B. D. Amis
Encyclopedia
B. D. Amis was an African American
labor organizer and civil rights
leader. Particularly influential in the fight for African Americans' and workers during the period of official segregation in the South and informal discrimination throughout the country, Amis is most remembered for his militant Communist activism on behalf of the notable legal cases of the falsely-accused Scottsboro Boys
, the African American organizer Angelo Herndon
, as well as the white labor leader Tom Mooney
.
Politically involved since the early 1920s, by 1928, Amis was president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
's Peoria
branch. The recently founded Communist Party
, organized on a favorable position towards African Americans, provided an invitation to a meeting in New York
, which made a profoundly interested him as one of the few non-black organizations in the 1920s willing to seriously struggle against racism, and Amis would soon be working with William Z. Foster
, the party leader and presidential candidate, whom Amis would help renominate together with the African American vice president nominee James W. Ford
in 1932.Amis, Barry D. "B.D. Amis – Black Communist and Labor Leader". In Howard, Walter T. (Ed.) B.D. Amis, African American Radical: A Short Anthology of Writings and Speeches. Lanham, Md.: University Press of America, 2007. P. xi, and Amis, B.D. "Speech Nominating William Z. Foster for President of the United States". In Howard, Walter T. (Ed.) B.D. Amis, African American Radical: A Short Anthology of Writings and Speeches. Lanham, Md.: University Press of America, 2007. pp. 57–59.
Amis began contributing to Party journals not long afterward. The 1930 "Lynch Justice" attacked the Communist Party's leftist opposition, the less radical Socialist Party
, which, although progressive in relation to the idea of African American equality in the northern states, had decided to abstain from taking a position on the rights of African Americans. Amis wrote:
From 1930, Amis headed the newly formed League of Struggle for Negro Rights
, a radical organization formed on the basis of Leninist
principles; although seeing black sovereignty in majority-black areas of the South as an ideal, given the fever-pitch racism then prevailing in the United States, the organization focused on publicizing the plight of the oppressed black minority through the its newspaper, The Liberator, which B. D. Amis edited, and on promoting direct action protests against lynching, tenant evictions, and the Jim Crow segregation laws
, as well as racism in the legal system and other manifestations. In 1933, the League issued a "Bill of Rights for the Negro People" – a document calling on Franklin Roosevelt to protect African Americans; a petition for action from the president was carried to Washington, D.C.
by 3,500 activists.
In 1931 – almost right after Amis had completed writing "Lynching Justice" – the Scottsboro Boys
case came to light in Alabama
: nine young black men who had gotten into a fight with a group of white youth were subsequently charged with raping two white women. By sundown on the same day, a freshly formed lynch mob was demanding that the youths be surrendered to them for immediate lynching. Authorities pleaded against mob violence by promising speedy trials and asking "the Judge to send them to the chair"; fifteen days later, eight were sentenced to death, and the Communist Party managed convinced the parents of the minors to let International Labor Defense
take charge of the defense. Deeply involved in the case, Amis travelled to Alabama. Amis' 1931 commentary about the case, juxtaposed against a set of photographs from Scottsboro, "They Shall Not Die! The Story of Scottsboro in Pictures" – published in the June 6 copy of The Liberator – galvanized as a rallying cry for the accused defendants at the beginning of the trials.
B. D. Amis' son, Dr. Barry D. Amis, writes that
Amis and Scottsboro historian William T. Howard writes that Amis' article "gave the Party campaign its slogan," which spread far beyond both the Deep South
and the United States. In addition to the coverage of the case received in the Soviet Union
, where "the word 'Negro' was [at the time] synonymous with Scottsboro boys," Communist-organized protests were soon being arranged globally – far from the initial demonstrations organized in Harlem
. William T. Howard writes that
The Communists proceeded to appeal the case upward on the hierarchy of the judicial system. Although the Scottsboro Boys, now considered entirely innocent of any charges, did serve time for their convictions after a subsequent retrial, their defense by the Communists succeeded in a number of pioneering ways, notably exposing for the entire nation the racism inherent in Alabama's court system. With ILD-hired attorney Sam Leibowitz
embarrassing the Alabama prosecutors by noting in front of the Supreme Court that African Americans were entirely excluded from Alabama juries, the Alabama court system was forced to add one black man to the jury – though he was easily outvoted by the eleven white jurors, the event was the first time that the racial balance of the jurors was made an issue in the proceedings. Moreover, the post-retrial sentencing of the Scottsboro boys demarcated the first time that a black man had been sentenced to anything other than death in the rape of a white woman in Alabama. Sam Leibowitz and the Communist Party's ILD attorneys also succeeded in proving that the black names added to the roster of jurors for the review of the Supreme Court had been forged by the state. All of the boys managed to escape the death sentences originally handed out by the local Scottsboro, Alabama court; with international pressure mounting on the state, four were released as innocent of the charges as soon as the late 1930s.
As the campaign to secure the freedom of the accused Scottsboro Boys was being run, the jailing of Angelo Herndon
, a teenaged African American communist convicted of insurrection after attempting to organize black industrial workers in 1932 in Atlanta, Georgia
, became another cause for fierce activism, as Georgia authorities sought to make a case against Herndon based on his advocacy of communism: Herndon had led a racially integrated march of the unemployed in 1932 and was subsequently arrested when Georgia police found Communist Party literature was found in his bedroom. Amis, as leader of the League of Struggle for Negro Rights, participated in the campaign for Herndon's release, although the party's efforts were already heavily committed to the release of the nine Scottsboro teenagers.
Amis' other work for the Communist Party took him to various locations within the country. He went on to become District Organizer for the Communist Party in Cleveland. He also travelled outside the United States. He took advantage of the opportunity to study formally in the Soviet Union
as well as to hone further organizing skill, and contributed writings for the Negro Worker, the newspaper of the International Trade Union Committee of Negro Workers while working abroad.
The 1930s also saw Amis engage in the radical campaign to free Tom Mooney, the militant white socialist labor leader whose jailing in the 1910s, like those of the African American defendants, had been conducted in a lynch mob atmosphere – even as evidence against Mooney had also been faked and testimony against the activist would be revealed as perjured
. In his capacity as a politician, Amis to publicize the Mooney case among both black and white workers. Nominating William Z. Foster for presidential candidate during the Communist Party's Chicago convention in 1932, Amis spoke of Foster's support for Mooney figured prominently in Amis' endorsement; Amis described Foster as "an outstanding fighter" for the freedom of Tom Mooney as well as Edith Berkman and the Scottsboro Boys, all reasons "which prove his ability to lead workers today in deadly struggle against war and capitalism" and showing "the revolutionary way out of the crisis. . ."
Having moved to Pennsylvania in the 1930s, Amis ran a 1936 campaign for state general auditor and supporting the national Foster-Ford campaign in the national electoral race. His later activity included organizing the Catering Industry Employees Union, Local 758, an African-American local of the Hotel and Restaurant Employees and Bartenders International Union (AFL
), serving as an elected officers of both unions in the later 1930s and early '40s.
A longtime activist in Pennsylvania, Amis subsequently worked for the Gulf Oil Company, while continuing his radical union and community organizing activities.
Amis died in Alexandria, Virginia
on June 9, 1993, thirty days before his 97th birthday – committed to his radical principles throughout his life.
Amis' son Barry D. Amis, a Professor of Education at Michigan State
and Purdue
universities, helped pioneer the development of African American literature
courses at Michigan State.
Amis' arhive of papers and important documents, made public for the interests of general research by the Communist Party, presently reside at New York University
's Tamiment Library.
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
labor organizer and civil rights
Civil rights
Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from unwarranted infringement by governments and private organizations, and ensure one's ability to participate in the civil and political life of the state without discrimination or repression.Civil rights include...
leader. Particularly influential in the fight for African Americans' and workers during the period of official segregation in the South and informal discrimination throughout the country, Amis is most remembered for his militant Communist activism on behalf of the notable legal cases of the falsely-accused Scottsboro Boys
Scottsboro Boys
The Scottsboro Boys were nine black teenage boys accused of rape in Alabama in 1931. The landmark set of legal cases from this incident dealt with racism and the right to a fair trial...
, the African American organizer Angelo Herndon
Angelo Herndon
Angelo Braxton Herndon was an African American labor organizer arrested and convicted for insurrection after attempting to organize black industrial workers in 1932 in Atlanta, Georgia...
, as well as the white labor leader Tom Mooney
Tom Mooney
Thomas, Tom or Tommy Mooney may refer to:*Thomas Mooney , American labor leader in San Francisco*Thomas Mooney , Northern Irish footballer...
.
Biography
Born Benjamin DeWayne Amis in Chicago, Illinois in 1893, Amis went by B.D. Amis throughout his life, although often signing his letters as "B. DeWayne Amis" in the 1930s. Growing up in the black neighborhoods of Chicago, B. D. Amis was strongly influenced by the anti-lynching writings of Ida B. Wells-Barnett, a Southern-born African American journalist, civil rights leader, and women's rights activist then living in Chicago.Politically involved since the early 1920s, by 1928, Amis was president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, usually abbreviated as NAACP, is an African-American civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909. Its mission is "to ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights of all persons and to...
's Peoria
Peoria, Illinois
Peoria is the largest city on the Illinois River and the county seat of Peoria County, Illinois, in the United States. It is named after the Peoria tribe. As of the 2010 census, the city was the seventh-most populated in Illinois, with a population of 115,007, and is the third-most populated...
branch. The recently founded Communist Party
Communist Party USA
The Communist Party USA is a Marxist political party in the United States, established in 1919. It has a long, complex history that is closely related to the histories of similar communist parties worldwide and the U.S. labor movement....
, organized on a favorable position towards African Americans, provided an invitation to a meeting in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, which made a profoundly interested him as one of the few non-black organizations in the 1920s willing to seriously struggle against racism, and Amis would soon be working with William Z. Foster
William Z. Foster
William Foster was a radical American labor organizer and Marxist politician, whose career included a lengthy stint as General Secretary of the Communist Party USA...
, the party leader and presidential candidate, whom Amis would help renominate together with the African American vice president nominee James W. Ford
James W. Ford
James W. "Jim" Ford was the Vice-Presidential candidate for the Communist Party USA in 1932, 1936, and 1940. A party organizer from New York City, Ford was the first African-American to appear on a presidential ticket in the 20th century....
in 1932.Amis, Barry D. "B.D. Amis – Black Communist and Labor Leader". In Howard, Walter T. (Ed.) B.D. Amis, African American Radical: A Short Anthology of Writings and Speeches. Lanham, Md.: University Press of America, 2007. P. xi, and Amis, B.D. "Speech Nominating William Z. Foster for President of the United States". In Howard, Walter T. (Ed.) B.D. Amis, African American Radical: A Short Anthology of Writings and Speeches. Lanham, Md.: University Press of America, 2007. pp. 57–59.
Amis began contributing to Party journals not long afterward. The 1930 "Lynch Justice" attacked the Communist Party's leftist opposition, the less radical Socialist Party
Socialist Party USA
The Socialist Party USA is a multi-tendency democratic-socialist party in the United States. The party states that it is the rightful continuation and successor to the tradition of the Socialist Party of America, which had lasted from 1901 to 1972.The party is officially committed to left-wing...
, which, although progressive in relation to the idea of African American equality in the northern states, had decided to abstain from taking a position on the rights of African Americans. Amis wrote:
From 1930, Amis headed the newly formed League of Struggle for Negro Rights
League of Struggle for Negro Rights
The League of Struggle for Negro Rights was organized by the Communist Party in 1930 as the successor to the American Negro Labor Congress. The League was particularly active in organizing support for the "Scottsboro Boys", nine black men sentenced to death in 1931 for crimes they had not committed...
, a radical organization formed on the basis of Leninist
Leninism
In Marxist philosophy, Leninism is the body of political theory for the democratic organisation of a revolutionary vanguard party, and the achievement of a direct-democracy dictatorship of the proletariat, as political prelude to the establishment of socialism...
principles; although seeing black sovereignty in majority-black areas of the South as an ideal, given the fever-pitch racism then prevailing in the United States, the organization focused on publicizing the plight of the oppressed black minority through the its newspaper, The Liberator, which B. D. Amis edited, and on promoting direct action protests against lynching, tenant evictions, and the Jim Crow segregation laws
Jim Crow laws
The Jim Crow laws were state and local laws in the United States enacted between 1876 and 1965. They mandated de jure racial segregation in all public facilities, with a supposedly "separate but equal" status for black Americans...
, as well as racism in the legal system and other manifestations. In 1933, the League issued a "Bill of Rights for the Negro People" – a document calling on Franklin Roosevelt to protect African Americans; a petition for action from the president was carried to Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
by 3,500 activists.
In 1931 – almost right after Amis had completed writing "Lynching Justice" – the Scottsboro Boys
Scottsboro Boys
The Scottsboro Boys were nine black teenage boys accused of rape in Alabama in 1931. The landmark set of legal cases from this incident dealt with racism and the right to a fair trial...
case came to light in Alabama
Alabama
Alabama is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama ranks 30th in total land area and ranks second in the size of its inland...
: nine young black men who had gotten into a fight with a group of white youth were subsequently charged with raping two white women. By sundown on the same day, a freshly formed lynch mob was demanding that the youths be surrendered to them for immediate lynching. Authorities pleaded against mob violence by promising speedy trials and asking "the Judge to send them to the chair"; fifteen days later, eight were sentenced to death, and the Communist Party managed convinced the parents of the minors to let International Labor Defense
International Labor Defense
The International Labor Defense was a legal defense organization in the United States, headed by William L. Patterson. It was a US section of International Red Aid organisation, and associated with the Communist Party USA. It defended Sacco and Vanzetti, was active in the civil rights and...
take charge of the defense. Deeply involved in the case, Amis travelled to Alabama. Amis' 1931 commentary about the case, juxtaposed against a set of photographs from Scottsboro, "They Shall Not Die! The Story of Scottsboro in Pictures" – published in the June 6 copy of The Liberator – galvanized as a rallying cry for the accused defendants at the beginning of the trials.
B. D. Amis' son, Dr. Barry D. Amis, writes that
Amis and Scottsboro historian William T. Howard writes that Amis' article "gave the Party campaign its slogan," which spread far beyond both the Deep South
Deep South
The Deep South is a descriptive category of the cultural and geographic subregions in the American South. Historically, it is differentiated from the "Upper South" as being the states which were most dependent on plantation type agriculture during the pre-Civil War period...
and the United States. In addition to the coverage of the case received in the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
, where "the word 'Negro' was [at the time] synonymous with Scottsboro boys," Communist-organized protests were soon being arranged globally – far from the initial demonstrations organized in Harlem
Harlem
Harlem is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan, which since the 1920s has been a major African-American residential, cultural and business center. Originally a Dutch village, formally organized in 1658, it is named after the city of Haarlem in the Netherlands...
. William T. Howard writes that
The Communists proceeded to appeal the case upward on the hierarchy of the judicial system. Although the Scottsboro Boys, now considered entirely innocent of any charges, did serve time for their convictions after a subsequent retrial, their defense by the Communists succeeded in a number of pioneering ways, notably exposing for the entire nation the racism inherent in Alabama's court system. With ILD-hired attorney Sam Leibowitz
Samuel Leibowitz
Samuel Simon Leibowitz was a Romanian-born American criminal defense attorney, famously noted for winning the vast majority of his cases, who later became a judge in New York City.-Early years:...
embarrassing the Alabama prosecutors by noting in front of the Supreme Court that African Americans were entirely excluded from Alabama juries, the Alabama court system was forced to add one black man to the jury – though he was easily outvoted by the eleven white jurors, the event was the first time that the racial balance of the jurors was made an issue in the proceedings. Moreover, the post-retrial sentencing of the Scottsboro boys demarcated the first time that a black man had been sentenced to anything other than death in the rape of a white woman in Alabama. Sam Leibowitz and the Communist Party's ILD attorneys also succeeded in proving that the black names added to the roster of jurors for the review of the Supreme Court had been forged by the state. All of the boys managed to escape the death sentences originally handed out by the local Scottsboro, Alabama court; with international pressure mounting on the state, four were released as innocent of the charges as soon as the late 1930s.
As the campaign to secure the freedom of the accused Scottsboro Boys was being run, the jailing of Angelo Herndon
Angelo Herndon
Angelo Braxton Herndon was an African American labor organizer arrested and convicted for insurrection after attempting to organize black industrial workers in 1932 in Atlanta, Georgia...
, a teenaged African American communist convicted of insurrection after attempting to organize black industrial workers in 1932 in Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta is the capital and most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia. According to the 2010 census, Atlanta's population is 420,003. Atlanta is the cultural and economic center of the Atlanta metropolitan area, which is home to 5,268,860 people and is the ninth largest metropolitan area in...
, became another cause for fierce activism, as Georgia authorities sought to make a case against Herndon based on his advocacy of communism: Herndon had led a racially integrated march of the unemployed in 1932 and was subsequently arrested when Georgia police found Communist Party literature was found in his bedroom. Amis, as leader of the League of Struggle for Negro Rights, participated in the campaign for Herndon's release, although the party's efforts were already heavily committed to the release of the nine Scottsboro teenagers.
Amis' other work for the Communist Party took him to various locations within the country. He went on to become District Organizer for the Communist Party in Cleveland. He also travelled outside the United States. He took advantage of the opportunity to study formally in the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
as well as to hone further organizing skill, and contributed writings for the Negro Worker, the newspaper of the International Trade Union Committee of Negro Workers while working abroad.
The 1930s also saw Amis engage in the radical campaign to free Tom Mooney, the militant white socialist labor leader whose jailing in the 1910s, like those of the African American defendants, had been conducted in a lynch mob atmosphere – even as evidence against Mooney had also been faked and testimony against the activist would be revealed as perjured
Perjury
Perjury, also known as forswearing, is the willful act of swearing a false oath or affirmation to tell the truth, whether spoken or in writing, concerning matters material to a judicial proceeding. That is, the witness falsely promises to tell the truth about matters which affect the outcome of the...
. In his capacity as a politician, Amis to publicize the Mooney case among both black and white workers. Nominating William Z. Foster for presidential candidate during the Communist Party's Chicago convention in 1932, Amis spoke of Foster's support for Mooney figured prominently in Amis' endorsement; Amis described Foster as "an outstanding fighter" for the freedom of Tom Mooney as well as Edith Berkman and the Scottsboro Boys, all reasons "which prove his ability to lead workers today in deadly struggle against war and capitalism" and showing "the revolutionary way out of the crisis. . ."
Having moved to Pennsylvania in the 1930s, Amis ran a 1936 campaign for state general auditor and supporting the national Foster-Ford campaign in the national electoral race. His later activity included organizing the Catering Industry Employees Union, Local 758, an African-American local of the Hotel and Restaurant Employees and Bartenders International Union (AFL
American Federation of Labor
The American Federation of Labor was one of the first federations of labor unions in the United States. It was founded in 1886 by an alliance of craft unions disaffected from the Knights of Labor, a national labor association. Samuel Gompers was elected president of the Federation at its...
), serving as an elected officers of both unions in the later 1930s and early '40s.
A longtime activist in Pennsylvania, Amis subsequently worked for the Gulf Oil Company, while continuing his radical union and community organizing activities.
Amis died in Alexandria, Virginia
Alexandria, Virginia
Alexandria is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of 2009, the city had a total population of 139,966. Located along the Western bank of the Potomac River, Alexandria is approximately six miles south of downtown Washington, D.C.Like the rest of northern Virginia, as well as...
on June 9, 1993, thirty days before his 97th birthday – committed to his radical principles throughout his life.
Amis' son Barry D. Amis, a Professor of Education at Michigan State
Michigan State University
Michigan State University is a public research university in East Lansing, Michigan, USA. Founded in 1855, it was the pioneer land-grant institution and served as a model for future land-grant colleges in the United States under the 1862 Morrill Act.MSU pioneered the studies of packaging,...
and Purdue
Purdue University
Purdue University, located in West Lafayette, Indiana, U.S., is the flagship university of the six-campus Purdue University system. Purdue was founded on May 6, 1869, as a land-grant university when the Indiana General Assembly, taking advantage of the Morrill Act, accepted a donation of land and...
universities, helped pioneer the development of African American literature
African American literature
African-American literature is the body of literature produced in the United States by writers of African descent. The genre traces its origins to the works of such late 18th century writers as Phillis Wheatley and Olaudah Equiano, reaching early high points with slave narratives and the Harlem...
courses at Michigan State.
Amis' arhive of papers and important documents, made public for the interests of general research by the Communist Party, presently reside at New York University
New York University
New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...
's Tamiment Library.
See also
- African-American Civil Rights Movement (1896–1954)
- The Communist Party USA and African-Americans
- The Scottsboro Boys
Further reading
- Howard, Walter T. (Ed.) B.D. Amis, African American Radical: A Short Anthology of Writings and Speeches. Lanham, Md.: University Press of America, 2007.
External links
- "B.D. Amis – Black Communist and Labor Leader" – A remembrance by B. D. Amis' son, Dr. Barry D. Amis (People's Weekly WorldPeople's Weekly WorldThe People's World is a news web site associated with the Communist Party USA.The People's World / Mundo Popular, formerly the People's Weekly World / Nuestro Mundo is a national, grassroots weekly newspaper and the direct descendant of the Daily Worker, founded in 1924...
). - "Guide to the B. D. Amis Papers, 1930–2004 (Bulk 1930–1949): Tamiment 355" – A biographical introduction from New York University's Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archive.