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''We Charge Genocide'' is a paper accusing the United States government of
genocide Genocide is violence that targets individuals because of their membership of a group and aims at the destruction of a people. Raphael Lemkin, who first coined the term, defined genocide as "the destruction of a nation or of an ethnic group" by ...
based on the UN Genocide Convention. This paper was written by the
Civil Rights Congress The Civil Rights Congress (CRC) was a United States civil rights organization, formed in 1946 at a national conference for radicals and disbanded in 1956. It succeeded the International Labor Defense, the National Federation for Constitutional L ...
(CRC) and presented to the
United Nations The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...
at meetings in Paris in December 1951. The document pointed out that the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide defined genocide as any acts committed with "
intent to destroy Genocidal intent is the specific mental element, or , required to classify an act as genocide under international law, particularly the 1948 Genocide Convention. To establish genocide, perpetrators must be shown to have had the '' dolus speciali ...
" a group, "in whole or in part". To build its case for black genocide, the document cited many instances of
lynching in the United States Lynching was the widespread occurrence of extrajudicial killings which began in the United States' Antebellum South, pre–Civil War South in the 1830s, slowed during the civil rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s, and continued until L ...
, as well as legal
discrimination Discrimination is the process of making unfair or prejudicial distinctions between people based on the groups, classes, or other categories to which they belong or are perceived to belong, such as race, gender, age, class, religion, or sex ...
, disenfranchisement of blacks in the South, a series of incidents of police brutality dating to the present, and systematic inequalities in health and quality of life. The central argument: The U.S. government is both complicit in and responsible for a genocidal situation based on the UN's own definition of genocide. The document received international media attention and became caught up in
Cold War The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...
politics, as the CRC was supported by the American Communist Party. Its many examples of shocking conditions for African Americans shaped beliefs about the United States in countries across the world. The United States government and press accused the CRC of exaggerating
racial inequality Social inequality occurs when resources within a society are distributed unevenly, often as a result of inequitable allocation practices that create distinct unequal patterns based on socially defined categories of people. Differences in acce ...
in order to advance the cause of
Communism Communism () is a political sociology, sociopolitical, political philosophy, philosophical, and economic ideology, economic ideology within the history of socialism, socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a ...
. The U.S. State Department forced CRC secretary William L. Patterson to surrender his passport after he presented the petition to a UN meeting in Paris.


Background

Soon after the
United Nations The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...
was created in 1945, it began to receive requests for assistance from peoples across the world. These came from the indigenous peoples of European colonies in Africa and Asia, but also from African Americans. The first group to petition the UN regarding African Americans was the
National Negro Congress In African-American history, the National Negro Congress (NNC; 1936–ca. 1946) was an African-American organization formed in 1936 at Howard University as a broadly based coalition organization with the goal of fighting for Black liberation; it ...
(NNC), which in 1946 delivered a statement on racial discrimination to the Secretary General. The next appeal, from the
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is an American civil rights organization formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E. B. Du&nbs ...
(NAACP) in 1947, was more than 100 pages in length.
W. E. B. Du Bois William Edward Burghardt Du Bois ( ; February 23, 1868 – August 27, 1963) was an American sociologist, socialist, historian, and Pan-Africanist civil rights activist. Born in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, Du Bois grew up in a relativel ...
presented it to the UN on 23 October 1947, over the objections of
Eleanor Roosevelt Anna Eleanor Roosevelt ( ; October 11, 1884November 7, 1962) was an American political figure, diplomat, and activist. She was the longest-serving First Lady of the United States, first lady of the United States, during her husband Franklin D ...
, the widow of the late president and an American delegate to the UN. Du Bois, frustrated with the State Department's opposition to the petitions, criticized president Walter White of the NAACP for accepting a position as consultant to the US delegation; White in turn pushed Du Bois out of the NAACP. The petitions were praised by the international press and by
Black press Black Press Group Ltd. (BPG) is a Canadian commercial printer and newspaper publisher founded in 1975 by David Holmes Black. Based in Surrey, British Columbia, it was previously owned by the publisher of ''Toronto Star'' ( Torstar, 19.35%) and B ...
in the United States. America's mainstream media, however, were ambivalent or hostile. Some agreed that there was some truth to the petitions, but suggested that "tattling" to the UN would aid the cause of Communism. The Soviet Union did cite these documents as evidence of poor conditions in the United States. The
Civil Rights Congress The Civil Rights Congress (CRC) was a United States civil rights organization, formed in 1946 at a national conference for radicals and disbanded in 1956. It succeeded the International Labor Defense, the National Federation for Constitutional L ...
(CRC), the successor to the
International Labor Defense The International Labor Defense (ILD) (1925–1947) was a legal advocacy organization established in 1925 in the United States as the American section of the Comintern's International Red Aid network. The ILD defended Sacco and Vanzetti, was active ...
group and affiliated with the communist party, had begun to gain momentum domestically by defending Blacks sentenced to execution, such as Rosa Lee Ingram and the Trenton Six. The National Negro Congress joined forces with the CRC in 1947.


Contents

The petition quotes the UN's
definition of genocide Genocide definitions include many scholarly and international legal definitions of genocide, a word coined by Raphael Lemkin in 1944.Oxford English Dictionary "Genocide" citing Raphael Lemkin ''Axis Rule in Occupied Europe'' ix. 79 The word is a ...
as "Any intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, racial, or religious group is genocide." It concludes that "the oppressed Negro citizens of the United States, segregated, discriminated against, and long the target of violence, suffer from genocide as the result of the consistent, conscious, unified policies of every branch of government. If the General Assembly acts as the conscience of mankind and therefore acts favorably on our petition, it will have served the cause of peace." The CRC emphasized that attempting to destroy a group "in part" was part of the definition, and argued that treatment of African Americans qualified as genocide. As evidence, the 237-page petition addresses the question of racism in the United States from different angles. It lists hundreds of wrongful executions and lynchings, refers to at least 10,000 undocumented cases, and also charges that Southern states in the U.S. had engaged in a conspiracy against African Americans' ability to vote through
poll taxes A poll tax, also known as head tax or capitation, is a tax levied as a fixed sum on every liable individual (typically every adult), without reference to income or resources. ''Poll'' is an archaic term for "head" or "top of the head". The sen ...
and
literacy tests A literacy test assesses a person's literacy skills: their ability to read and write. Literacy tests have been administered by various governments, particularly to immigrants. Between the 1850s and 1960s, literacy tests were used as an effecti ...
. In addition to legal discrimination, the petition discusses systematic economic inequalities and differences in quality of life.


Delivery

On 17 December 1951, the petition was presented to the
United Nations The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...
by two separate venues:
Paul Robeson Paul Leroy Robeson ( ; April 9, 1898 – January 23, 1976) was an American bass-baritone concert artist, actor, professional American football, football player, and activist who became famous both for his cultural accomplishments and for h ...
, concert singer and activist, together with people who signed the petition, handed the document to a UN official in
New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
, while William L. Patterson, executive director of the
Civil Rights Congress The Civil Rights Congress (CRC) was a United States civil rights organization, formed in 1946 at a national conference for radicals and disbanded in 1956. It succeeded the International Labor Defense, the National Federation for Constitutional L ...
, delivered copies of the petition to a UN delegation in
Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
. W. E. B. Du Bois, also slated to deliver the petition in Paris, had been classified by the US State Department as an "unregistered foreign agent" and was deterred from traveling.John Docker,
Raphaël Lemkin, creator of the concept of genocide: a world history perspective
, ''Humanities Research'' 16(2), 2010; accesse
via ProQuest
Du Bois had previously had an expensive legal battle against the Justice Department. The 125 copies Patterson mailed to Paris did not arrive, allegedly intercepted by the US government. But he distributed other copies, which he had shipped separately in small packages to individuals' homes.James L. Hicks,
Patterson Charges U.S. Stole Passport
, ''Baltimore Afro-American'', 2 February 1951.
The document was signed by many leading activists and family of Blacks who had suffered in the system, including: *
W. E. B. Du Bois William Edward Burghardt Du Bois ( ; February 23, 1868 – August 27, 1963) was an American sociologist, socialist, historian, and Pan-Africanist civil rights activist. Born in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, Du Bois grew up in a relativel ...
, African-American sociologist, historian and Pan-Africanist activist * George W. Crockett, Jr., African-American lawyer and politician * Benjamin J. Davis, Jr., African-American lawyer and Communist New York councilman *
Ferdinand Smith Ferdinand Smith (5 May 1893 – 14 August 1961) was a Jamaican-born Communist labor activist. A prominent activist in the United States and the West Indies, Smith co-founded the National Maritime Union with Joseph Curran and M. Hedley Stone. By 1 ...
, Communist labor activist and co-founder of the National Maritime Union * Oakley C. Johnson, Communist activist * Aubrey Grossman, labor and civil rights lawyer *
Claudia Jones Claudia Vera Jones (; 21 February 1915 – 24 December 1964) was a Trinidad and Tobago-born journalist and activist. As a child, she migrated with her family to the United States, where she became a Communist political activist, feminist and bla ...
, Communist and Black nationalist activist * Rosalie McGee, the widow of
Willie McGee Willie Dean McGee (born November 2, 1958) is an American professional baseball coach (baseball), coach and former outfielder. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for four teams, over 18 seasons, most prominently with the St. Louis Cardinal ...
, who in 1951 was executed after being controversially convicted of rape by an all-white jury * Josephine Grayson, the widow of Francis Grayson, one of the "
Martinsville Seven The Martinsville Seven were a group of seven African Americans, African-American men from Martinsville, Virginia, who were all executed in 1951 by the state of Virginia after being convicted of raping a white woman. At the time of their arrest, all ...
", who in 1951 were executed in
Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...
after a much-publicized trial and conviction by an all-white jury * Amy and Doris Mallard, family of Robert Mallard, lynched in
1948 Events January * January 1 ** The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) is inaugurated. ** The current Constitutions of Constitution of Italy, Italy and of Constitution of New Jersey, New Jersey (both later subject to amendment) ...
for voting * Paul Washington, veteran on death row in Louisiana * Wesley R. Wells, prisoner in California facing execution for throwing a cuspidor at a guard * Horace Wilson, James Thorpe, Collis English, and Ralph Cooper, four of the Trenton Six * Leon Josephson, Communist attorney who was imprisoned for contempt of the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) Patterson said he was ignored by US ambassador
Ralph Bunche Ralph Johnson Bunche ( ; August 7, 1904 – December 9, 1971) was an American political scientist, diplomat, and leading actor in the mid-20th-century decolonization process and US civil rights movement, who received the 1950 Nobel Peace Priz ...
and delegate Channing Tobias, but that Edith Sampson would talk to him. Patterson was ordered to surrender his passport at the United States embassy in France. When he refused, U.S. agents said they would seize it at his hotel room. Patterson fled to Budapest, where through the newspaper '' Szabad Nép'' he accused the U.S. government of attempting to stifle the charges. The U.S. government ordered Patterson to be detained when he passed through Britain and seized his passport when he returned to the United States. As Paul Robeson had been unable to obtain a passport at all, the difficulty these two men faced in traveling led some to accuse the United States government of censorship.


Reception

''We Charge Genocide'' was ignored by much of the mainstream American press. One exception, the ''
Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is an American daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Founded in 1847, it was formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper", a slogan from which its once integrated WGN (AM), WGN radio and ...
'', called it "shameful lies" (and evidence against the value of the Genocide Convention itself). I. F. Stone was the only white American journalist to write favorably of the document. The CRC had communist affiliations, and the document attracted international attention through the worldwide communist movement.
Raphael Lemkin Raphael Lemkin (; 24 June 1900 – 28 August 1959) was a Polish lawyer who is known for coining the term "genocide" and for campaigning to establish the Genocide Convention, which legally defines the act. Following the German invasion of Poland ...
, who invented the term "genocide" and advocated for the Genocide Convention, disagreed with the petition because the African-American population was increasing in size. He accused its authors of wishing to distract attention from the alleged "genocide" in the Soviet Union, which had resulted in millions of deaths, because of their communist sympathies. Lemkin accused Patterson and Robeson of serving foreign powers. He published an op-ed in ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'' arguing that African-Americans did not experience the "destruction, death, annihilation" that would qualify their treatment as genocide. The petition was particularly well received in Europe, where it received abundant press coverage. ''We Charge Genocide'' was popular almost everywhere in the world except in the United States. One American writer traveling India in 1952 found that many people had become familiar with the cases of the
Martinsville Seven The Martinsville Seven were a group of seven African Americans, African-American men from Martinsville, Virginia, who were all executed in 1951 by the state of Virginia after being convicted of raping a white woman. At the time of their arrest, all ...
and
Willie McGee Willie Dean McGee (born November 2, 1958) is an American professional baseball coach (baseball), coach and former outfielder. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for four teams, over 18 seasons, most prominently with the St. Louis Cardinal ...
through the document.Martin, "Internationalizing 'The American Dilemma'" (1997), p. 54. The American delegation heavily criticized the document. Eleanor Roosevelt called it "ridiculous". Black delegates Edith Sampson and Channing Tobias spoke to European audiences about how the situation of African Americans was improving. At the request of the State Department, the NAACP drafted a press release repudiating ''We Charge Genocide'', calling it "a gross and subversive conspiracy". However, upon hearing initial press reports of the petition and the expected NAACP response, Walter White decided against issuing the release. He and the board decided that the petition did reflect many of the NAACP views. For instance, the organization had long been publishing the toll of blacks who had been lynched. "How can we 'blast' a book that uses our records as source material?" asked
Roy Wilkins Roy Ottoway Wilkins (August 30, 1901 – September 8, 1981) was an American civil rights leader from the 1930s to the 1970s. Wilkins' most notable role was his leadership of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), ...
. The CRC's power was already declining due to accusations of Communism during the
Red Scare A Red Scare is a form of moral panic provoked by fear of the rise of left-wing ideologies in a society, especially communism and socialism. Historically, red scares have led to mass political persecution, scapegoating, and the ousting of thos ...
, and it disbanded in 1956. The United Nations did not acknowledge receiving the petition. Given the strength of U.S. influence, it was not really expected to do so.


Legacy

The document has been credited with popularizing the term "genocide" among Black people for their treatment in the US. After renewed interest generated by
Malcolm X Malcolm X (born Malcolm Little, later el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz; May 19, 1925 – February 21, 1965) was an African American revolutionary, Islam in the United States, Muslim minister and human rights activist who was a prominent figur ...
and the
Black Panther Party The Black Panther Party (originally the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense) was a Marxism–Leninism, Marxist–Leninist and Black Power movement, black power political organization founded by college students Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newto ...
, ''We Charge Genocide'' was republished in 1970 by
International Publishers International Publishers is a book publishing company based in New York City, specializing in Marxism, Marxist works of economics, political science, and history. Company history Establishment International Publishers Company, Inc., was founde ...
.Martin, "Internationalizing 'The American Dilemma'" (1997), p. 55. Allegations of genocide were renewed in relation to the disproportionate effects of
crack cocaine Crack cocaine, commonly known simply as crack, and also known as rock, is a free base form of the stimulant cocaine that can be Smoking, smoked. Crack offers a short, intense Euphoria (emotion), high to smokers. The ''Manual of Adolescent Sub ...
and
HIV/AIDS The HIV, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a retrovirus that attacks the immune system. Without treatment, it can lead to a spectrum of conditions including acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). It is a Preventive healthcare, pr ...
in the black communities in the United States. The National Black United Front petitioned the United Nations in 1996–1997, directly citing ''We Charge Genocide'' and using the same slogan.Worrill, Conrad W., "We Charge Genocide", ''New York Amsterdam News'', 19 April 1997; accesse
via ProQuest
Their petition begins: The high rate of incarceration of minorities is another American phenomenon sometimes connected to the word "genocide". Disproportionate application of the death penalty to blacks convicted of the same crime as whites has also been cited, as it was in the 1946–1951 era by the CRC. The United Nations,
anthropologist An anthropologist is a scientist engaged in the practice of anthropology. Anthropologists study aspects of humans within past and present societies. Social anthropology, cultural anthropology and philosophical anthropology study the norms, values ...
s, and mass media have generally not applied the term after 1945 to the internal affairs of Western states. The petition also represented one of the first high-profile uses of the modern concept of "
racism 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 (human categorization), race or ethnicity over another. It may also me ...
", framed in relation to the
eugenic Eugenics is a set of largely discredited beliefs and practices that aim to improve the genetic quality of a human population. Historically, eugenicists have attempted to alter the frequency of various human phenotypes by inhibiting the ferti ...
ideology of the reviled
Nazi Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...
s. ''We Charge Genocide'' was used as an example of how the Genocide Convention could be used against the United States. The convention remained unpopular with the United States government and was not ratified until 1986. During the United Nations Convention against Torture Committee Review of the U.S. in November 2014, a group of eight young activists from
Chicago, Illinois Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...
, (Breanna Champion, Page May, Monica Trinidad, Ethan Viets-VanLear, Asha Rosa, Ric Wilson, Todd St. Hill, and Malcolm London) submitted a shadow report using the name ''We Charge Genocide''. Their report addressed police brutality toward blacks in Chicago, the lack of police accountability, and the misuse of
taser Taser (stylized in all caps) is a line of handheld conducted energy devices (CED) sold by Axon Enterprise (formerly Taser International). The device fires two small barbed darts intended to puncture the skin and remain attached to the targe ...
s by the
Chicago Police Department The Chicago Police Department (CPD) is the primary law enforcement agency of the city of Chicago, Illinois, United States, under the jurisdiction of the Chicago City Council. It is the second-largest Law enforcement in the United States#Local, ...
.


Notes


References


Works cited

* Anderson, Carol Elaine.
Eyes off the prize: African-Americans, the United Nations, and the struggle for human rights, 1944–1952
'. Dissertation (approved), submitted 1995 at Ohio State University; accessed via
ProQuest ProQuest LLC is an Ann Arbor, Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan-based global information-content and technology company, founded in 1938 as University Microfilms by Eugene Power. ProQuest is known for its applications and information services for l ...
] * Martin, Charles H., "Internationalizing "The American Dilemma": The Civil Rights Congress and the 1951 Genocide", ''Journal of American Ethnic History'' 16(4), Summer 1997, * Vargas, João H. Costa, "Genocide in the African Diaspora: United States, Brazil, and the Need for a Holistic Research and Political Method", ''Cultural Dynamics'' 17(3), November 2005; accesse
via Sage


External links



* ttp://www.crmvet.org/tim/timhis51.htm Veterans of the Civil Rights Movement – Timeline
Civil Rights Movement Bibliography

We Charge Genocide: The Historic Petition to the United Nations for Relief from a Crime of the United States Government against the Negro People
{{Genocide topics History of civil rights in the United States United States and the United Nations Petitions Paul Robeson Civil Rights Congress 1951 documents Genocides in North America African-American documents