|
The Alabama Chapter of the Communist Party USA (CPUSA) was one of the most influential political bodies organizing poor African-Americans in the South during and after the Great Depression. Started with just two members, the Alabama chapter CPUSA was established in Birmingham Alabama in 1928, and remained active until it was forced underground by Ku Klux Klan (KKK) and police repression, and was disbanded when it was outlawed in 1951. During the height of Jim Crow and the Great Depression, the Alabama CPUSA organized some of the poorest African-American communities in the country, and was successful in leading organization drives in multiple industries including the Share Croppers Union, mine, mill, and industrial workers, as well as leading numerous campaigns to organize unemployed workers. The Alabama CPUSA also played a vital role in organizing African-Americans during a period where many activists would later become leaders of the emerging Civil Rights Movement. Ashbury Howard, who later was a significant leader in Alabama during the Civil Rights Movement, and Rosa Parks, who would later commit an act of civil disobedience launching the Montgomery Bus Boycott, were both trained and active with the Alabama CPUSA. ==Background== Cheap labor, mostly from African Americans, 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 "Pittsburg 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 annumn. 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.〔 Simultaneously, in what was known as the “valley of furnaces,” the working poor struggled to survive. African Americans were systematically brought into the developing factories as industrial unskilled labor. By 1900, African Americans made up 55 percent of Alabama’s coal miners, and 65 percent of its iron and steel workers. In total, African Americans made over 90 percent of Birmingham’s unskilled labor Force by 1910, and by 1920, Black women made up 60 percent of female workers, 87 percent of which were engaged in domestic work.〔 This development made Birmingham one of the largest Black urban centers in the New South, and as such, Segregation and disfranchisement ordinances were rampant. Between By 1901, African Americans disfranchisement reduced the Black voting population from 100,000 to roughly 3,700. 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. According to the US Census, illiteracy among non whites did drop substantially across the country from 1900 to 1940 from 44 percent to 11 percent.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://nces.ed.gov/naal/lit_history.asp )〕 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. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Alabama Chapter of the Communist Party USA」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|