A Jewish family certainly helped Louie Armstrong when he was young, and I understood, they bought him his first instrument, An American Army band thay played jazz in Europe during WWI made a powerful impression, and more research might go into intellectuals' reaction to the new music, and that would include Jews.
Some would contend that jazz began in the cat houses of the NO French Quarter, with musicians playing music to amuse customers and xxx. Ragtime was popular, but with syncopation and other alterations a new name was required. When residing in China a decade or so ago, I was surprised to see in a supermarket at the end of a counter a string of condoms; the brand Jiz Bon. And was reminded of one of the early origins of the term jazz, and its early surroundings. The American Black Army Band brought the new music to Europe during WWI, to immense popularity. Also during that war, Pres. Wilson, to protect our young service men, cracked down on the cat houses (something locals would not do), which caused musicians to depart for Kansas, Memphis, Chicago, and New York. And it was George Gershwin, a Jew, who brought the new music to classical halls. From humble surroundings to the Stadts Oper in Berlin (where I saw Porgy and Bess).
A pivotal point is omitted in Chapter 2 of Gates' series. For years now, if someone calls you a racist, especially in print, you had better defend yourself or be prepared to lose your job and your standing in most communities. Yet, there is no law about being a racist. When did this begin? In spring 1931 when August Yokinen was brought up on charges of racism. He was janitor to a Finnish social organization located in Harlem during one of the groups dances. Two Blacks entered the hall, the band stopped, so did the dancing, and Mr. Yokinen told the two young men to leave. Yokinen, a member of the Communist Party, USA, was brought up on charges, and a show trial in Harlem was prepared. Well publicized, many Black newspapers covered the story and hundreds sat in for part of the trial. Yokinen was not expelled, but had to make up for his racism before being fully restored to membership in the CP. Meanwhile, US immigration realized that in joining the CP, Yokinenhe had violated his oath not to try to overthrow the US government, and was deported to eastern Europe. It was not American law that racism was a crime, but in time the communist policy became de facto law in America.
Shortly after, the cause celebre of the decade. Also spring 1931 on a freight train from Chattanooga south, a fight breaks out between young folk hoboing. Some Blacks won and threw several white boys off the moving train. They told the sheriff, and to stress their point, - some white girls remained on the train. Authorities stopped the train, found the girls (or young women), and 9 Blacks. The women said they were raped, the 9 Blacks quickly put on trial, and so began the Scottsboro Cases. THE BIGGEST AMERICAN CASE OF THE 1930S.
The NAACP, not especially interested in low-lifes that would tarnish the organization's reputation, put up a weak defense. 8 were given the death penalty, the 14-year-old got life. Scottsboro, home of the trials, took pride that no one had been lynched.
Then, a new kid intervenes, the International Labor Defense, a CP front group, promised to defend the boys, with a 2-pronged approach, excellent attorneys inside the court room, AND agitation, protest, mobilization of masses outside. The ILD got intellectuals from Europe, including Einstein, Thomas Mann, Kathe Kollwitz, to protest the verdict, marches in Harlem, telegrams from South Africa, an Amerindian chief, Mme. Sun Yet Sen to denounce the Alabama verdict. The Scottsboro newspaper ran a story that they might have to prepare for a Communist invasion from Chattanooga (presumably a Red center). The ILD hired a top NY attorney, a non-Communist Jew Samuel Leibowitz to defend the boys. He was a Democrat, but the other ILD attorneys may have been affiliated with other parties, but some of the were Jewish, too.
What were they facing in the 1930s? Not what you think. The Supreme Court was so conservative then that Dem. Pres. Franklin openly sought to pack the court with Dems like himself. And what was that? PBS had an excellent special on the battle in Wilmington, NC in 1898. The election had been won by a fusion ticket of Populists and Republicans, and in the South Republican meant Black. The Democrats decided to do there what they had been doing ever since the end of the Civil War, certainly since the Republican promise to remove Yankee troops from the South after the disputed 1876 election. One by one "civilization" was restored by the KKK and similar groups overthrowing black run communities. By 1898 Wilmington was the last black domino standing, but white Democrats like Josephus Daniels led a physical rebellion, overthrowing the elected government, and ensuring white supremacy and the Democratic Party's Solid South. When Dem. Woodrow Wilson is elected Pres. in 1912, he soon appoints Josephus Daniels as his Sec. of the Navy. In some ways Daniels is progressive, opening promotions to ill-educated but intelligent poor whites. My oncle, who finshed schooling at 5th grade learned on the job to become an engineer on ships. Same time, Daniels closed the door to Blacks. Pres. Wilson openly segregates the Civil Service, and demanding photographs of applicants, and thus not hire Blacks. As war in Europe looms, the navy grows in importance. Daniels says America's greatest crime was allowing Blacks to vote. And who is Undersecretary of the Navy under Daniels. FDR. And when FDR becomes President, he keeps the photo requirement, and retains segregation of the Civil Service, AND THE MILITARY.
How could anyone, much less a Red ILD save the Scottsboro boys? Their good Jewish attorneys made better arguments up the appeals process, until the US Supreme Court ruled that in a trial with a death penalty, the defense had to have a real legal defender. A few years later, the ILD and others got another fantastic ruling from the conservative court, Blacks have to be in the pool of possible jurors. These were possibly the first pro-civil rights rulings by the US Supreme Court since the early days of Reconstruction, and the CP had a hand in these victories.
The Scottsboro Case was to the 1930s what the Scopes trial, Sacco/Vanzetti, and Loeb/Leopold were to the 1920s. And the Communists led the way.
Happily, time is spent on Paul Robeson, probably the best known Black in the world by 1940. In Europe he made films for African showing (half the continent was British). He befriended some of the extras in his movies, who were attending universities in Britain. One was Johnston Kenyatta, and he and Robeson led the Scottsboro Defence organization in Britain. After WWII, that student became better known back in Africa as Jomo Kenyatta, and led the way to an independent nation. But anti-colonialism for Robeson in the US made him an enemy of the statte.
I had never heard of Cafe Society and its integrated threats to the un-American activities committees. HOWEVER, Gates misses the big point - the 1948 election.
Harry Truman was a typical racist before being elected Pres. AND after. Only for a short time on the changed international stage did he try to be egalitarian.
During WWII Hitler offered to let the British continue with their empire; Hitler was aiming eastward. Indeed, Hitler admired how small Britain had conquered India and other places. Churchill did not trust Hitler, and thought with American, and even Soviet help, Hitler would lose. The big 3 was to meet in Potsdam, but FDR died and it was Churchill, Truman, and Stalin. Soon while meeting still ongoing, Churchill loses the Parliamentary elections to Labour. Clement Atlee to be the new PM of Britain, and he wants to allow greater India to become independent. In 1947, with millions dead in disputes of borders, India and Pakistan become independent nations. Anti-colonialsm, a demand of the communists since the early 1920s, is a new problem to be faced by any American President. If there are African embassys in Washington, DC, what happens when grand hotels reject their guests, or restaurants request that they go to the back door?
Gates discusses Cafe Society in NYC, the first integrated club where notable Blacks were closed to the CP orbit, and they would be called to testify before HUAC, the House Committee on Un-American Activities. People who took the 5th Amendment, often lost jobs and a place in society. HUAC helped destroy the Cafe Society and the lives of others round the nation, some of whom were indeed members of the CPUSA.
Harold Cruse was quite critical of the many Black intellectuals who were in the orbit of the CP. According to GoogleAI "He was famously critical of Marxism and the American Left, arguing that these ideologies failed to account for the unique "American" character of racism. He particularly targeted Jewish intellectuals in the Communist Party, claiming they had misdirected Black radical energy." Some of the phrases he used against a Jewish Communist writer of Black history, Herbert Aptheker, made Cruse seem like Dr. Goebels. Indeed, the issue of Black Fascism is never really mentioned on PBS. Marcus Garvey, leader of the Universal Negro Improvement Assn. declared "we were the first fascists." In the early 1960s, Black Muslims invidted as special guests to major BM gatherings members of the American Nazi party in their uniforms with swastika armbands. Malcolm X spoke directly to the Nazi leader in pleasantries so the mass audience could hear. Often whites in cartoons in Mohammad Speaks had a hooked nose. showing the evils of integration were pushed by Jews.
One more thing, a most important one.Time to forget the Dem. propaganda of Truman as the great civil rights President. 1948 was the civil rights movement before the later more successful one. It centered round the run for the Presidency of a former VP under FDR. Henry Wallace was VP of the USA from Jan 1941 to Jan. 1945. Had Franklin Roosevelt died a few months earlier, Wallace would have become Pres. of the USA. Roosevelt, at the Dem. convention in 1944 had decided to dump Wallace in favor of Truman, and so Truman became Pres. in spring 1945 upon the death of Roosevelt.
Truman had to learn quickly, about A bombs, the new Labour govt. in Britain, Stalin and his armies in eastern Europe, AND how he might win an election in 1948. Happily for Truman, he had Clark Clifford, an excellent political strategist, who would recast the mild racist Truman into a civil rights leader, the first President to address the NAACP. Anti-colonialism was becoming a reality; in 1947 both India and Pakistan became independent. What happens when an African embassy opens in segregated Washington, DC? 1948 seemed like a shoe in for Republican Tom Dewey, who supported the first civil rights law to be enacted by a state. Many Southern Dems disliked the trend and bolted from the Truman party to establish the Dixiecrats. Other Dems bolted from Truman to for the Henry Wallace Progressive Party, which was endorsed by the CP and its friendly trade unions. I contend, the Wallace campaign in the South was THE civil rights movement of that decade. Robeson was a leader of the PP. Dem. Sen Sen. Glen Taylor of Idaho became the VP candidate. When he went to Birmingham to address the Southern Nego Youth Congress, Police Chief Bull Conner had him arrested for entering the Black entrance to the building. Neither Robeson, nor Wallace, nor Sen. Glen Taylor, the singing cowboy would appear before segregated audiences. Many of their meetings had to be in the open, and former VP Wallace was the target of rotten eggs, tomatoes, etc. There were a few stabbings. Unlike the later CR movement, tv was too new to have an impact on seeing racism in action. Truman dismissed the problems as due to Wallace and his communists trying to stir up trouble. (After he was no longer Pres., Truman said if any sit-in came to his store, he would throw them out. He also said the Civil War was caused by busy bodies in New England, i.e., the Abolitionists were the cause of the war, not slavery). But when W E B Du Bois endorse Wallace, not Truman, Du Bois was fired by the NAACP, an organization he helped found. Truman later had him arrested as a foreign agent. After Truman's victory, in Feb. 1949, in the NO French Quarter some 60 people were arrested for attending a Progressive Party social that was violating the segregation laws of the state.
But in 1950 in Washington DC and Baltimore, led my the elderly Black leader Mary Church Terrell, but also including a 4-year old Carl Bernstein, whose mom was a leader of the PP (he would gain fame later as a reporter in the Watergate scandal), they were engaged in a new tactic called sit-downs in restaurants. These are forgotten, Too soon. A decade later they will help change America.
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