FBI and Local Police Suppress Black-Communist Coalitions During Depression

During the 1930s, the FBI and local police forces targeted Black organizers who worked alongside the Communist Party USA on cases including the Scottsboro Boys, Angelo Herndon, and Unemployed Council campaigns. The Unemployed Councils, led by Communists, organized both Black and white unemployed workers, often preventing the eviction of Black families. Local police in Chicago, New York, and Birmingham broke up integrated organizing meetings, sometimes violently. The association of Black rights with Communism was deliberately cultivated by white supremacist interests to delegitimize civil rights demands.