Louise Thompson (Patterson), early Black woman Communist, and Secretary of the National Scottsboro Action Committee at this time, writes on a C.P.-led national convergence on Washington D.C. in support of the Scottsboro defendants on May 8, 1933.

‘We March on Washington!’ by Louise Thompson from Labor Defender. Vol. 9 No. 6. June, 1933.

THE fight for the freedom of the Scottsboro boys has reached a new stage. Millions of workers with some lingering illusions about the “fairness” of juries and courts saw clearly what the “justice” of the ruling class courts really is in the Decatur trial of Haywood Patterson.

Immediately after the verdict was handed down a wave of huge protest meetings and demonstrations swept the country. But this was not enough. No word came from the Chief Executive of the country, who as leader of the Democratic Party, was directly connected with the rulers of the South who decreed that Haywood Patterson must die. A demand arose for the Roosevelt administration to intervene and take action, not only for the release of the Scottsboro boys but also for the enforcement of the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments to the Constitution, which call for full equality for the Negro people.

The expression of this demand was the March to Washington on May 8. Three thousand Negro and white workers poured into Washington from New York, Baltimore, Detroit, Boston, New Orleans and other points. They brought with them the petitions of 200,000 others demanding the immediate and unconditional release of the Scottsboro boys and equal rights for Negroes. The demand for equal rights was concretized in a Bill of Civil Rights which would put teeth into the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments to the Constitution of the United States.

Two thousand Washington protestants joined with them to march to the White House. And the people of Washington who lined the side, walks, filled the windows and followed the long line as it approached the White House looked on with wonder. Washington had never been the scene of such a demonstration before.

The marchers strode along with determined tread and militant voices demanding “THE RELEASE OF TOM MOONEY AND THE SCOTTSBORO BOYS,” “EQUAL RIGHTS FOR NEGROES,” “UNITY OF BLACK AND WHITE.” No matter that they had travelled for days without sleep, that they had lived on sandwiches and coffee, that the weather was disagreeable. They were making history in the liberation struggles of the Negro people. They were demonstrating the growing unity of black and white workers.

But the President who had called for “a new deal” for the “forgotten man” has already for, gotten his pre-election promises. He refused to Mother Patterson Leads the March. see the delegation of marchers who brought to him the demands of thousands of America’s people. He was not interested in the Scottsboro boys or the desperate plight of the most for, gotten of forgotten men in America. He was in conference with the representative of Hitler and had no time for them.

Likewise the representatives of the Congress of the United States- Garner, Rainey, DePriest- demonstrated to the marchers their lack of sympathy with their demands. Which made the marchers question if these men did not represent their interests, whose interests did they represent? And they were not slow to realize that these men in the highest governmental bodies of the country were supporting the same interests that had condemned the Scottsboro boys to death.

So the marchers returned to their homes with a clearer understanding of what lay before them. They realized that this was only the beginning of the struggle, and that the only people to be depended to carry it forward were themselves and the millions of others whom they represented.

They voted to carry on the drive for a million signatures to the petition they had brought to Washington; to bring mass pressure on every congressman, senator and public official for the passage of the Bill of Civil’ Rights; to smash jim, crow laws and practices everywhere; to cement and stimulate the growing unity of Negro and white workers for struggle. May 8 is the milestone which marks the beginning of a new day for the oppressed Negro people. The fight for the Scottsboro boys has taken on new meaning for all the exploited people, black and white, and they will carry it forward with renewed determination.

Labor Defender was published monthly from 1926 until 1937 by the International Labor Defense (ILD), a Workers Party of America, and later Communist Party-led, non-partisan defense organization founded by James Cannon and William Haywood while in Moscow, 1925 to support prisoners of the class war, victims of racism and imperialism, and the struggle against fascism. It included, poetry, letters from prisoners, and was heavily illustrated with photos, images, and cartoons. Labor Defender was the central organ of the Scottsboro and Sacco and Vanzetti defense campaigns. Editors included T. J. O’ Flaherty, Max Shactman, Karl Reeve, J. Louis Engdahl, William L. Patterson, Sasha Small, and Sender Garlin.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/labordefender/1933/v09n06-jun-1933-lab-def.pdf