Hammer and Hoe: Alabama Communists During the Great Depression (Fred W. Morrison Series in Southern Studies) 1st Edition

by Robin D. G. Kelley (Author)

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ISBN-13: 978-0807842881

ISBN-10: 0807842885

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Hammer and Hoe: Alabama Communists during the Great Depression
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Between 1929 and 1941, the Communist Party organized and led a radical, militantly antiracist movement in Alabama -- the center of Party activity in the Depression South. Hammer and Hoe documents the efforts of the Alabama Communist Party and its allies to secure racial, economic, and political reforms. Sensitive to the complexities of gender, race, culture and class without compromising the political narrative, Robin Kelley illustrates one of the most unique and least understood radical movements in American history.

The Alabama Communist Party was built from scratch by working people who had no Euro-American radical political tradition. It was composed largely of poor blacks, most of whom were semiliterate and devoutly religious, but it also attracted a handful of whites, including unemployed industrial workers, iconoclastic youth, and renegade liberals. Kelley shows that the cultural identities of these people from Alabama's farms, factories, mines, kitchens, and city streets shaped the development of the Party. The result was a remarkably resilient movement forged in a racist world that had little tolerance for radicals.

In the South race pervaded virtually every aspect of Communist activity. And because the Party's call for voting rights, racial equality, equal wages for women, and land for landless farmers represented a fundamental challenge to the society and economy of the South, it is not surprising that Party organizers faced a constant wave of violence.

Kelley's analysis ranges broadly, examining such topics as the Party's challenge to black middle-class leadership; the social, ideological, and cultural roots of black working-class radicalism; Communist efforts to build alliances with Southern liberals; and the emergence of a left-wing, interracial youth movement. He closes with a discussion of the Alabama Communist Party's demise and its legacy for future civil rights activism.

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Editorial Reviews

Review

A fascinating and indispensable contribution to the history of American radicalism and to black history.

"Nation"

"Robin Kelley writes an account that beautifully balances culture, government, economics, and ideology.

Nell Irvin Painter, Princeton University"

Should serve as a model for historians seeking to recapture the untold story of other southern radicals during the 1930s.

"Journal of Southern History"

"Robin Kelley has written the most important book on American radicalism in the last ten years.

Mark Naison, author of "Communists in Harlem During the Depression""

Robin Kelley writes an account that beautifully balances culture, government, economics, and ideology.

Nell Irvin Painter, Princeton University

Robin Kelley has written the most important book on American radicalism in the last ten years.

Mark Naison, author of "Communists in Harlem During the Depression"

Review

Reshaping southern history by restoring its radical past to historical salience, Robin Kelley writes an account that beautifully balances culture, government, economics, and ideology. His handling of race represents one of the book's greatest strengths, for Kelley keeps race at the center--as it was in the South in the 1930s--yet at the same time he traces the complexity of working-class consciousness among blacks and whites and realizes that matters of class and chronology influenced the severity of the color line.--Nell Irvin Painter, Princeton University

A fascinating and indispensable contribution to the history of American radicalism and to black history.--Nation

Should serve as a model for historians seeking to recapture the untold story of other southern radicals during the 1930s.--Journal of Southern History

From the Back Cover

Hammer and Hoe documents the efforts of the Alabama Communist Party and its allies to secure racial, economic, and political reforms. Sensitive to the complexities of gender, race, culture, and class without compromising the political narrative, Robin Kelley here illuminates one of the most unique and lest understood radical movements in American History.

About the Author

Robin D. G. Kelley is Gary B. Nash Professor of American History at UCLA.

Series: Fred W. Morrison Series in Southern Studies
Paperback: 392 pages
Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press; 1st edition (November 16, 1990)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0807842885
ISBN-13: 978-0807842881
Product Dimensions: 6 x 1 x 9 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
Customer Reviews: 7 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #130,935 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #82 in Political Ideologies
- #265 in Communism & Socialism (Books)
- #405 in United States History (Books)

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David Hereford

Like Dr Mike Heiser says,”what you know my not be so.”

Reviewed in the United States on April 23, 2019

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

A massive amount of details of how the communist work out their agenda.

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Jack Cade

A masterpiece

Reviewed in the United States on January 9, 2011

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

I believe that Prof. Kelley -along with Profs Linebaugh and Rediker- are the most important historians writing these days. Prof. Kelley --apart from being a splendid writer-- challenges
the mythology or I should say cliches that passes for the history of a people though long suffering and abused , never stopped resisting the most baroque and savage indignities and repression visited upon them. No one having read Hammer and Hoe will ever want to see such enormities as Birth of a Nation or Gone with the Wind. More importantly, Kelley powerfully shows that African Americans were not beaten into a state of passivity (a view held even by some of the noblest members of SNCC) but rather fought tenaciously for their rights. Though Prof. Kelley does not mention it (it is not part of this book's project) one would do well to remember that after the destruction of the Black section of Tulsa evidence reveals that more White people than Black ended up dead--however his description of the events of Camp Hill alone make the same point. . Nor is Prof. Kelley afraid to challenge Cold War lies. He points out that the leadership of the USSR was instrumental in forcing CPUSA to give priority to fighting racial injustice, a struggle which it embraced with more passion and dedication than any other "civil rights" organization at the time.
Black sharecroppers did call Stalin the "new Lincoln" John Garner, Lemon Johnson DID read Lenin's State and Revolution and Stalin on the national question. They did look at organizations such as the NAACP with something bordering on contempt--as they sung" The NAACP no Moses/can stop us Blackies fighting the bosses...Teacher Lenin don said/Brothers all oppressed an po/Ain't it so?/Sho! Al Murphy did experience a sense of awe in the USSR and in fact married a Soviet woman.Ralph Gray, his niece Eula (who tried to raise funds for the imprisoned German Communist Ernst Taelmann) emerge as valiant heroes and though the Party was 95% black Lemon Johnson gave great credit to those white sharecroppers who dared to cast their lot with the SCU --women and men such as J.W. Davis a white sharecropper lynched for his courage and convictions. I doubt that any of these names will be shouted from the microphones of the "progressive" media or mentioned during the antics of Black History Month--but they resonate with passion and command the deepest respect in Prof. Kelley's pages. Kelley notes that other Socialist organizations became alienated from the Communists because of the CP's dedication to Black people--and for that dedication the CPUSA should be glorified rather than vilified as is the custom.
In the end however the CP helped flame the fans of resistance that had been there way before there was ever a Bolshevik revolution. Kelley quotes Ralph Gray's grandfather Alfred who announced or rather proclaimed in 1868 "I am not afraid to fight....and I will fight till hell freezes over. I may go to hell, my home is hell but the white man shall go there with me"
Robin Kelley allows us to see and and admire these folk and to hear their voices. For that we should be immensely grateful..

10 people found this helpful

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Kiki

Awesome book

Reviewed in the United States on October 12, 2019

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

One of my ancestors was mentioned in this book and I do intend to keep it for my family

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NATILEE A MCGRUDER

which makes history like this crucial to review

Reviewed in the United States on July 22, 2015

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

Every social justice advocate working in the Deep South should consider this scholarship. Nothing much new under the sun, which makes history like this crucial to review.

3 people found this helpful

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Gavrielle Gemma

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United States on March 1, 2016

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

must read

One person found this helpful

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Chris

Hidden history

Reviewed in the United States on January 30, 2013

Format: Paperback

I thought this book was terrific. It's a well-researched work on a topic very little study has been done on. Reading this book made me rethink my view of the civil rights period. The men and women discussed in this book paved the way for the civil rights movement. It's unfortunate this chapter in Southern history has been mostly forgotten. I really enjoyed this book and wish there was more written on this topic. Black Worker in the Deep South is a good supplement to this book. The author is mentioned in Hammer and Hoe and gives a more personalized perspective of the events mentioned in the Kelley book.

9 people found this helpful

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Howard J. Herskovitz

The Grand Old Party

Reviewed in the United States on August 5, 2005

Format: Hardcover

This is a first-rate history of the Communist Party and its fellow-travelers in Alabama during the depression. It describes the Party during the "third period" and the popular front era. While it does not discuss the ulterior motives of the Party in any great detail, it does help to establish the positive role of the Communists in the prehistory of the civil rights movement. It also gives glimpses of the life in the Party in Alabama including Communist songs sung to the tune of spirituals, and African-American Young Pioneers. In addition, book discusses the courage of the Communists in resisting racism.

The attempt by radicals in the 1930's to change this country for the better has not found its rightful place in popular or high school history. This book helps to remedy that omission.

25 people found this helpful

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Hammer and Hoe: Alabama Communists During the Great Depression (Fred W. Morrison Series in Southern Studies) 1st Edition

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