Summary of Robin D. G. Kelley's Hammer and Hoe

By IRB Media

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#1 We were up against some tough terror. We couldn’t pity people. We had to work quietly, like the Abolitionists in the South during the Civil War, behind drawn shades and locked doors.

#2 The South was a new frontier for Communists eager to get on with the task of revolution. They brought with them the cultural and ideological baggage of a Northern, urban-based movement, including assumptions about the backwardness of Southern workers. But they also brought the idea that African Americans were an oppressed nation.

#3 The CPUSA chose Birmingham, the center of heavy industry in the South, as its headquarters. The first full-time organizers in Birmingham were Tom Johnson and Harry Jackson, two veteran white Communists who had been active trade union organizers in the North. They established contact with Italian metal worker James Giglio, who had written to the CP-led TUUL in New York.

#4 The Communist Party had a large influence on the black community in 1930s Birmingham. They held meetings in Capitol Park, which was often frequented by black and white workers alike. The police would regularly arrest Communists, but they continued to meet.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: May 10, 2022
• ISBN: 9798822512665

IRB Media

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Insights on Robin D. G. Kelley's Hammer and Hoe

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 3

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

We were up against some tough terror. We couldn’t pity people. We had to work quietly, like the Abolitionists in the South during the Civil War, behind drawn shades and locked doors.

#2

The South was a new frontier for Communists eager to get on with the task of revolution. They brought with them the cultural and ideological baggage of a Northern, urban-based movement, including assumptions about the backwardness of Southern workers. But they also brought the idea that African Americans were an oppressed nation.

#3

The CPUSA chose Birmingham, the center of heavy industry in the South, as its headquarters. The first full-time organizers in Birmingham were Tom Johnson and Harry Jackson, two veteran white Communists who had been active trade union organizers in the North. They established contact with Italian metal worker James Giglio, who had written to the CP-led TUUL in New York.

#4

The Communist Party had a large influence on the black community in 1930s Birmingham. They held meetings in Capitol Park, which was often frequented by black and white workers alike. The police would regularly arrest Communists, but they continued to meet.

#5

The Party launched a Southern-based radical weekly called the Southern Worker in 1930, and it was sold for two cents a copy. It was primarily focused on the problems of black working people, and it did not discuss the specific struggles of African-Americans.

#6

The Communist Party grew quickly in Birmingham, and by 1930 had gained a few adherents among white farmers and miners in northern Alabama counties.

#7

The Communist Party stepped up its relief efforts in Birmingham in 1930, holding demonstrations to draw attention to the plight of the jobless. The demonstrations were often met with hostility from the city’s white labor organizers, who were hostile to the idea of helping black workers.

#8

The Communist Party in Birmingham, Alabama, seemed suicidal to most poor people, as the political and financial power of the city’s corporate interests seemed unassailable. But for many unemployed or working with reduced hours, welfare was a necessity.

#9

The city commission tried to fix unemployment by creating jobs through public works projects. However, the jobs paid only twenty-five cents an hour for three eight-hour days. The Communists called for a government relief program that would provide the