After her 1911 Socialist Party speaking tour of Southern states, a disgusted Theresa Malkiel returned to New York and penned this article for the party’s ‘Call’ newspaper decrying the virulent racism and segregation practiced by ‘socialists’ and their party. Coming from so well-known and high-ranking a figure, Malkiel’s critique was widely read and debated, particularly by Black activists, with both Hubert H. Harrison and W.E.B. Du Bois making a number of references to it.

‘”Socialists” Despise Negros in the South’ by Theresa Malkiel from The New York Call Vol. 4. No. 233. August 21, 1911.

‘Comrade’ Refuse to Allow Colored Men in Meeting Halls or Party

MEMPHIS, Tenn., August 7. At Bald Knob Ark., I had four meetings in the afternoon I spoke at the picnic grounds to a thousand farmers, and their wives and children. In the evening I spoke in a church. It was extremely hot, but they insisted on a meeting. I spoke for two hours and was tired out when I got through. They want their money’s worth even if they kill the speaker.

The next day I again spoke at Bald Knob, and had an unpleasant experience that sent my blood boiling. There was a picnic of Colored people in town, over a thousand assembled, and they sent a deputation to asking me to speak. I consented, but when our comrades heard of it, they would not allow it, as they claimed it would break up their organization. Lord preserve us from this kind of Socialists.

We must not preach Socialism to the negroes because the white workers are foolish enough to allow the masters to arouse their prejudices against their fellow workers to keep them divided so as to play one of the other. The result is that when the white men strike the darkies (sic) scab and vice versa. And even our Socialist comrades do not be able to see it.

Oh! For the tongue of fire and the lash of a scorpion! Maybe I did not give it to them. But they would not let me speak to the darkies. I was so mad that I cam near telling them to go to ___ and leaving the town.

Much Socialist Sentiment

I sold all the books I had and could have sold more. There is plenty of Socialist sentiment by the Socialists will have to learn more on the solidarity of the workingmen. The next day I spoke twice. In afternoon the park on the topic of ‘Women and Socialism,’ and in the evening on ‘Child Labor and Party Organization.’ The day before I spoke on ‘Socialism in Practice.’ My meetings in this town created a furor. They were large and the whole town talked of nothing else.

At one meeting I was shown two Democratic politicians in the crowd.

I challenged to tell me why they were Democrats and I offered to say why I was a Socialist. They kept mum. This gave me the opportunity to point out to the crowd who they were sending to the legislature. The people began to hoot them, so one of them came forward and said he was a Democrat because he believed in their principles. I wanted to know what those principles were and finally he blurted out: “Equals rights for all, and special privileges for none.” The I wanted to know where and when his party had carried them into effect. I finally got him into a tight place that he withdrew to the laughter of the audience.

In the evening, when I spoke in the church, I spoke on the white slave traffic, and got the sympathy of all the church people. Enthusiasm was at high pitch and all the comrades were elated. They feel sure they will double their membership.

Abominable Treatment of Negroes

Arrived at Earl an hour and a half late, which is quite the thing here. The trains are never on time. It was pouring. I was met at the train by a dozen comrades, and at least a couple of hundred negroes who came to hear a Socialist speaker. The poor, poor darkies are running to the Socialist Party as their only hope. And to the everlasting shame of our southern comrades, they treat them like dogs.

It was raining hard and it was sheer folly to speak in the open air, but they surrounded me pleading hard that it was their only chance to hear me, as the white people will not allow them to enter the hall where I was to speak in the evening. I had not the heart to refuse them, and spoke from the platform under shelter, while they stood out in the rain listening to the message of socialism so different than that the people around them were practicing.

There were about 600 hundred darkies (sic) around me before I was through. They are hungry for the truth and all we need to do is speak to them and point the way. Intelligence shown from their face and the words I spoke went straight home. Most of them are tenant farmers who work hard the year round, have to give half of their earnings to the white man who own the land, and are despised in the bargain by the men that live on their labor.

How like the capitalists of the north, only there they exploit men of their own color. I am so sick of it I would like to take wings and fly from these brutal regions.

Exclude Colored Men

Earl never had a Socialist local before, and we organized one with ten white members; they did not attempt to organize the colored people though they could have won any number of them. The meeting was held in a schoolhouse, and old a step I had to ride, for the mud was knee deep.

And again, I was aroused to indignation. A few of the colored people followed us to the meeting in the hope that the Socialists would be more humane than the others and let them in. But our comrades, who strike for the brotherhood of man, and the unity of the workers of the world, turned a deaf ear and a blind eye to the pleadings of their brothers. To my pleading that they could sit in the adjoining room so that they could listen to our work of organization, they would not listen.

We went upstairs and started the work. One colored man tiptoed in with a haunted look and sat in the furthest corner of the room when one of the white men rose and ordered him out. I remonstrated, but they maintained that the least move on my part to allow he darkie to remain would precipitate a riot and kill the movement.

I felt like a coward, but the crowd was waiting for me to begin. There was so much bitterness and scorn in what I told them that night.

I left early the next morning for Memphis and hope to meet some of the comrades at the station, as I had notified them of my coming. Nobody was there and after searching all over the city for several hour, I discovered a bunch of Socialists in the office of a little paper they were publishing. They seemed uneasy at my coming. I soon discovered that they had made no arrangements for my meetings, and instead of greeting me, starting to abuse each other and the National Office in turn for sending me without there constant.

I told them I did not want their meeting, and would go on to Louisville the next train. The finally roused themselves and organized a meeting in the open air, which was a rousing success no thanks the local socialists, It was entirely due to the great socialist sentiment among the people. The next day I left for Louisville, stopping over in Nashville for the night. The heat was unbearable but when I left Memphis by as we moved north it became much cooler and Nashville was very pleasant. The ride from Nashville to Louisville was wonderful. Kentucky is certainly a picturesque place.

As I spend along the hills and mountains covered with centenarian trees and I watched the wonderful blue sky I for once understood how good Ole Abe Lincoln was inspired to think and dream in spite of his humble surroundings, I wonder that Kentucky did not produce more Lincolns, perhaps because of our horrible system of society.’

The New York Call was the first English-language Socialist daily paper in New York City and the second in the US after the Chicago Daily Socialist. The paper was the center-right of the Socialist Party and under the influence of Morris Hillquit. The paper is an invaluable resource for information on the city’s workers movement and history, it is one of the most important socialist papers in US history. The Call ran from 1908 until 1923, when the Socialist Party’s membership was in deep decline and the Communist movement became predominate.

PDF of issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/the-new-york-call/1911/110821-newyorkcall-v04n233.pdf