National Negro Congress
Although an idea which came out of the American Communist Party, the Congress organization and model stressed broad coalition of different ideologies and groups in "an unprecedented confluence of civic, civil rights, labor, and religious groups from across the nation," united, not by any theory, but for practical advances in African American civil and employment rights.
"John P. Davis and Communist Party leader James W. Ford decided to bring together meaningful organizations that would be dedicated in the ongoing fight against racial discrimination.
[3] The foundation of the National Negro Congress was a response to the historical oppression African Americans faced in the United States, in particular in the workforce.
Even with having a safe space to discuss about class struggle, Black workers did not have any radical union that took a stand against capital within the race framework.
Aside from challenging the concept of racism, members of the National Negro Congress advocated against the fascism abroad and the new deal in the United States.
Therefore, most of the struggles that were faced for being black in the United States were neglected: On a whim, Davis attended President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's first National Recovery Administration hearing and noticed, in disbelief, that no one represented the interests of African-Americans.
He contacted his friend Robert C. Weaver, another Harvard University graduate, and formed the two-man Joint Committee on National Recovery in 1933, challenging Roosevelt's New Deal programs.
The main leader, A. Philip Randolph, was instrumental in gathering not only socialists and communists but was able to organize massive popular participation by African Americans.
For example, in the book the National Negro Congress: A Reassessment by Lawrence S. Wittner, the author explains the miserable conditions suffered by African-Americans workers and their generally low wages.
Restricted to the worst jobs, with intense heat and noxious gases, they also encountered a wide network of racially discriminatory differential – averaged $3.60 per day.
Noticing that the National Negro Congress was drifting into left-wing sectionalism, Randolph reinforced the tradition of prioritizing the black community first above organizations and ideologies: "sensing the drift of the Congress toward left-wing sectarianism, A. Philip Randolph fought back in behalf of its traditional aims of racial integrity and black unity ...
It was something that can be seen as divisive because generally black workers who belonged, if not lower than a poor working-class man, to the working class that is considered diversified among its members.
"[12] With no tying to any political affiliation, Randolph wanted the National Negro Congress to be free from any biased decision regarding the African-American struggle.
In 1939, the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) refused permission for Marian Anderson to sing to an integrated audience in their Constitution Hall.
[22] The Washington Committee for Aid to China had booked Constitution Hall but had been blocked by the Daughters of the American Revolution owing to Robeson's race.
However, when the organizers offered tickets on generous terms to the National Negro Congress to help fill the larger venue, these sponsors withdrew, in objection to the NNC's Communist ties.
[27][28][29] His encores that evening included a march popular with Soviet troops and Die Moorsoldaten, a song of the victims of the Nazi concentration camps.
[32] Jewish newspaper B'nai B'rith Messenger of Los Angeles considered the film to be "tall[ying] with the reputation that Disney is making for himself as an arch-reactionary".
