Address delivered Tuesday, October 30, 1923 at Commonwealth Casino, 135th Street and Madison Avenue, N.Y.C. under the auspices of the Socialist Party of New York. With speakers James Oneal, A Philip Randolph, and Lucille Randolph. Debs’ 1923 speech shows the development in his thinking from his ‘The Socialist Party has nothing special to offer the Negro’ position of 20 years earlier. Pamphlet produced by A Philip Randolph’s ‘Messenger’.

The Negro Workers by Eugene Victor Debs. Published by The Emancipation Publishing Company, New York. 1923.

Contents: Introduction by Frank R Crosswaith, An Appeal to Negro Works by Eugene Debs.

The Messenger was founded and published in New York City by A. Phillip Randolph and Chandler Owen in 1917 after they both joined the Socialist Party of America. The Messenger opposed World War I, conscription and supported the Bolshevik Revolution, though it remained loyal to the Socialist Party when the left split in 1919. It sought to promote a labor-orientated Black leadership, “New Crowd Negroes,” as explicitly opposed to the positions of both WEB DuBois and Booker T Washington at the time. Both Owen and Randolph were arrested under the Espionage Act in an attempt to disrupt The Messenger. Eventually, The Messenger became less political and more trade union focused. After the departure of and Owen, the focus again shifted to arts and culture. The Messenger ceased publishing in 1928. Its early issues contain invaluable articles on the early Black left.

Access to speech: https://hdl.handle.net/2027/inu.32000007367214