I posted this excerpt a short while ago written by a man who served as a high point of contact within the Communist movement to recruit more black Americans. I decided to repost this excerpt in light of the thumbs up attitude by many in the black political spectrum to use names like “Uncle Tom” to make a point. Below, you will find out who actually first started the “Uncle Tom” tag.
Nothing new under the sun…
Nothing!
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Except for a brief period during the latter 1930′s, the reds called those persons “Uncle Toms” who sought solution of the race problem through the medium of education, patience, understanding and discussion which would lead to mutual agreement. Since any program leading to a peaceful solution of the race problem automatically excludes and dooms red efforts among Negroes, it goes without saying that the reds are going to oppose it. The chief targets are the responsible advocates of such a program. They must “be discredited and isolated from the masses.” So, in addition to the tags of “enemy of the race,” “tool of the white ruling class,” “traitor to the race,” the reds have added the opprobrium of “Uncle Tom.”
In their usual diabolically clever way, the reds took the name of a fine, sincere and beloved character made famous in the greatest indictment of chattel slavery and transformed him into a “dirty, low, sneaky, reacherous, groveling, sniveling coward.” This the reds did in order to make the name “Uncle Tom” the symbol of social, economic and political leprosy.
Today, the name “Uncle Tom” among Negroes ranks with the term McCarthyism generally, turning many ministers into moral cowards, many politicians into scared jackrabbits and many other leaders in hypocrites.
No man dare stand up and proclaim convictions counter to red agitation without running the certain risk of being pilloried. The reds, their fellow travelers, leaders of the N.A.A.C.P. and other race agitators have created an ideal climate for such persecution. (click here to read Manning Johnson’s entire book online–Color, Communism and Common Sense)
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Here’s a little on Manning Johnson:
In 1962, Hughes wrote Fight for Freedom: The Story of the NAACP. In his book, Hughes said: “Attempts to label the NAACP subversive, Communist-influenced, or out-and-out Communist have continued for a long time. The late Negro professional witness, ex-Communist Manning Johnson, since discredited, testified before two southern legislative committees to the effect that the NAACP was ‘a vehicle of the Communist Party designed to overthrow the government of the United States.” [Johnson was not a professional witness but a genuinely repentant American who, from his years as a top Negro Communist, testified accurately before, and cooperated fully with, federal and state investigating committees and agencies. He was discredited only by the Communist Party, its fellow travelers, and its dupes. He did identify Hughes as a Communist. He did testify as to the Communist character of the NAACP since he had been assigned the job of bringing Negro organizations into the Communist orbit.)
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