Rasheed Linway Storey, factory worker and Communist organizer, was born February 21, 1936 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to Ella Mae Kimball Storey of Mobile, Alabama and James Enes Storey of Elizabeth City, North Carolina. Reared in West Philadelphia’s Mill Creek, Storey attended Overbrook High for two-years … Read MoreRasheed Storey (1936-2016)
Louise Alone Thompson Patterson, civil rights activist, communist, and educator, was born in Chicago, Illinois on September 9, 1901 to Lulu (Louise) F. Brown Toles and William J. Toles. After her parents 1904 separation, Thompson lived in Seattle, Washington as well as Utah, Nevada, Idaho, … Read MoreLouise Thompson Patterson (1901-1999)
Williana “Liana” Jones Burroughs was an American teacher, radical political activist and the first African American woman to run for elective office in New York. Burroughs was born on January 2, 1882, in Petersburg, Virginia. Her father died in 1886 when Williana was just four years old. The same year, Williana’s … Read MoreWilliana “Liana” Burroughs (1882-1945)
Approximately 90 African Americans fought in Spain during the civil war that engulfed that nation between 1936 and 1939. The war became a proxy war for the European great powers as the Soviet Union supported the newly established Second Spanish Republic while Nazi Germany and … Read MoreAfrican American Anti-Fascists in the Spanish Civil War
Oliver Golden, born in 1887, in Yazoo County, Mississippi, was the son of former slaves who prospered during Reconstruction. Their house, however, was burned twice by Ku Klux Klan which resented the family’s success and they were forced to leave Mississippi for Alabama while Oliver was a student at … Read MoreOliver Golden (1887-1940)
James W. Ford was Special Organizer of the Communist Party’s (CP) Harlem, New York section and the most prominent black Communist in the nation during the 1930s and early 1940s. Perhaps more than any other figure, Ford symbolized the Party’s efforts to build a united front between … Read MoreJames W. Ford (1893-1957)
Lovett Huey Fort-Whiteman was an American political and civil rights activistand member of the Communist International. He is regarded as the first American-born black Communist and first African American to attend a Comintern training school in the Soviet Union. Fort-Whiteman organized the Communist Party-affiliated American Negro Labor Congress and was labeled by Time magazine as … Read MoreLovett Fort-Whiteman (1889-1939)
Otto Huiswoud and Claude McKay in Moscow, 1922 Image Ownership: Public domain Otto Huiswoud was the first black member of the Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA), as well as one of its founders. He was born in Paramaribo, Suriname (then the … Read MoreOtto Huiswoud (1893-1961)
Jacques Roumain (Born Jean-Baptiste Roumain) was a Haitian author, poet, novelist, essayist, political activist, and diplomat born on June 4, 1907. He was one of the more famous twentieth century Haitian intellectuals. Jacques Roumain was born in Port-au-Prince, the Haitian capital. He was the first … Read MoreJean Baptiste Roumain (Jacques) / Roumain, Jacques (1907-1944)
“Image Ownership: Public Domain” Ishmael Flory was a civil rights activist, trade union organizer, and Communist Party (CPUSA) leader in Illinois. Flory was born on July 4, 1907, the youngest of nine children to Samuel and Leola Hancock Flory in Lake Charles, Louisiana. In 1918 … Read MoreIshmael Flory (1907–2004)
