African Blood Brotherhood facts for kids

The African Blood Brotherhood for African Liberation and Redemption (ABB) was an important group in the United States that worked for black liberation. It was started in 1919 in New York City by a journalist named Cyril Briggs. The ABB began as a group that spread its ideas, much like a secret society. Its focus on socialism soon got the attention of the new American communist movement. The ABB then became a part of the Communist Party of America. The group stopped operating in the early 1920s.

How the ABB Started

During the early 1900s, a movement for black freedom began to grow in Harlem, a neighborhood in New York City. This movement included many people who had moved from the British West Indies and other Caribbean islands. In their home countries, they were part of the main population. But in America, they faced racism and became an oppressed minority. Many of these newcomers had experienced colonialism, where one country controls another. This made them dislike capitalism (where businesses are privately owned) and imperialism (where powerful countries expand their control).

One of these people was Cyril Briggs, who was born in 1888 on the island of Nevis. He moved to Harlem in 1905. In 1912, Briggs became a journalist for the New York Amsterdam News, a leading black newspaper. He worked there during World War I. Inspired by President Woodrow Wilson's idea of "national self-determination" (people deciding their own future), Briggs started a magazine called The Crusader in 1918. This magazine promoted the idea of black people returning to a free Africa. This was similar to the idea of Zionism, where some Jewish people wanted to return to Palestine.

The Crusader was first started by George Wells Parker, a black businessman. He used the magazine to share his views. He wrote articles saying that Africa was the "cradle of civilization" and that the black race was superior.

In 1919, Briggs's ideas began to change. He started to see similarities between the struggles of black workers in the U.S. and poor white workers, many of whom were recent immigrants from Europe. Briggs began to believe that capitalism was the main problem. He argued that workers of all races should work together for a common cause. The Crusader eventually reached about 36,000 readers, mostly in Harlem.

Forming the Organization

The summer of 1919 was a time of much racial violence in America. Historians call it the "Red Summer." Black soldiers returning from World War I expected more freedom and equality. White soldiers wanted to return to their old jobs. New black workers from the South also moved to cities. This mix led to mob violence in cities like Chicago and Omaha.

In response to these attacks, The Crusader said that black people should defend themselves with weapons. Briggs also compared how the government treated white and black radicals. He believed that capitalism was the root cause of poverty for all races. While he supported Marxist ideas (which focus on class struggle), The Crusader also said that African Americans needed their own group to fight racist attacks in the U.S. They saw this as similar to Africans fighting colonialism abroad.

In September 1919, The Crusader announced the creation of the African Blood Brotherhood (ABB). This group was meant to help black people defend themselves during race riots. They also republished Claude McKay's famous poem, If We Must Die.

Soon after, Briggs connected with early black American Communists. These included Otto Huiswoud from Surinam and the poet Claude McKay from Jamaica. These connections led Briggs and his magazine to meet white Communists like Robert Minor and Rose Pastor Stokes. These white leaders were very interested in the "Negro Question," which was how they referred to the issues faced by black people. Briggs himself joined the Communist Party in 1921.

Challenges and Government Watch

The ABB tried to work within Marcus Garvey's UNIA-ACL organization. They supported Garvey but also offered criticism. ABB leaders like Briggs and Claude McKay attended the UNIA's international meetings in New York in 1920 and 1921. At the second meeting, McKay arranged for Rose Pastor Stokes, a white leader from the Communist Party USA, to speak.

The ABB became very critical of Garvey after his Black Star Line business seemed to fail. They also criticized his meeting with a leader of the Ku Klux Klan in 1921. In June 1922, The Crusader announced it was now the official magazine of the African Blood Brotherhood. It argued that the UNIA needed new leaders and tried to get UNIA members to join the ABB. The ABB competed with another socialist magazine, The Messenger, which wanted Garvey removed from the U.S. In response, Garvey told his followers to disrupt meetings of these groups.

Besides their conflict with Garvey, Briggs and the ABB were watched by police and federal agencies. The government began to keep an eye on radical groups. After World War I, the government started a campaign against communists and other radicals. This was called the First Red Scare. Government agents secretly joined groups like the UNIA and the ABB. These agents gathered information for the Bureau of Investigation (which later became the FBI).

The ABB gained some attention after the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921. Tulsa had an ABB chapter. Some reports said the ABB inspired people to resist racist attacks during the riot.

Joining the Communist Party

The Crusader stopped being published in February 1922. Briggs continued to run the Crusader News Service, which provided news to black newspapers. As the ABB worked more closely with the Communist Party, it stopped recruiting new members on its own.

The leaders of the Communist International (Comintern), an international communist group, understood the importance of fighting against oppression based on race. They encouraged the early Communist Party in the U.S. to pay more attention to black people. Before this, the party had mostly ignored black issues. Instead, it was the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia that first interested black radicals like Briggs.

Claude McKay, a poet and ABB member, had been active in a communist group in London. He visited the Soviet Union several times in the mid-1920s. He wrote about the Communist International meetings for African-American readers. McKay's book, The Negroes in America (published in Russian in 1924), argued that the oppression of black people in the U.S. was unique and not just about money. He disagreed with the idea that race didn't matter, which some Communists believed.

McKay strongly supported the idea of national self-determination for oppressed people. For him, this meant an independent African-American government separate from the United States. Later, in 1928, the Communist Party USA adopted a policy of national self-determination for African Americans living in the American South. This policy was less focused on after 1935 but was not officially changed until 1959.

As the Communist Party grew, it became more organized, following the rules of the Communist International. Groups like the African Blood Brotherhood, with their own ideas about black Marxism, were not favored by the Comintern. They believed all communist groups should be united under one party in each country, controlled by Moscow. So, in the early 1920s, the African Blood Brotherhood was dissolved. Its members joined the Workers Party of America and later the American Negro Labor Congress. Many former ABB members became important leaders in the Communist Party for many years.

Membership Numbers

At its largest, the ABB had fewer than 3,000 members.

See Also

• The Communist Party and African-Americans
• Harry Haywood
• Alternative press
• Black separatism
• Black nationalism