Black Resistance

U.S. GOVERNMENT LABELS BLACK RESITANCE AS COMMUNIST SEDITION. The Great Depression of the 1930's caused many Americans to question the validity of Capitalism. Communist ideology quickly spread throughout the trade unions motivating government forces to prepare for communist rebellion. This phenomenon became known as the "Red Scare." From March 1947 to December 1952 some 6.6 million people were investigated in the U.S. to see if they were Communist. Democratic President Harry Truman issued what became known as the "Truman Doctrine" in which he declared that, "the U.S. must free people who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures." This set off what would eventually become known as the Cold War. In 1954 Republican Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin began hearings to investigate supposed communist traitors living in the U.S.. During that same period Democratic Senator Hubert Humphries from Minnesota introduced a Bill to make the Communist Party an illegal organization. Black Leaders who spoke out in anyway against the Government were labeled as Communist. W.E.B. Dubois was an early organizer against and critic of America's use of Nuclear Weapons. As a result Dubois was labeled a Communist traitor, criminalized, and refused reentry back into the country. Both Paul Robeson and Robert F. Williams were also investigated by the FBI under suspicion of being communist traitors. Then in 1955 the Montgomery Bus Boycott lead to what became known as the Civil Rights Movement and black leaders like Dr..King, Medgar Evars, Ella Baker, and Stokely Carmichael (to name a few) were linked to communist. During this same period those in what would become known as the Black Power Movement were also labeled Communist. Most notably Malcolm X who the FBI accused of having ties with Communist heads of states. Malcolm's relationship with leaders such as Kwame Nkrumah, Julius Nyerere, and Fidel Castro placed him at the top of the list.