Cyril Briggs
Encyclopedia
Cyril Valentine Briggs (May 28, 1888, Nevis
– October 18, 1966, Los Angeles, California
) was an African Caribbean and African-American writer and communist
political activist born in the West Indies. He was influenced by political ideas which emerged during and after the First World War.
Briggs was born in 1888 in Nevis, a Caribbean island of the West Indies. Cyril's father was an overseer on a plantation. Briggs hoped to start his writing career and moved to Harlem
in 1905.
Briggs' first writing job was at the Amsterdam News in 1912. In 1917, shortly after Hubert Harrison
founded the Liberty League and The Voice, Briggs founded the African Blood Brotherhood
(ABB), one of the seminal groups of African-American associations. His goal was to stop lynching and racial discrimination, and ensure voting and civil rights
for African Americans in the South
. He also called for black self-determination. The group initially opposed American involvement in the First World War.
In 1918, the ABB started a magazine called The Crusader which supported the Socialist Party of America
's platform and helped expose lynchings in the South and discrimination in the North. Briggs hoped that President Woodrow Wilson
would support voting rights for African Americans in the South after the service of veterans in the war. Southern Democratic
congressmen
opposed any changes. Disillusioned by Socialist and progressive efforts, Briggs joined the Communist Party USA
in 1921, his leadership of the ABB gained Marxist influences. He called for control by African American workers of the means of production which employed them, whether in industry or in agriculture.
Briggs became a leading exponent of racial separatism. Briggs saw American White-Black racism as a form of “hatred of the unlike” which draws “its virulence from the firm conviction in the white man’s mind of the inequality of races—the belief that there are superior and inferior races and that the former are marked with a white skin and the latter with dark skin and that only the former are capable and virtuous and therefore alone fit to vote, rule and inherit the earth.” Briggs reminded his readers that racial antipathy is a two-way street and that “the Negro dislikes the white man almost as much as the latter dislikes the Negro.” Briggs proposed a “new solution” then emerging, in which the African-American had come to the realization that “the salvation of his race and an honorable solution of the American Race Problem call for action and decision in preference to the twaddling, dreaming, and indecision of ‘leaders.’” Instead, “nothing more or less than independent, separate existence” was called for — “Government of the (Negro) people, for the (Negro) people and by the (Negro) people.”
Briggs’s Marxist views as applied to a separatist government caused a rift with Marcus Garvey
, the founder of the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA). While opposed to Garvey's nationalist movement, the Marxists of the ABB did not view "Africa
for the Africans" as an invitation to capitalist development. Briggs wrote, "Socialism and Communism [were] in practical application in Africa for centuries before they were even advanced as theories in the European world."
Garvey believed that Briggs was trying to destroy the government and filed a series of lawsuits against him. The ABB began to die out in the mid-1920s, after the Communist Party shifted its support to the American Negro Labor Congress
. Briggs died in 1966 in Los Angeles.
Nevis
Nevis is an island in the Caribbean Sea, located near the northern end of the Lesser Antilles archipelago, about 350 km east-southeast of Puerto Rico and 80 km west of Antigua. The 93 km² island is part of the inner arc of the Leeward Islands chain of the West Indies...
– October 18, 1966, Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
) was an African Caribbean and African-American writer and communist
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
political activist born in the West Indies. He was influenced by political ideas which emerged during and after the First World War.
Briggs was born in 1888 in Nevis, a Caribbean island of the West Indies. Cyril's father was an overseer on a plantation. Briggs hoped to start his writing career and moved to 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...
in 1905.
Briggs' first writing job was at the Amsterdam News in 1912. In 1917, shortly after Hubert Harrison
Hubert Harrison
Hubert Henry Harrison was a West Indian-American writer, orator, educator, critic, and radical socialist political activist based in Harlem, New York. He was described by activist A. Philip Randolph as “the father of Harlem radicalism” and by the historian Joel Augustus Rogers as “the foremost...
founded the Liberty League and The Voice, Briggs founded the African Blood Brotherhood
African Blood Brotherhood
The African Blood Brotherhood for African Liberation and Redemption was a radical U.S. black liberation organization established in 1919 in New York City by journalist Cyril Briggs. The group was established as a propaganda organization built on the model of the secret society...
(ABB), one of the seminal groups of African-American associations. His goal was to stop lynching and racial discrimination, and ensure voting 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...
for African Americans in the South
Southern United States
The Southern United States—commonly referred to as the American South, Dixie, or simply the South—constitutes a large distinctive area in the southeastern and south-central United States...
. He also called for black self-determination. The group initially opposed American involvement in the First World War.
In 1918, the ABB started a magazine called The Crusader which supported the Socialist Party of America
Socialist Party of America
The Socialist Party of America was a multi-tendency democratic-socialist political party in the United States, formed in 1901 by a merger between the three-year-old Social Democratic Party of America and disaffected elements of the Socialist Labor Party which had split from the main organization...
's platform and helped expose lynchings in the South and discrimination in the North. Briggs hoped that President Woodrow Wilson
Woodrow Wilson
Thomas Woodrow Wilson was the 28th President of the United States, from 1913 to 1921. A leader of the Progressive Movement, he served as President of Princeton University from 1902 to 1910, and then as the Governor of New Jersey from 1911 to 1913...
would support voting rights for African Americans in the South after the service of veterans in the war. Southern Democratic
Boll weevil (politics)
Boll weevils was an American political term used in the mid- and late-20th century to describe conservative Southern Democrats.During and after the administration of Franklin D...
congressmen
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....
opposed any changes. Disillusioned by Socialist and progressive efforts, Briggs joined the Communist Party USA
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....
in 1921, his leadership of the ABB gained Marxist influences. He called for control by African American workers of the means of production which employed them, whether in industry or in agriculture.
Briggs became a leading exponent of racial separatism. Briggs saw American White-Black racism as a form of “hatred of the unlike” which draws “its virulence from the firm conviction in the white man’s mind of the inequality of races—the belief that there are superior and inferior races and that the former are marked with a white skin and the latter with dark skin and that only the former are capable and virtuous and therefore alone fit to vote, rule and inherit the earth.” Briggs reminded his readers that racial antipathy is a two-way street and that “the Negro dislikes the white man almost as much as the latter dislikes the Negro.” Briggs proposed a “new solution” then emerging, in which the African-American had come to the realization that “the salvation of his race and an honorable solution of the American Race Problem call for action and decision in preference to the twaddling, dreaming, and indecision of ‘leaders.’” Instead, “nothing more or less than independent, separate existence” was called for — “Government of the (Negro) people, for the (Negro) people and by the (Negro) people.”
Briggs’s Marxist views as applied to a separatist government caused a rift with Marcus Garvey
Marcus Garvey
Marcus Mosiah Garvey, Jr., ONH was a Jamaican publisher, journalist, entrepreneur, and orator who was a staunch proponent of the Black Nationalism and Pan-Africanism movements, to which end he founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League...
, the founder of the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA). While opposed to Garvey's nationalist movement, the Marxists of the ABB did not view "Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
for the Africans" as an invitation to capitalist development. Briggs wrote, "Socialism and Communism [were] in practical application in Africa for centuries before they were even advanced as theories in the European world."
Garvey believed that Briggs was trying to destroy the government and filed a series of lawsuits against him. The ABB began to die out in the mid-1920s, after the Communist Party shifted its support to the American Negro Labor Congress
American Negro Labor Congress
The American Negro Labor Congress was established in 1925 by the Communist Party as a vehicle for advancing the rights of African-Americans, propagandizing for communism within the black community and recruiting African-American members for the party...
. Briggs died in 1966 in Los Angeles.
Resources
- A new book on blacks and the CPUSA http://www.columbia.edu/~lnp3/mydocs/race/solomon.htm
- Black and Red http://www.tcnj.edu/~fisherc/black_and_red.html
- Louis J. Parascandola, "Cyril Briggs and the African Blood Brotherhood: a radical counterpoint to progressivism", Afro-Americans in New York Life and History, Jan. 2006