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Members of the American Communist Party march with signs at a protest.

The Communist Party Helped Shape US History

A new book tells the story of American communism as an integral part of 20th-century US history, with Communists “as social critics and social change agents.”
by Daniel Colligan via Jacobin on September 16, 2024
Communist Party USA members march for unemployed relief during the Great Depression in San Francisco.

Bring American Communists Out of the Shadows — and Closets

In the 20th century, American Communists were seen as an enemy within. In reality, they were ordinary people with complex lives that deserve to be chronicled.
by David Bacon via Jacobin on August 15, 2024
A protest during a sit-down strike in Detroit.

Red Weather Vanes

Maurice Isserman’s history of American communism documents both its achievements and its fatal obeisance to Soviet doctrines.
by Harold Meyerson via The American Prospect on August 8, 2024
Angela Davis standing at podium, speaking at Communist Party USA event.

How and Why American Communism Failed

Plus: One historian’s about-face on the Communist record.
by Ronald Radosh via The Bulwark on August 2, 2024
Broken hammer and sickle illustration.

The Cause That Turned Idealists Into Authoritarian Zealots

The history of American Communism shows that dogma and fervor are no substitute for popular support.
by Maurice Isserman via The Atlantic on June 17, 2024
San Francisco Communist Party marching in May Day parade, 1935.

California Communism and Its Afterlives

A new book explores the Communist Party's western base and its alliance with the labor movement.
by Matt Ray, Matthew Wranovics via Los Angeles Review of Books on May 27, 2024
Headshot illustration of Angela Davis

‘Hell, Yes, We Are Subversive’

For all her influence as an activist, intellectual, and writer, Angela Davis has not always been taken as seriously as her peers. Why not?
by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor via New York Review of Books on September 1, 2022
Black and white photo of communists marching in front of the White House to demand the release of the Scottsboro Boys.

The Civil Rights Movement Was Radical to Its Core

The Civil Rights Movement was a radical struggle against Jim Crow tyranny whose early foot soldiers were Communists and labor militants.
by Glenda Gilmore, Robert Greene II via Jacobin on August 28, 2022
Angela Davis meeting with Communist Party leader Valentina Tereshkova

Angela Davis, Charlene Mitchell, and the NAARPR

A Red-Black alliance defended political prisoners and drew attention to death and prison sentences disproportionately handed out to people of color.
by Tony Pecinovsky via Black Perspectives on June 15, 2022
Claudia Jones reading the newspaper at a table

Claudia Jones and the Price of Anticommunism

During the Cold War era, communist activists and their families suffered from harassment by the federal government.
by Denise Lynn via Black Perspectives on September 30, 2020
Guthrie Guitar Kills Fascists
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Woody Guthrie's Communism and "This Land Is Your Land"

Was he or wasn't he a member of the Communist Party USA?
by Aaron J. Leonard via HNN on September 20, 2020
African American men in jail.

“We Were Called Comrades Without Condescension or Patronage”

In the Jim Crow South, the Alabama Communist Party distinguished itself as a champion of racial and economic justice.
by Arvind Dilawar, Mary Stanton via Jacobin on April 30, 2020

Bad Romance

The afterlife of Vivian Gornick's "The Romance of American Communism" shows that we bear the weight of dead generations—and sometimes living ones, too.
by Alyssa Battistoni via Dissent on April 13, 2020

How 'Communism' Brought Racial Equality to the South

The Communist Party fought for racial equality in the South, specifically Alabama, where segregation was most oppressive.
by Robin D. G. Kelley, Michel Martin via NPR on February 16, 2010
Storefront of Nazi-owned "Aryan Book Store" called "Silver Shirt Literature."

Bigoted Bookselling: When the Nazis Opened a Propaganda Bookstore in Los Angeles

On Hitler’s attempt to win Americans over to his cause.
by Evan Friss via Literary Hub on August 21, 2024
Angela Davis

The AAUP and the Angela Davis Case

Revisiting the AAUP's 1971 UCLA investigation.
by Emily Houh via Academe on April 30, 2024
Bayard Rustin speaking at an event.

Eclipsed in His Era, Bayard Rustin Gets to Shine in Ours

The civil-rights mastermind was sidelined by his own movement. Now he’s back in the spotlight. What can we learn from his strategies of resistance?
by Adam Gopnik via The New Yorker on November 6, 2023
American blues singer and guitarist Leadbelly performs for a room full of people, 1940.

Is the History of American Art a History of Failure?

Sara Marcus’s recent book argues that from the Reconstruction to the AIDS era, a distinct aesthetic formed around defeat in the realm of politics.
by Lynne Feeley via The Nation on July 31, 2023
Black Panther Party members demonstrating outside the New York County Criminal Court, April 11, 1969.

The Black Radical Tradition Can Guide Our Struggles Against Oppression

Uncovering a tradition of African American radicalism that was—and is—a crucial part of the American left’s history.
by Robin D. G. Kelley, Daniel Denvir via Jacobin on July 6, 2023
Director Edward Dmytryk and actress Jean Porter.

The 1950s Hollywood Blacklist Was an Assault on Free Expression

The blacklist didn’t just ruin many workers’ careers — it narrowed the range of acceptable movies and contributed to the conservatism of the 1950s.
by Larry Ceplair via Jacobin on May 18, 2023
Elizabeth Gurley Flynn in March 1949.

New Hampshire Removes Historical Marker For Feminist With Communist Past

The state removed the educational marker after Concord Republicans complained about Elizabeth Gurley Flynn's communist ties.
by Andrew Jeong via Retropolis on May 17, 2023
Angela Davis attending her first news conference after being released on bail, February 24, 1972.

Angela Davis Exposed the Injustice at the Heart of the Criminal Justice System

In 1970, Angela Davis was arrested on suspicion of murder. The trial — and her eventual victory — proved to everyone that the justice system was corrupt.
by Joel Whitney via Jacobin on April 1, 2023
Illustration of Abraham Lincoln writing the Emancipation Proclamation.

Abraham Lincoln Is a Hero of the Left

Leftists have regarded Lincoln as a pro-labor hero who helped vanquish chattel slavery. We should celebrate him today within the radical democratic tradition.
by Matthew E. Stanley via Jacobin on February 20, 2023
A photograph of Marvel Cooke overlayed over The Crisis' newspaper office.

This Radical Reporter Dedicated Her Life to Fighting the System

"I idolized women like Marvel Cooke," Angela Davis tells Teen Vogue.
by Olivia Lapeyrolerie via Teen Vogue on February 8, 2023
Black and white photo of Woody Guthrie holding a guitar labeled "this machine kills fascists"

I've Got Those Old Talking-Blues Blues Again

The Folkies and WWII, Part Two.
by William Hogeland via Hogeland's Bad History on October 13, 2022
The Almanac Singers playing various instruments, including guitars, a banjo, and an accordion.

"Which Side Are You On, Boys..."

Watching the Ken Burns series on the U.S. and the Holocaust and thinking about American folk music.
by William Hogeland via Hogeland's Bad History on October 3, 2022
Photo of Ella May Wiggins' five children.

The 1929 Loray Mill Strike Was a Landmark Working-Class Struggle in the US South

Murdered during the 1929 Loray Mill strike, Ella May Wiggins became a working-class martyr—and a symbol of labor’s fight to democratize the anti-union South.
by Karen Sieber via Jacobin on September 14, 2022
Claude McKay speaking at the Kremlin, as printed in the December 1923 issue of the Crisis.

The Proletarian Poet

A new book on Claude McKay is part of an effort to place the poetry of the Harlem Renaissance within the Black radical tradition.
by Jennifer Wilson via Dissent on July 25, 2022
Demonstrators holding signs during a student walkout over coronavirus pandemic safety measures at Chicago Public Schools.
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Students Are Protesting Covid Policies — And the Adults Who Won’t Listen to Them

For a century, student activists have demanded a say in their schools.
by Jack Hodgson via Made By History on January 18, 2022
Richard Wright.

Outcasts and Desperados

Reflections on Richard Wright’s recently published novel, "The Man Who Lived Underground."
by Adam Shatz via London Review of Books on October 4, 2021
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