Texas Left: The Radical Roots of Lone Star Liberalism

Confronting White Supremacy: The African American Left in Texas, 1874– 1974

CONFRONTING WHITE SUPREMACY The African American Left in Texas, 1874–1974 Bruce A. Glasrud and Gregg Andrews Oh, how can we forget Our human rights denied? Oh, how can we forget Our manhood crucified? When Justice is profaned And plea with curse is met, When Freedom’s gates are barred, Oh, how can we forget? —Melvin B. Tolson On July 7, 1912, a gun battle broke out in the small mill town of Grabow, Louisiana, during a “lumber war” between members of the Brotherhood of Timber Workers (btw), a biracial union in western Louisiana and East Texas, and forces representing the Southern Lumber Operators’ Association, an owner’s group set up not only to prevent workers from unionizing in the timber industry, but also to enforce the southern racial order by keeping blacks subordinate. During this class conflict, when Association guards fired into the workers , union members retaliated. Three individuals were killed immediately , one died later, and forty were wounded. Although most shots were fired from Association weapons, authorities arrested the leadership and sixty-four members of the btw who, while in jail awaiting trial, formed a Socialist Party local. They were found not guilty; un- 158 Glasrud and Andrews fortunately their legal expenses broke the union and over the next few years the btw faltered and ended.1 Before that battle, the btw had become a unified biracial force. As James R. Green asserts, it was “a radical, collective response to industrial capitalism.” African Americans in East Texas comprised nearly 40 percent of the timber workers as well as a significant percentage of the union leadership, and neither white nor black wanted the other to be used as strikebreakers. The btw emerged from owner-worker disputes and owner mistreatment of workers in the early years of the twentieth century. In 1904, for example, black mill hands in Groveton conducted a strike against the virtual slavery in which they were held, and served notice that they were to be included in any major movement against industrial capitalism in East Texas. By December 1910, timber workers, led by Arthur Lee Emerson and Jay Smith, organized the first local. Additional locals organized in East Texas and western Louisiana in 1911, leading to the formation of the btw, an industrial union of black and white, men and women members. Early in 1912 the btw affiliated with the Industrial Workers of the World (iww), presented a set of grievances to the owners, and the Operator’s Association retaliated with a lockout. Ultimately the union was busted.2 The broad appeal of the btw showed that biracial unionism could succeed in East Texas. But the combined forces of wealthy southern industrialists, bent on preventing and destroying labor union activity , together with a strong conservative element of white Texans opposed to any form of black economic strength, proved too much to overcome so early in the twentieth century. To a certain extent, also, the btw was an anomaly. African Americans in Texas3 generally did not associate with leftist activities, since the Left in an organized framework such as the Industrial Workers of the World or the Socialist or the Communist parties, too often did not solicit black participation .4 Partially this was the case since Left leaders also were Texans, and it was Texas whites who set up the racial parameters of Texas society. White Texans viewed blacks as inferior beings who should be separated from white society, should obey white demands, should willingly work in underpaid positions for whites, and should generally acquiesce to whites’ dominance. Blacks fought back with practical and reform-minded alliances. Afro-Texans resisted restrictive, violent white behavior, they were part of the mass of underpaid workers, and they sought freedom, equality, and opportunity. Many wished to overthrow or radically transform an entire southern way of life. White Texans saw the resistance of black Texans to their mandated status as radical, often taking steps to break up black associations; for example, The African American Left in Texas, 1874–1974 159 white officials sought membership rolls of black militant organizations such as the naacp. To define what is meant by the Left in the Texas black community let us start by stating what it is not. It is not composed of Afro-Texans who acquiesced or accommodated to white society. Rather, it is those black Texans who with their ideas and actions resisted...