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Footnotes 1401
IbU., Vol. 2, pp. 319 ff.
“ Ibtd., Vol. 2, pp. 323 ff.
Ibid., Vol. 2, pp. 355 ff.
The Congress had gotten into debt to the Communist party. Davis, who as secretary
had carried the chief responsibility for its work, had apparently become skeptical about
the possibility of carrying on the Congress according to the original plans. (See Bunche,
Of, cit,y Vol, 2, pp. 369-371. See also Lester B. Granger, “The Negro Congress—Its
Future,” Offortunity [June, 1940], pp. 164-166.)
The third Congress was much affected by the international situation. This was the
time of the Hitler-Stalin pact, which opened the Second World War, and the American
Communists agitated violently against American participation in the “imperialist” war,
against Roosevelt’s aggressive policy toward Germany, his rearmament program for
America, and the aid to Great Britain. The Communists staged the Congress excellently
for their purposes. According to Bunche:
“The Negro rank and file did not know what it was all about except when perfervid
.speeches were made demanding anti-lynching legislation, the franchise, and full
democracy for the Negro. The more subtle aspects of the line that was being followed
were over the heads of most of the rank and file, but the Congress was well organized
and the speeches were all of a pattern.” {Of. cit.y Vol. 2, p. 360.)
John L. Lewis, though not a Communist himself, gave the tone of the meeting in
his keynote speech. He came out violently against the President’s foreign policy and
wanted the Congress to join forces with Labor’s Non-Partisan League. President A.
Philip Randolph spoke after Lewis and gave a carefully prepared address, later printed
under the title The World Crisis and the Negro Peofle Today. He pointed out that the
Soviet Union was a totalitarian country pursuing power politics, and that the Com-
munist party depended on Russian orders. He warned the Congress to stick to its
principle and remain nonpartisan. Only if the Congress abstained from any political
alignment and retained a minimum program of action was there hope that it could
establish an effective national Negro pressure group on the basis of all Negro organ-
izations.
“The procedure, conduct and policies of the Negro Congress, as set up in this third
national meeting, will make its influence in the affairs of the American Negroes, short
lived. The American Negroes will not long follow any organization which accepts
dictation and control from the Communist Party, The American Negro will not long
follow any organization which accepts dictation and control from any white organ-
ization.” {The World Crisis and the Negro Peofle Today [1940], p. 25.)
During Randolph’s speech the Communists arranged a demonstration and walked out,
leaving only a third of the audience when he finished talking. Thereafter nearly all
speeches followed the “party line,” and the Negro protest was skillfully draped in
Communist slogans.
Bunche, of. cit.y Vol. 2, pp. 372 ff.
The Southern Frontier (June, 1942).
Like the National Negro Congress, with which it has strong relations, it has partly
been under Communist influences.
Bunche, of. cit.y Vol. 2, pp. 378-379.
Cited in ibU.y Vol. i, p. 27.
James Weldon Johnson, Black Manhattan (1930), pp. 140 ff.
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