“The truth will set you free”: Communist infiltration in the black community

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Written By Chuck Morse

Given that February is Black History Month and that the communist infiltration of America is an interest of mine, I will be focusing this next month on the history of the communist infiltration of the African-American community. In the 1920’s, the Kremlin targeted African-Americans by promoting the formation of a “Negro Soviet Republic” to be carved out of what they called the “black belt,” and area with a large African-American population that crossed several southern states. When this line of reasoning was met with scorn and hostility by the overwhelmingly conservative, Christian, and pro-American Black community, the communists realized that they had made a mistake and changed tactics.

In their conspiracy to subvert the African-American community, the communists would switch to a strategy of attempting to influence Black ministers through subterfuge. In my research on the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, a minister whom they influenced, I came across congressional testimony, which identifies the network of Communist fronts set up for this purpose. The evidence puts to rest the contention that Marxism was in any way organically attractive to African-Americans as a solution to the problems stemming from racism. Predominantly white Communists, who received massive support from a predominantly white left leaning establishment, would covertly introduce communist ideas. The establishment would indirectly and perhaps unwittingly promote, through finance and publicity, left leaning African-American leaders.

Arguably the most influential communist front catering to African-Americans was the Southern Conference Educational Fund (SCEF), which was originally called the Southern Conference on Human Welfare (SCHW), founded in Birmingham, Alabama, September 6, 1938. Regarding SCHW, the House Committee on Un-American Activities, 1948, found:

Decisive and key posts (of SCHW) are in most instances controlled by persons whose record is faithful to the line of the Communist Party and the Soviet Union….

The Southern Conference for Human Welfare is perhaps the most deviously camouflaged Communist-front organization. When put to the following acid test it reveals its true character:

1. It shows unswerving loyalty to the basic principles of Soviet foreign policy.

2. It has consistently refused to take sharp issue with the activities and policies of the Communist Party, USA, or the Soviet Union.

3. It has maintained in decisive posts persons who have the confidence of the Communist press.

4. It has displayed consistent anti-American bias and pro-Soviet bias, despite professions, in generalities, of love for America.

SCHW would change its name to the Southern Conference Educational Fund after being identified as a Communist front. The SCEF continued at the same address as SCHW (808 Perdido Street, New Orleans) and published the same periodical (The Southern Patriot). In 1954 the Senate Subcommittee on Internal Security found that at least 11 former officials of SCHW had also been officials of SCEF. Among these were the President and Executive Director, both of whom were identified as members of the CPUSA.

Ella Baker, identified as a Communist, was a “Special Consultant” at SCEF and also attended the founding meeting of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), headed by Martin Luther King. In 1958 Baker established SCLC headquarters in Atlanta where she played a key role in the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), an organization that would became known for its advocacy and instigation of racial discord and violence. John Lewis, a founder of SNCC, and presently a Congressman from Georgia, described Ella Baker as “the spiritual mother, I guess you would call her, of SNCC”

Fred L. Shuttlesworth, affiliated with several communist fronts, was President of SCEF and corresponding secretary of SCLC. Several others affiliated with SCEF were alleged under oath to have been members of the Communist Party including the following:

(1) Aubrey Williams: President-Emeritus of SCEF, Williams had been identified as a member of the CPUSA in the testimony of two former members of the Party, Paul Crouch and Joseph Butler. Williams denied these allegations.

(2) Dr. James A. Dombrowski: Executive Director of SCEF, had also been identified as a member of the Communist Party by witnesses Crouch and Butler. Dombrowski denied these allegations.

(3) Carl Braden: Field Organizer for SCEF, was identified as a member of the CPUSA in the testimony of Alberta Aheam, an FBI informant in the Party. Braden later served as Executive Director of SCEF (1966-1970). Braden was indicted and convicted of advocacy of criminal sedition in Kentucky, 1954, and was sentenced to fifteen years imprisonment; the conviction was reversed by the United States Supreme Court in Pennsylvania v. Nelson, (1956), which struck down state sedition laws. Braden’s wife, Anne Braden, was also identified by Aheam as a member of the Communist Party. Anne Braden was also active within the leadership of SCEF.

(4) William Howard Melish: “Eastern Representative” of SCEF (in New York City), was described by HCUA as “the Communist Party’s principal front for all things Russian”. Melish is the father of Howard Jeffrey Melish (known as Jeff Melish), a member of the Students for a Democratic Society and the violent “Weatherman. ” Jeff Melish was arrested in Chicago during the violent “Days of Rage” riot organized by the Weatherman in 1969, he attended the 9th World Youth Festival in Sofia, Bulgaria in 1968, and traveled to Cuba in 1970.

(5) Benjamin E. Smith: treasurer of SCEF, was a member of the executive board of the National Lawyers Guild (NLG), cited as a Communist front, and was listed as “Co-Secretary” of the NLG Committee to Assist Southern Lawyers.

The Highlander Folk School, founded in 1932 by Myles Horton, became well known for its involvement in a number of leftist causes. Both CP members Aubrey Williams and James Dombrowski were affiliated with the Highlander School. Paul Crouch, who had been district organizer for Tennessee for the Communist Party, testified that during a conference he attended with Highlander leadership, the following strategy was discussed:

“The purpose was to work out a plan by which the Daily Worker would be made accessible to students, the instructors would refer to the Daily Worker and encourage the students to read it, and it was agreed that the Communist Party should have a student, a leader, sent there as a student whose job it would be to look around for prospective recruits and Mildred White, now in Washington, D.C., was selected to attend the Highlander Folk School for the purpose of recruiting for the Communist Party and carrying the Communist Party line among the student body there.”

On February 23, 1961, the New York Times reported that The Southern Christian Leadership Conference … and the Highlander Folk School have joined forces to train Negro leaders for the civil rights struggle. In 1962 the Highlander Center opened in Knoxville, Tennessee, with Myles Horton on the board of directors. In December, 1962, Martin Luther King was listed as a sponsor of the center on its letterhead.

A rudimentary understanding of communism indicates that the goal is victory by any means. The agenda has absolutely nothing to do with advancing the interests of African-American people. They fomented race conflict and violence to serve the purpose of the dialectic of disorder, which would, they believed, help speed up the emergence of the totalitarian system they sought to control. Not only did they not care how many thousands of African-Americans would be killed, maimed, or left homeless and destitute as a result of their planned riots, but they actually viewed the situation as favorable to recruiting new adherents advocating welfare while turning the tables and blaming the American capitalist system for the social ills they instigated. In this “Black History Month,” I hope there can be an honest airing of true Black history. As the saying goes, “The truth will set you free.”

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