The Communist Party Defended African Americans During the Civil Rights Movement

I am a researcher and have collected many interesting documents throughout the years. A recent acquisition is shown below. It is a letter dated 1933, sent by the International Labor Defense organization to supporters of the Scottsboro Boys.

The International Labor Defense provided legal defense to many during the Civil Rights era. They stepped in when others were too afraid to and mostly defended against the Jim Crow era lynching's of the South.

This particular letter, signed by William Patterson who ran the organization, was a way for International Labor Defense to garner financial support for the Scottsboro Boys. In this letter, it talks about the plight of the nine African American boys who were unjustly accused and tried for the rape of two white girls in Scottsboro, Alabama.

In the letter, it talks about the trials and the attempted lynching of the boys. It also talks about the guilty verdicts and the subsequent appeals and outcry from the public. The defense, in this letter, is asking for financial support in the form of stamps, which can be sold and the proceeds sent back to the organization.

The appeals process and the final decisions led to the release of many of boys but some of them served shorter sentences and some met an untimely demise, after the trial.

The original public outcry in the case was made by John Gates, who is shown below. This publicity and the final decisions in the case led to more public support during the Civil Rights era for African Americans.

I lived in Ohio during the latter portion of the Civil Rights Era. Although I heard about protests and news such as the Philadelphia Riots, I was not involved in any of it.

Unless you were born or raised during this era, it is hard to believe that it even happened as it was so cruel to God's children. My first encounter with this was visiting my Grandparents in Florida in the early to middle 1960's. During a stop in either Tennessee or Georgia, I remember seeing the "White Only" signs at a drinking fountain and at a filling station bathroom. I had to ask my parents what it meant and they told me that although the signs still remained, they were not followed anymore. I later learned that they did still use the signs, even though most were outlawed.

In this website, I have included photographic evidence that these signs existed. They seem very eerie to look at and although they are only signs, they are a reminder when things were very sad in our country. Behind these signs, everyone on the community existed and almost everyone supported this segregation.

I can only imagine what it must've liked to feel like while being segregated. I can only hear the stories and try to understand, but I never really will.

As you see the signs, picture yourself during that era and try to capture the emotions that existed and how the Scottsboro Boys felt in this environment, as well as many other African Americans. This oppression was a great pressure to them and it will surely bring a tear to your eye.