or national origin, and/or Human skin color, skin color and Hair, hair texture. Individuals ...
, and ensure voting and
civil rights Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' political freedom, freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and ...
for African Americans in the South. He also called for black self-determination. The group initially opposed American involvement in the
First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
.


African Blood Brotherhood founder

In 1918, the ABB started a magazine called ''The Crusader'', which supported the
Socialist Party of America The Socialist Party of America (SPA) was a socialist political party in the United States formed in 1901 by a merger between the three-year-old Social Democratic Party of America and disaffected elements of the Socialist Labor Party of America ...
's platform and helped expose
lynchings Lynching is an extrajudicial killing by a group. It is most often used to characterize informal public executions by a mob in order to punish an alleged or convicted transgressor or to intimidate others. It can also be an extreme form of in ...
in the South and discrimination in the North. Briggs hoped that President
Woodrow Wilson Thomas Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856February 3, 1924) was the 28th president of the United States, serving from 1913 to 1921. He was the only History of the Democratic Party (United States), Democrat to serve as president during the Prog ...
would support voting rights for African Americans in the South after the service of veterans in the war. Southern Democratic
congressmen A member of congress (MOC), also known as a congressman or congresswoman, is a person who has been appointed or elected and inducted into an official body called a congress, typically to represent a particular constituency in a legislature. The ...
opposed any changes. Disillusioned by Socialist and progressive efforts, Briggs joined the
Communist Party of America The Communist Party USA (CPUSA), officially the Communist Party of the United States of America, also referred to as the American Communist Party mainly during the 20th century, is a communist party in the United States. It was established ...
in 1921, his leadership of the ABB gained
Marxist Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflic ...
influences. He called for control by African-American workers of the means of production which employed them, whether in industry or in agriculture. Briggs became a leading exponent of racial separatism. Briggs saw American White-Black racism as a form of "hatred of the unlike" that draws "its virulence from the firm conviction in the white man's mind of the inequality of races—the belief that there are superior and inferior races and that the former are marked with a white skin and the latter with dark skin and that only the former are capable and virtuous and therefore alone fit to vote, rule and inherit the earth." Briggs reminded his readers that racial antipathy is a two-way street and that “the Negro dislikes the white man almost as much as the latter dislikes the Negro.” Briggs proposed a "new solution" then emerging, in which the African American had come to the realization that "the salvation of his race and an honorable solution of the American Race Problem call for action and decision in preference to the twaddling, dreaming, and indecision of 'leaders.'" Instead, “nothing more or less than independent, separate existence” was called for — "Government of the (Negro) people, for the (Negro) people and by the (Negro) people." Briggs's Marxist views as applied to a separatist government caused a rift with
Marcus Garvey Marcus Mosiah Garvey Jr. (17 August 188710 June 1940) was a Jamaican political activist. He was the founder and first President-General of the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League (UNIA-ACL) (commonly known a ...
, the founder of the
Universal Negro Improvement Association The Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League (UNIA-ACL) is a black nationalist fraternal organization founded by Marcus Garvey, a Jamaican immigrant to the United States, and his then-wife Amy Ashwood Garvey. ...
(UNIA). While opposed to Garvey's nationalist movement, the Marxists of the ABB did not view "
Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...
for the
Africans The ethnic groups of Africa number in the thousands, with each ethnicity generally having their own language (or dialect of a language) and culture. The ethnolinguistic groups include various Afroasiatic, Khoisan, Niger-Congo, and Nilo-Sahara ...
" as an invitation to capitalist development. Briggs wrote, "Socialism and Communism
ere Ere or ERE may refer to: * ''Environmental and Resource Economics'', a peer-reviewed academic journal * ERE Informatique, one of the first French video game companies * Ere language, an Austronesian language * Ebi Ere (born 1981), American-Nigeria ...
in practical application in Africa for centuries before they were even advanced as theories in the European world." Garvey believed that Briggs was trying to undermine the UNIA and filed a series of lawsuits against him. Briggs supported the
Irish War of Independence The Irish War of Independence (), also known as the Anglo-Irish War, was a guerrilla war fought in Ireland from 1919 to 1921 between the Irish Republican Army (1919–1922), Irish Republican Army (IRA, the army of the Irish Republic) and Unite ...
saying "the Irish fight for liberty is the Greatest Epic of Modern History. It is a struggle that should have the sympathy and active support of every lover of liberty of every member of an oppressed group."


Communist Party membership

Briggs joined the
Communist Party of America The Communist Party USA (CPUSA), officially the Communist Party of the United States of America, also referred to as the American Communist Party mainly during the 20th century, is a communist party in the United States. It was established ...
(CPA) in 1921 as a result of direct solicitations to join the still underground movement made by
Rose Pastor Stokes Rose Harriet Pastor Stokes (née Wieslander; July 18, 1879 – June 20, 1933) was an American socialist activist, writer, birth control advocate, and feminist. She was a figure of some public notoriety after her 1905 marriage to Episcopalian milli ...
of the CPA and
Robert Minor Robert Berkeley "Bob" Minor (15 July 1884 – 26 January 1952), alternatively known as "Fighting Bob", was a Editorial cartoon, political cartoonist, a radical journalist, and, beginning in 1920, a leading member of the Communist Party USA. Ba ...
of the rival United Communist Party."Letter to Theodore Draper in New York from Cyril Briggs in Los Angeles, March 17, 1958"
Corvallis, OR: 1000 Flowers Publishing, 2007; p. 1.
Briggs later recalled in a letter to historian
Theodore Draper Theodore H. Draper (September 11, 1912 – February 21, 2006) was an American historian and political writer. Draper is best known for the 14 books he completed during his life, including work regarded as seminal on the formative period of the Am ...
that his motivation for joining the Communist movement related to the domestic policy of
Soviet Russia The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (Russian SFSR or RSFSR), previously known as the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic and the Russian Soviet Republic, and unofficially as Soviet Russia,Declaration of Rights of the labo ...
towards its national minority groups and to the fledgling Soviet state's explicitly anti-imperialist foreign policy. In his communication with Draper, Briggs was explicit that the establishment of the ABB both predated his personal association with the Communist movement as well as the influence of Soviet domestic and foreign policy:
"You are quite correct in assuming that the Communist Party had no part in initiating the organization of the Brotherhood. Nor did the Brotherhood owe its inspiration to the Communist movement. It was certainly already in existence when I had my first contact with the Communists, through the visits of Rose tokesand Bob
inor Inor can refer to: * Inor language, spoken in Ethiopia * Inor, Meuse, France {{disambiguation ...
to my office at 2299 Seventh Avenue ew York City Nor did the Communists inspire the ABB program you have seen.
"After I, Dick Moore, and some other members of the Supreme Council joined the CP, we sought to and succeeded in establishing a close relationship between the two organizations."
Briggs would remain an active member of the Communist Party, USA (CPUSA) throughout the decade of the 1920s. Joel Seidman with Olive Golden and Yaffa Draznin (eds.), ''Communism in the United States — A Bibliography.'' Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1969; p. 66. In 1925 the African Blood Brotherhood was dissolved and replaced with a new organizational entity, the American Negro Labor Congress.William L. Van Deburg (ed.),
Modern Black Nationalism: From Marcus Garvey to Louis Farrakhan
'' New York, NY: New York University Press, 1996; p. 34.
Briggs was tapped as the new national secretary of the new Communist Party-sponsored organization. Briggs was named a member of the governing Central Committee of the Communist Party in 1929. He would remain an influential figure in the party's hierarchy until the advent of the moderate Popular Front. Briggs would ultimately be expelled from the CPUSA at the end of the 1930s, accused of maintaining a "Negro nationalist way of thinking" in defiance of the new integrationist party line. Briggs was allowed to rejoin the CPUSA in 1948, following the fall of party leader
Earl Browder Earl Russell Browder (May 20, 1891 – June 27, 1973) was an American politician, spy for the Soviet Union, communist activist and leader of the Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA). Browder was the General Secretary of the CP ...
. He would remain active in the organization for the rest of his life, participating in its west coast activities.


Death and legacy

Briggs died on October 18, 1966, in Los Angeles, California. Briggs was a founder and editor of the crusader.


Footnotes


Works


"The American Race Problem"
''The Crusader'' ew York vol. 1, no. 14 (September–December 1918).
"The African Blood Brotherhood"
''The Crusader,'' vol. 2, no. 10 (June 1920), pp. 7, 22.
"The Negro Convention"
''The Toiler'' ew York vol. 4, whole no. 190 (October 1, 1921), pp. 13–14. * "The Negro Question in the Southern Textile Strikes", ''The Communist,'' vol. 8, no. 6 (June 1929), pp. 324–328. * "The Negro Press as a Class Weapon", ''The Communist'', vol. 8, no. 8 (August 1929), pp. 453–460. * "Our Negro Work", ''The Communist,'' vol. 8, no. 9 (September 1929), pp. 494–501.


Further reading

* Kathleen M. Ahern, "Drafting a Revolutionary Pushkin: Cyril Briggs and the Creation of a Black International Proletariat", ''South Atlantic Review,'' vol. 73, no. 2 (Spring 2008), pp. 113–129
In JSTOR
* Minkah Makalani, ''For the Liberation of Black People Everywhere: The African Blood Brotherhood, Black Radicalism, and Pan-African Liberation in the New Negro Movement, 1917–1936.'' Urbana, IL: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2004. PhD dissertation. * Louis J. Parascandola
"Cyril Briggs and the African Blood Brotherhood: A Radical Counterpoint to Progressivism,"
''Afro-Americans in New York Life and History,'' January 2006. * Wilfred D. Samuels, ''Five Afro-Caribbean Voices in American Culture, 1917–1929: Hubert H. Harrison, Wilfred A. Domingo, Richard B. Moore, Cyril V. Briggs, and Claude McKay.'' University of Iowa, 1977. PhD dissertation. * Mark Solomon, ''The Cry Was Unity: Communists and African Americans, 1917–1936.'' Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi, 1998. * Michelle Ann Stephens, "Black Empire: The Making of Black Transnationalism by West Indians in the United States, 1914–1962." New Haven, CT: Yale University, 1999. PhD dissertation. * Theman Ray Taylor, ''Cyril Briggs and the African Blood Brotherhood: Another Radical View of Race and Class in the 1920s.'' Santa Barbara, CA: University of California at Santa Barbara, 1981. PhD dissertation. * William L. Van Deburg (ed.), ''Modern Black Nationalism: From Marcus Garvey to Louis Farrakhan.'' New York, NY: New York University Press, 1996.


External links


Cyril Briggs Archive
at marxists.org {{DEFAULTSORT:Briggs, Cyril 1888 births 1966 deaths Activists for African-American civil rights African-American communists African-American Marxists African-American non-fiction writers American civil rights activists American male non-fiction writers Members of the Communist Party USA People from Nevis Saint Kitts and Nevis communists Saint Kitts and Nevis emigrants to the United States Saint Kitts and Nevis writers