‘Negro, White Workers Honor “Toussaint” at Big Brooklyn Concert’ from the Daily Worker. Vol. 6 No. 63. May 21, 1929.

Over 300 Negro and white workers attended the inter-racial dance and concert held by the Brownsville- Brooklyn branch of the American Negro Labor Congress in commemoration of Toussaint L’Ouverture at the Brownsville Workers Center, 154 Watkins St., Brooklyn, last Saturday. The celebration formed part of the activities of the “Negro Week” launched by the Communist Party.

Alexander spoke on Toussaint L’Ouverture as the Negro liberator of Haiti and on the meaning of the American Negro Labor Congress to the Negroes. He also pointed out the importance of the organ of the A.N.L.C., the Negro Champion, in the Negroes’ struggle for emancipation and ended with an appeal for membership in the American Negro Labor Congress. About twenty Negroes joined the Brownsville-Brooklyn Branch of the A.N.L.C. and over forty gave their names and addresses and asked to be called to the next meeting.

Five hundred copies of the Negro Edition of the Daily Worker were distributed in the Negro sections of Brownsville and at the dance. Back copies of the Negro Champion were also given out at the dance, and fifty copies of the “Program of the American Negro Labor Congress” were sold.

In honor of Toussaint L’Ouverture, Th. Salnave of the Haitian Union Club recited a poem, “Toussaint L’Ouverture and His Days,” and sang the peasant song, “Haiti Must Remain a Nation.” James E. Philips sang workers’ songs. Henry C. Rosemond, president of the Brownsville-Brooklyn Branch of the American Negro Labor Congress, was chairman.

The Daily Worker began in 1924 and was published in New York City by the Communist Party US and its predecessor organizations. Among the most long-lasting and important left publications in US history, it had a circulation of 35,000 at its peak. The Daily Worker came from The Ohio Socialist, published by the Left Wing-dominated Socialist Party of Ohio in Cleveland from 1917 to November 1919, when it became became The Toiler, paper of the Communist Labor Party. In December 1921 the above-ground Workers Party of America merged the Toiler with the paper Workers Council to found The Worker, which became The Daily Worker beginning January 13, 1924.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1929/1929-ny/v06-n063-NY-may-21-1929-DW-LOC.pdf