Unfortunately, the publication of this episode happened to coincide with /u/falafel1066 having limited internet access. If any listeners have questions, please do feel free to post them and she'll get to them in due time. In the meantime, she did send ahead the comment below:

I first want to thank /u/400-Rabbits for inviting me on the podcast and his incredibly thoughtful questions. He truly shows a level of passion and understanding of history that really exemplifies the users of /r/askhistorians, and I am grateful for his contributions. Second, there are so many items I did not include in the interview, only because one hour is much too short to cover the history of black radicalism in the United States (and beyond! But that is slightly out of my realm of expertise). I also want to include a short bibliography which can help any interested reader in their journey of learning more about black radicalism.

One major item I forgot to mention, but is extremely important, was the role the Scottsboro Case played in African Americans' interest in the Communist Party in the 1930s. Here's a brief summary of the case I wrote up. Basically, the International Labor Defense, which was not officially communist but very leftist radical in nature and membership, took up the defense of 9 falsely accused young men in Scottsboro, Alabama in 1931. Thus began an international campaign to save the boys' lives, and African Americans around the country held protests and rallies in support of the boys and ILD. (More on communists in Scottsboro) Communist members of the ILD stressed the importance of black Americans' lives in the revolutionary struggle, and for a disenfranchised, mostly poor population, this meant a lot. By using Scottsboro as a rallying issue, communists in cities from Montgomery to St. Louis to New York were able to attract blacks to the Party. Most African Americans did not join the Party, but they did participate in unemployment rallies, hunger marches, and rent strikes.

So what? Why should we care about African Americans involved in communist-led activities during the Great Depression? As I explore in this post, black radicals, though not significant in numbers, had a particular influence among the working-class communities. Many people whom you would not normally label "radical" endorsed and in the words of Nell Irvin Painter, "made the Party their own." Meaning, they used their personal experience to inform their social activism, often incorporating elements of race, class, gender, region, and religion. Blacks involved in the communist movement of the early 1930s went on to form and participate in progressive labor unions, like the United Auto Workers. Many traveled around the world and helped anti-colonial and Pan-Africanist movements. And, as Glenda Gilmore argues, many became involved in the early iteration of the Civil Rights movement. If we look at African Americans like Ella Baker and WEB DuBois, our notion of the Civil Rights movement expands to pre-1950s. This is what historians have termed "the Long Civil Rights Movement" (made well-know by Jacquelyn Dowd Hall).

Here is a brief biography for anyone interested in pursuing this topic. Please fell free to post below or message me, as well- I have much to say on this topic! (though my response might be delayed in answering you due to vacation!)

• Erik McDuffie, Sojourning for Freedom: Black Women, American Communism, and the Making of Black Left Feminism
• Mark Naison, Communists in Harlem during the Depression
• Cedric Robinson, Black Marxism: The Making of the Black Radical Tradition
• Harry Haywood, Black Bolshevik: Autobiography of an Afro-American Communist
• Mark Solomon, The Cry Was Unity: Communists and African Americans 1817-1936
• Robin D.G. Kelley, Hammer and Hoe: Alabama Communists during the Great Depression

Special thanks to Eric Hacke, Elm, Andrew Stead, William Ryan, Stuart Gorman, Bill Rubin, Will Raybould, Sarah Gilbert, Mark Katerberg, Vlad, and Max M. for their generous support of the podcast through the AskHistorians Patreon. And thanks to all our new supporters as well!

A big thanks as well to /u/falafel1066 for her time and mind.

Cool topic - looking forward to this

Thank you for this episode! I really look forward to it!

This is super cool! Thanks a lot of doing this, I appreciate it.
I might edit my comment if I come up with questions by the end.

Oh, wow, I'd totally missed this episode coming up! I can't wait to sit down and have a listen. Thanks so much for the work you put into this!

Edit: What a fascinating episode. Thanks so much to both /u/400-Rabbits and /u/falafel1066 for your awesome work! And congratulations on your dissertation, Falafel - that's wonderful to hear! :)

Excited to listen to this! I'm especially hoping to gain some context on the little I know about Richard Wright's complex relationship with the Communist Party, but since a lot of his Communist friends seem to have been white, I'm not sure if he's actually part of this picture.

Awesome episode! I would to hear more about the lady who bring her bible to the strike lines. What was her denomination? Do we see can connection between black radicalism and black churches or denomations?

Would it be possible to make the soundcloud files downloadable? Or is there a specific reason they already aren't made that way?