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5.0 out of 5 stars
Fluid and compelling, February 19, 2006
This review is from: The Ticket to Freedom: The NAACP and the Struggle for Black Political Integration (New Perspectives on the History of the South) (Hardcover)
Despite its long history at the heart of the Civil Rights Movement, no one has yet written a comprehensive history of the NAACP, largely because it would be impossible to do so in a single volume. In TICKET TO FREEDOM, Manfred Berg focuses on the NAACP's struggle for the right to vote, from its founding in 1909 until the early 1970's. Along the way, he addresses many of the criticisms (and myths) surrounding the organization: is it a grassroots or "top down" organization? Did it embrace anticommunism to the detriment of the movement? Did it simply create a "racial spoils system" which ensured privileges for those who did not need them?
You'll have to read the book yourself to find the answers, but rest assured that will be smooth sailing. Berg's narrative style is fluid and compelling, revealing a resourceful and dynamic organization which has done much to open up the electoral process to greater black participation.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
NAACP vs. Communism, July 18, 2007
This review is from: The Ticket to Freedom: The NAACP and the Struggle for Black Political Integration (New Perspectives on the History of the South) (Hardcover)
This was required reading for a graduate course in American history.
Manfred Berg's "Black Civil Rights and Liberal Anticommunism: the NAACP in the Early Cold War" investigates the NAACP and its ties to communism during the beginning of the Cold War. Berg explains that some historians have claimed that the NAACP set back the civil rights movement by twenty years by participating in the purges of communists within its organization. They claim that by aligning themselves with the anticommunist Truman administration they damaged the credibility of the organization. Berg claims conversely, that the NAACP's adherence to anticommunism in fact saved the organization from almost certain political suicide.
Following the Second World War, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) became caught in the mass hysteria of anti-communism which marked the beginning of the Cold War between the U.S. and Soviet Union. The NAACP's efforts to end racial discrimination against African Americans in the U.S. had garnered criticism from white conservative politicians who claimed that the NAACP's rhetoric was communist in nature. Soon the NAACP found itself in a difficult position of having to choose between political freedom within the organization and the
organization's survival.
The NAACP was formed in 1909 by philanthropic white socialists and educated African American activists. Initially NAACP leaders like W.E.B Du Bois did not agree with the communist rhetoric. Du Bois claimed that African Americans were excluded from the American proletariat and therefore were not able to participate in the "Great Proletarian Revolution." The political climate changed however after the beginning of Great Depression. Some NAACP delegates believed that for African Americans to achieve progress, they needed to improve their socio-economic class.
Soon a divide developed between NAACP leaders developed. Leaders disagreed whether the best way to secure civil rights for African Americans was to concentrate on ending racial discrimination or that the problem was rooted in a deeper socio-economic class struggle which was afflicting the whole of American society. In his article, "Black Civil Rights and Liberal Anticommunism: the NAACP in the Early Cold War" Manfred Berg claims "The NAACP expected racial change to result from political reforn1s not from revolutionary class struggle."
The American Communist Party (CPUSA) began spreading their propaganda among African Americans Communism became an attractive political movement all long African Americans and some NAACP members. The CPUSA claimed that it was against racial discrimination and that African Americans were the victims of white chauvinism. Ideological clashes began between conservative elements of the NAACP who believed that the NAACP should focus solely on the point of racial discrimination versus the communist sympathizing elements of the NAACP and other civil rights organizations. The NAACP and the International Labor Defense (ILD), a communist affiliated organization clashed over the Scottsboro case of 1931 in which nine black youths were accused of raping two young white girls.
The NAACP underestimated the importance of the case to the cause of civil rights while the ILD offered the nine boys a legal defense team. Even though eight of the boys were sentenced to death, the IDL was successful in having four of the boys acquitted while the remaining five were eventually pardoned. The Scottsboro case cemented the distrust between conservative NAACP leaders and the CPUSA.
With the beginning of the Cold War following the end of the Second World War, the U.S. began its campaign to spread the ideals of democracy abroad in hopes of combating the spread of communism and Soviet influence. The U.S. began receiving criticism from the Soviet Union and other nations as to its unwillingness to end racial segregation and promote democracy within its own borders. Similarly, the U.S. was criticized for its unwillingness to pressure its allies France and the U.K. to end their rule over their segregated colonies abroad.
W.E. Du Bois petitioned the U.S. delegation to the U.N. to call for a resolution which would end racial discrimination world wide. Some had their reservations about what the saw as a move which might hurt the U.S. politically. Even one of the NAACP's most esteemed board members former first lady Eleanor Roosevelt thought that a call for racial equality within the U.N. would discredit the U.S. abroad. White conservative politicians claimed that Du Bois and the NAACP were attacking their own country and that it was part of a communist led conspiracy against America. Du Bois remained adamant that a call for racial equality within the U.N. was needed. Conservative NAACP leaders felt that Du Bois had become too radically left and thought that his praising of the Soviet Union as a model state was damaging to their cause. More disagreement followed as Du Bois and the NAACP leadership clashed over the NAACP's public support for President Harry Truman in the 1948 presidential election. Du Bois and his likeminded colleagues supported former vice-president Harry Wallace's candidacy for President. In the wake of "McCarthyism" and anticommunist hysteria, conservative NAACP leaders were desperate to distance the organization from communist elements. Because Harry Wallace was seen as the champion for socialists and communist sympathizers, NAACP leaders chose to align themselves with Truman and the moderate left. The NAACP began efforts to separate itself from suspected communist elements within the organization. Members who espoused communist rhetoric were questioned and some were expelled from NAACP membership.
Berg claims that although these tactics infringed upon the members right to free speech, it was a necessary tactic for the NAACP to survive within the age of McCarthyism. Berg also claims that since the question of civil rights had taken a
backseat to the issues of national security and Cold War politics, it is doubtful that any petitions for civil rights would have made a significant impact on the American political scene.
Recommended reading for anyone interested in American history, civil rights history.
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