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a A > at i * x 7 pf RS .. . | consider the Communists a definite menace and a danger to the Negro people and labor, because of their rule or min and disruptive tactics in the interest of the Soviet Union . . | The Congress was deliberately packed with Communists and C. I. 0. members who were either Communists or sympa- thizers with Communists . . . T quit the congress because I was Opposed to it, Of its officials, expressing sympathy for the Soviet Union, which is the death prison where democracy and liberty have walked their “last mile” and where shocking blood purges wipe out any and all persons who express any dissenting opinions from dictator Stalin. T quit the congress because I saw that the Com- munists were firmly in the saddle . . . Their minds were already made up when they came there by Communists’ manipulations, caucuses, and propa- ganda .. . I quit the congress because it was not truly a Negro Congress. (Congressional Record, May 14, 1940, p. 2944-5) The Communist domination of the National Negro Congress was, of course, evident from the beginning to anyone sufficiently interested in the evidence. Despite the plain truth about the Communists and the NNC, it received a boost from Norman Thomas. Philip Murray, and Walter White of the N.A.A.C.P.— all of whom appeared as speakers at the Second Na- uonal Negro Congress in October, 1937. The Second National Negro Congress was convened in Philadelphia. The NNC officials made arrangements for a special train from New York to Philadelphia, through World Tourists, a Soviet travel and espionage apency, In addition to Walter White of the N.A.A.C.P., the National Negro Congress was able to attract, as speak- efs OF sponsors, many other Negro leaders among whom were the following: Frederick D. Patterson, president of Tuskegee Institute; Rufus B. Atwood, president of Ken- tucky State College; John M. Ellison, president of Vir- ginia Union University; David D. Jones, president of Bennett College; R. O'Hara Lanier, president of Texas Southern University; and Jacob L. Reddix, president of Jackson State College. The National Negro Congress aiso enlisted as stooges the following bishops of Negro churches: Bishop James A. Bray, Colored Methodist Episcopal; Bishop R. A. Carter, Colored Methodist Episcopal; Bishop W. J. Walls, African Methodist Episcopal Zion; Bishop R. R. vys.gui, African Methodist Episcopal; Bishop W. A. Fountain, African Methodist Episcopal; and Reverdy C. Ransom, African Methodist Episcopal. The affiliations of these Negro college presidents and Negro bishops indicate that the Communist Party has 36 | | ( - — —e — = —r hed a large measure of success in penetrating the ranks “Negro. d clergymen. ene the weriod extending from 1936 to the end of World War Il, the National Negro Congress and the Communist Party dropped such slogans as “A Negro Republic in the Black Belt” and sone in Keeping W a : N Nation.” This ve OPP ee Party's new tactical orientation of the People’s Front. After World War Il, the Communists reverted 10 their basic disloyalty to ne anes - tes. munists in the armed forces of I fought with great zeal in the war against the Axis Pow: ers, not out of any loyalty to their own country but be- cause their adopted “fatherland,” the Soviet Union, was belligerent. . Sotlowng World War IJ, the National Negro Con- gress and the Communist Party showed their true colors. On June 6, 1946, the NNC addressed a petition to the United Nations, requesting that foreign agency to conduct an investigation into the oppression of the le. Se mostnist tactics are always subject to drastic altera- tion without notice, but the basic aim of violent revolu- ion i r abandoned. nthe National Negro Congress was liquidated in 1947. It had served the purposes of the Communist conspiracy admirably for almost a decade, but during its later years it had become so indelibly stamped as a Soviet sputnik that its influence outside the immediate circle of Com- munists was rapidly approaching the vanishing point. Never discouraged, and always ready to start all over again, the Party went on to the launching of new sput- niks. Southern Negro Youth Congress _ The Southern Negro Youth Congress originated as the youth section of the National Negro Congress. Its first conference was held in Richmond, Virginia, Febrn- ary 13-14, 1937, at the Fifth Street Baptist Church. The late Edward E. Strong, Communist Party Negro leader, was chairman of the youth section of the NNC NYC. ne SNYC was fornied during the era of the People’s Front, and its behavior was guided accordingly. At its first session, the pastor of the Baptist Church pro- nounced an invocation. There was nothing of the damn-the-church attitude which had characterized the period of the American Negro Labor Congress, al- though the Communists were in complete contros. Speakers at the first conference of the SNYC included &. Franklin Frazier, professor at Howard University, Mordecai W. Johnson, president of Howard University, and Angelo Herndon. During the conference, a seminar was devoted to the subject, “The Role of the Negro Church in Solving the 37