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Creator
Haywood, Harry, 1898-1985
Call number
Sc MG 398
Physical description
9.38 linear feet (23 boxes)
Language
English
Preferred Citation
[Item], Harry Haywood papers, Sc MG 398, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division, The New York Public Library
Repository
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division
Access to materials
Request an in-person research appointment.

Harry Haywood was an African American member of the Communist Party who became a leading proponent of the theory that Blacks in the South, who were oppressed by Jim Crow laws and a system of serfdom (sharecropping), constituted a separate nation and had the right of self-determination. The Harry Haywood papers, 1948-1981, consist of typescripts of articles, speeches and book manuscripts; correspondence; photocopies of journal articles; and materials related to the Communist Party USA and several of its offshoots.

Biographical/historical information

Born Haywood Hall in South Omaha, Nebraska, on February 4, 1898, to the formerly enslaved Haywood and Harriet Hall, Harry Haywood changed his name by taking both his parent's first names (Harriet became Harry) when applying for a passport in 1925 to travel to the Soviet Union. In 1917, Haywood was deployed to France during World War I. His return to home soil coincided with the 1919 race riots and thoroughly disillusioned him with the state of race relations in the United States. After brief memberships in the African Black Brotherhood and the Young Workers Communist League, Haywood became a member of the Communist Party of the United States (CPUSA) in 1925.

Haywood was the first person of African descent to be selected by the CPUSA to study at the Lenin School in Moscow, where he learned Russian and studied Marxist theory. While there, Haywood also helped develop a Marxist analysis of the so-called Negro Problem. He became a leading architect and proponent of the National Question theory, which held that Jim Crow and sharecropping oppressed Blacks in the five Southern states of South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana, where they formed a majority of the population, and that Blacks had the right of self-determination, including the right to secede and form an independent nation. The Third Communist International (Comintern) adopted this position at its Sixth World Congress in 1928. In 1931, Haywood was appointed to the Central Committee and made head of the Party's National Negro Department. He was active in the labor movement and helped organize the Sharecroppers Union in Alabama and the League of Struggle for Negro Rights. Haywood also was involved in organizing demonstrations to defend the Scottsboro Boys as well as in campaigns to protest the Italian invasion of Ethiopia. In 1937, Haywood joined the Abraham Lincoln Brigade and went to Spain to support the Republicans in their fight against fascism. He served in the merchant marine during World War II, and he was a member of the National Maritime Union, the largest and most militant of all seamen's unions. In 1948, with financial assistance from Paul Robeson, Haywood published his first book, Negro Liberation, a detailed analysis of the national character of African American oppression, focusing on the South.

By the 1950s, the CPUSA rejected Haywood's position on the right to self-determination and expelled him from the Party in 1959, due to his continuing battles against the Party's abandonment of that position. After his expulsion, he continued to work with young radicals in the October League (reorganized as the Communist Party [Marxist-Leninist] in 1977) and the Black Power movement. Haywood spent several years writing his autobiography, Black Bolshevik: Autobiography of an Afro-American Communist, which was published in 1978.

Haywood died on January 4, 1985.

Scope and arrangement

The Harry Haywood papers, 1948-1981, consists of typescripts of articles, speeches and book manuscripts; correspondence, photocopies of journal articles; and materials related to the Communist Party USA and several of its offshoots, most frequently concerning their theoretical positions on Blacks in the United States.

The Harry Haywood papers are arranged in five series:

  • Communist Party of the United States (CPUSA)
    1930-1983

    The Correspondence subseries consists of a response from William Z. Foster to Haywood's article refuting Doxey Wilkerson's article entitled, "On the Negro Question", and letters to and from Cyril Briggs, founder of the African Blood Brotherhood and fellow Communist. There are also two letters to Haywood's wife, Gwendolyn Midlo Hall, written during Haywood's illness. Numerous letters are long theoretical discussions of current issues, such as Communist Party ideology, the struggle against revisionist leanings in the Party, the passive resistance movement, the NAACP, Black Muslims, and the Black Nationalist movement. Much of the correspondence was water damaged and has been photocopied. The National Question subseries, which refers to the CPUSA's position on the right of self-determination for African Americans, is a wide-ranging subgroup that contains copies of journal articles from the 1930s-1960s; two pieces by James E. Jackson, "Stalin's Thought Illuminates Problems of the Negro Question" (1953) and "Features of the Negro Question in the U.S." (1958); a typescript of an article by Cyril Briggs refuting Jackson's theories, as well as resolutions in response to Jackson's theories; and several articles written by other people on white chauvinism, including one by Herbert Aptheker (1950). The Provisional Organizing Committee for a Communist Party (POC), formed in New York City in August 1958, was a largely Black and Puerto Rican group of dissatisfied Party members, who hoped to build a new Marxist-oriented party; Haywood was one of its founders. This subseries consists of correspondence; Haywood's report to the New York Steering Committee and the National Executive Committee (September 1958); New York Steering Committee meeting materials (1958); discussion circle files; and Haywood's resignation in November 1958. A large portion of the subseries is concerned with Haywood's internal party battles with the general secretary of the POC, Armando Roman. The General files subseries includes a draft resolution and clippings on the 16th National Convention (1958), and articles from Political Affairs, 1952-1962.

  • October League
    1973-1975

    The October League series, arranged alphabetically, contains Central Committee and Executive Committee meeting reports and minutes; status reports on student work; Marxist Education campaign materials;, and preparatory materials for a Third Congress in 1975.

  • Communist Party (Marxist-Leninist)
    1970-1982

    This series includes several files dealing with the internal struggles over organization and party leadership, and issues leading up to the Second Congress in May 1981. There are also materials related to internal party debates on the viability of the party organ, "The Call"; international issues; and possible mergers with other Marxist Leninist groups. Also included are agendas, minutes, and resolutions from the Afro-American Commission. Materials related to the Southern Region contain remarks by Haywood on the National Question (March 1981) and reports on the party's work in the South. The Marxism and the Black Liberation Movement folder contains various writings, some identified and some not, on labor and the League of Black Revolutionary Workers, the Greensboro Collective, and the Harlem Unemployment Center.

  • Writing
    1933-1989

    Writing by Haywood includes articles and essays, speeches, and Haywood's autobiography, Black Bolshevik: Autobiography of an Afro-American Communist. Articles and essays contain manuscripts and typescripts of articles, both published and unpublished, and two interview drafts. It contains a partial manuscript from Haywood's first book, Negro Liberation (1948); his introduction for A House Divided: Labor and White Supremacy by Roxanne Mitchell and Frank Weiss (United Labor Press, New York, 1981); and a draft of his For a Revolutionary Position on the Negro Question (1958, published 1975). In a June 1950 interview, Haywood and Gabriel d'Arboussier, secretary-general of Rassemblement Democratique Africain, discuss the similarities and differences between the struggles of Africans and Blacks in the United States. A discussion between Haywood and Jesse Gray covers the National Maritime Union during the 1940s. Speeches consist of outlines, drafts, and handwritten notes for 15 speeches from the 1970s through the early 1980s, for a 1975 national Fight Back Conference (typed on the back of Fight Back flyers); the founding congress of the Communist Party (Marxist-Leninist); the publication of Black Bolshevik; and the commemoration of the Sharpeville Massacre (1980). Many contain accounts of the history of the CPUSA and Haywood's involvement with the Party (78th Birthday, 1976) and the development of the Black liberation movement (Binghamton 1976, and Atlanta 1978).

    The manuscript for Black Bolshevik: Autobiography of an Afro-American Communist (Chicago: Liberator Press, 1978) consists of 22 chapters, an introduction, and an epilogue. The manuscript's reverse chronological organization has been retained. Part of the original manuscript for many chapters (starting with chapter 5) became the next corresponding chapter; hence the typed chapter headings on most chapters are incorrect according to the published version. It is generally not possible to determine the original, first, second, or final drafts.

    Writing by others consists of published (articles and book chapters) and unpublished material (dissertations and other academic papers) by other authors and/or organizations. This material is arranged alphabetically by author or title.

  • Subject files
    1950-1984

    This series contains printed matter (mostly newspaper clippings) and some typescripts on various topics, individuals, and geographic locations. Dates refer to dates of documents.

Administrative information

Source of acquisition

Gift of Gwendolyn Midlo Hall, 1990.

Revision History

Finding aid updated by Lauren Stark. (2022 May 31)

Processing information

The majority of the collection was processed by Ellie Tweedy, August 2004; the processing was completed by Lauren Stark, May 2022.

Related Material

Harry Haywood papers, 1928-1985, Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan

Using the collection

Location

Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division
515 Malcolm X Boulevard, New York, NY 10037-1801
Second Floor

Physical characteristics and technical requirements

Many documents are damaged by water, rust, and mold. Although the mold is inactive, researchers, especially those sensitive to irritants, may want to use gloves when handling materials.