The Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA) was established on this day in 1919. CPUSA provided legal aid to the Scottsboro Boys, helped poor Southern farmers form sharecropper unions, and promoted communist ideas within the U.S.

The party was established after a split in the Socialist Party of America following the Russian Revolution, and initially operated underground due to the Palmer Raids, a series of anti-immigrant, anti-labor, and anti-communist raids conducted by Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer.

CPUSA was an early opponent of segregation and racial discrimination, giving legal aid to the Scottsboro Boys and helping poor black farmers in the South organize sharecropper unions. Because of this, the party had a strong presence in Alabama in the 1930s. This history is detailed in “Hammer and Hoe: Alabama Communists during the Great Depression” by historian Robin D.G. Kelley.

Hammer and Hoe pdf cpusa

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