Max Yergan: Race Man, Internationalist, Cold Warrior

South Africa, Part II

South Africa, Part II The Road to Radicalization Max Yergan’s public identification with radical left politics surfaced around 1931. Until then he balanced three sets of interests: one local (his overseas-based South African YMCA mission work); one transatlantic (lingering concern for North America); and one increasingly internationalist , shaped by the YMCA, SCA, and WSCF. Christian and secular “witness” aided the transformation, as did trips to Europe, Asia, and North America. These brought new friends and renewed old ties with Black YMCA allies J. E. Moorland, C. H. Tobias, and John Hope. Together they faced a hopeful new era. More conservative Christian colleagues found Yergan’s growing leftism sudden and surprising. In fact, however, it was a deliberate transformation performed by a man with global interests, movements, and contacts after a decade of observing, researching, and discussing the theoretical and practical requirements of a changing age. All of these factors coalesced at a time and in a way common for the era within his cohort, progressive churchgoers. Change finally came when Max urgently needed a fundamental intellectual and spiritual breakthrough. Yergan’s new course crystallized during 1927, while he was on his two-year U.S furlough. In January 1928, on a tour in Cleveland, he made a stopover there en route to a Student Volunteer Movement convention in Detroit. He attended the National Alpha Phi Alpha Convention , spoke at the Cedar Y, preached at Mt. Zion Congregational Church, and was interviewed by a local YMCA paper, the Cleveland Red Triangle . “The mind of the European is slowly awakening to the magnitude of the African situation,” he told the reporter, then added, Wealth is pouring into that vast territory, and the world is turning there for the products which Africa yields. This has created a startling economic and social problem. By force of circumstances, the natives find 4 78 themselves living in a civilization which is basically European. They are daily faced with the necessity of adapting themselves to the standards which surround them.1 Yergan stressed the salutary effects of YMCA work in the difficult South African field: The Young Men’s Christian Association has been responsible for bringing the claim[s] of the natives before the white inhabitants. Our work has been principally among students, who will be the leaders of the next generation. Where formerly we met suspicion and opposition, the doors are now open to us everywhere. More and more the whites are taking up a serious study of the interracial problem which confronts them.2 On February 15, secretary Yergan told of “The New Africa” at a mass meeting at Northeastern University (the YMCA College), where he was a guest lecturer sponsored by the Sigma Delta Epsilon honor society . The campus newspaper welcomed Max’s appearance and address, praising his oratorical skill and eloquent, restrained message.3 The reporter noted that he had “emphasized the purpose of African leaders today as raising up additional leaders of character and zeal by modern educational methods.” Mr. Yergan won the decided favor and interest of his large audience because of his fair and broad-minded treatment of the problem. Throughout the address, he maintained an admirable dignity and high level of approach; never did he resort to petty prejudices and undue racial consciousness .4 Evidently equally moving in Yergan’s appeal was his timely reference to a recent cable from Professor Jabavu at Fort Hare detailing the enormity of a drought in the Eastern Cape. Jabavu wrote, The drought this year beats all known records[,] exceeding even the previous worst, that of 1861, for since January (1927) it has not been wet enough for a plough to enter the soil! Folks have missed out two ploughing seasons, the June and the November, and the sun is that hot that we seem to be living inside a stove or oven day after day! Therefore I cannot hope to be able to raise any funds locally.5 South Africa, Part II | 79 Northeastern then launched a schoolwide Max Yergan Fund campaign aimed at its five thousand students.6 As Max returned to Fort Hare, following the International Missionary Council’s April 1928 Jerusalem meeting, the South African Communist Party was rethinking its strategy toward millions of Nonwhite workers. That year the Communist International had changed its general line to call for a “Black Belt Republic” in the American South and a “Native Republic” of workers...