Cheap labor, made capital investments in Alabama extremely profitable in the early 20th century. Despite mineral deposits being buried deep, insufficient water supply, and low metallic content, cheap labor made the Birmingham Industrial Complex a region known as the "
Pittsburgh of the South." Labor costs were so cheap, by 1910, the market made Birmingham Alabama one of the least costly industrial centers in the country for investors. As a result, by 1910, just 1 percent of individuals in the region had a net worth of over $35,000, while 80 percent earned under $500 per annum. Consequently, interlocking directorships made it possible for a small minority of wealthy aristocrats to take control of local politics, dominate elected officials, and control the economy of the region. Further, control over the real estate, banking, and mining industries became centralized bringing large fortunes into the hands of less than 1 percent of the population. Industrialists spent their vast wealth lavishly while developing a strong class consciousness. One capitalist even went so far as to build his home as a replica of an ancient Roman temple. Between 1900 and 1905, African American the community was segregated into smaller enclaves. With communities pushed to creek beds, railroad lines, and alleys near the downtown area, the African American community was effectively segregated and splintered. However in rural Alabama, illiteracy among Blacks by 1940 was still between 30 and 40 percent among sharecroppers and farm workers. With the conditions as they were, the Communist international decided to send organizers to the region.
History of the Alabama Chapter of the Communist Party USA In 1928, at the Sixth World Congress of the
Communist International, an association of international communists, established the official line on the "Negro Question." Being that the region of the American South was dominated by cotton plantations and rich white elites despite a numerical black majority, the entire region would be defined as an "oppressed nation." The adopted resolution maintained that as an oppressed nation, African Americans had the right to
self determination, (the control over political power as well as the economy,) and as such had the right to secede of the United States. In 1930, the resolution was further defined to account for the material differences between the North and South. The new resolution took the position that Northern Blacks sought integration and assimilation giving Blacks in the South the exclusive right to secession.
Backlash from Police and The Ku Klux Klan The Alabama Chapter of CPUSA was subjected to numerous attacks by both the
Ku Klux Klan as well as police forces including bombings, lynchings, vigilantism, and murder. Just a few weeks after opening their office in Birmingham, on March 23, 1930, the ACPUSA held a meeting attended by over two hundred people, mostly Black. While the meeting went without incident, several days later, the home of James Giglio, a metal worker and organizer for the Party, was firebombed. During their first summer in Birmingham, seven hundred Black workers took to the streets with about one hundred white workers gathering in Capitol Park to demand unemployment relief as well as to protest the arrests of six Communist organizers. As the demonstrators marched to Chest headquarters, they were met with over one hundred police officers and disbanded. Consequently, city commissioner Jimmie Jones conducted a full scale investigation. As a result, a public ordinance against "criminal anarchy," was passed unanimously by the city commission on June 17, 1930. The ordinance specifically attacked anyone associating with the Communist Party, the printing of Communist or radical agitation. Violation of the ordinance was punishable by $100 and up to 180 days in jail. This prompted police to conduct raids and constant harassment, which resulted in several convictions. In response to the Party's leadership in a wave of strikes in 1934, and their large demonstrations on
International Workers' Day (May Day), under the orders from Birmingham police Chied E.L Hollums, the police formed a squad known as "The Red Squad," and conducted a mass wave of retaliatory raids. Nearly a dozen Communists were arrested on various charges from vagrancy to criminal anarchy. Throughout the summer, police raids, repression, and mass arrests continued. However, the fines were typically quickly paid, the charges dropped or reduced, and, in the end, were not effective in stopping the Party from organizing. In fact, in many ways, the heightened police repression only fueled the Party, gave them national attention, and even piqued the interests of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). In 1931, after a spontaneous uprising of sharecroppers in Arkansas, the Alabama CPUSA began extensive organizing campaigns around local farmers. By this time the ASU and Croppers Farm Workers Union (CFWU) had been organizing sharecroppers for years, and had militantly secured a few local victories with about eight hundred members. However, in Camp Hill, Alabama, after a meeting to discuss the Scottsboro case, the CFWU was raided by local organized deputized vigilantes. During the raid both women and men were beaten before the group left and regrouped at the main organizer, Tommy Gray’s, home assaulting his entire family, including his wife who suffered a fractured skull. The mob was only stopped when Tommy’s brother Ralph Gray ran into the house armed, preventing fatal consequences. At a subsequent meeting, Sherriff Young, police Chief JM Wilson, and his deputy AJ Thomson showed up and a confrontation followed. While accounts differ as to the sequence of events, the encounter ended with a heated argument between Ralph Gray and the chief that resulted with each being shot. In response a vigilante mob was organized and deputized by Chief Wilson that stormed Gray’s home, and shot Gray in an execution by putting a pistol in his mouth. The mob then burned the home to the ground and dumped Gray’s body on the steps of the Dadeville courthouse. As a result of the incident, thirty to fifty-five Black men were arrested, nine of which were under eighteen. The charges ranged from conspiracy to murder, to carrying a concealed weapon, to assault. With many of the CFWU organizers in jail and relations deteriorating, on August 6, 1931, the last remnants of the CFWU regrouped as the Share Croppers Union (SCU). Harry Hirsch, using the pseudonym "Harry Simms," played a liaison role between the Party leadership and the SCU. As the SCU grew in 1931 to 591 members, Tommy Gray’s daughter Eula Gray played a leading role in both the Young Communist League (YCL) as well as the SCU. In 1934, The Ku Klux Klan saw a massive increase in membership in Northern Alabama. Over forty new Klaverns were organized. Additionally, a local fascist movement began organizing in conjunction with the Klan. The fascists ran a publication known as the Alabama
Black Shirt. By the end of 1934, extrajudicial acts of vigilante violence and terrorism against Black workers, Communists, and radical circles increased significantly. Many times, violence, vigilantism, and lynching were the result of Klan and police alliances. One Communist, Clyde Johnson, survived at least three assassination attempts. Steve Simmons, a Black Communist, only barely survived an attempted lynching by the Klan. Saul Davis, another Black Communist, was kidnaped, stripped, and beaten by flogging for hours. ==References==