It may not seem exceptional today, but it was more than that in 1927. In many places of the 1920s U.S.A. dancing with a white woman was a death sentence for a Black man. A way to prove you were serious about Black freedom was to break that most serious of taboos. Beginning in the late 1920s, the Communist Party and affiliated organizations did the exceptionally dangerous and began to sponsor ‘inter-racial dances,’ including in Jim Crow cities like Baltimore. Coinciding with an increased and sharper focus on Black liberation, the aim was not only to challenge racism in society and the workers’ movement, but white chauvinism within the Party itself . Here is a dossier of dozens of articles and notices from the Daily Worker between 1927 and 1933 on the dances of that period, sometimes several happening in a city in a single night. Some were attacked by police and thugs, others were legally refused. Many hundreds more were held that do not appear below. A book should be written…
‘Communist Sponsored Inter-Racial Dances, 1927-1933’ a Dossier from The Daily Worker.
November 15, 1927.
Inter-racial Dance. An inter-racial dance is being planned by the Harlem Street Nucleus of the Young Workers (Communist) League for Dec. 10 in the Imperial Hall.
December 9, 1927.
Wm. Pickens to Speak at Inter-Racial Dance. William Pickens, field secretary of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, will speak at the Harlem Inter-racial dance tomorrow evening at Harlem Casino. 116th St. and Lenox Ave. The topic of Pickens’ talk will be, “What Are the Causes of Race Discrimination and How Are We to Solve This Problem?”
February 9, 1928.
Interracial Dance Sunday. An interracial dance will be held Sunday at 6 p.m. at 29 Graham Ave, Brooklyn.
February 27, 1928.
Y.W.L. Inter-Racial Dance Is Successful. BOSTON, Fell. 26.—The Young Workers’ (Communist) League of Boston recently held a successful Inter-Racial Dance at which 44 young workers, most of them Negroes, left their names as being interested in knowing more of the organization.
August 15, 1928.
An Inter-Racial Camaraderie. An Inter-Racial Dance and Camaraderie, to be known as a Hammer and Sickle Party, will be given tomorrow evening, under the joint auspices of Section 4. Unit A. and the Young Workers (Communist) League of Harlem, at 126 West 131st St. All workers, particularly the workers of Harlem, are invited to attend.
December 14, 1928.
Inter-racial Dance of Harlem Young Workers. Declaring that only by white and Negro workers banding together against race discrimination can this evil he effectively fought, the Harlem branch of the Young Workers (Communist) League announces a gala inter-racial dance at Imperial Auditorium for the evening of Saturday, Dee. 29, 1928. In a statement announcing the dance, the League declares as a part of its program “a militant fight for the abolition of race discrimination and segregation.” It further declares “The Young Workers League knows no race, creed or color.”
December 21, 1928.
Inter-Racial Dance. The Y. W. L. Upper Harlem unit is holding an Inter-Racial Dance on Saturday, Dec. 29, at Imperial Auditorium, 160 W. 129th St. John C. Smith’s dance orchestra will furnish the music. All organizations are requested not to arrange any affair that will conflict with this one.
December 27, 1928.
Harlem Young Workers’ Will Hold Inter-Racial Dance This Saturday. The upper Harlem unit of the Young Workers (Communist) League has arranged an Inter-Racial Dance at the Imperial Auditorium, 60 W. 129th St., this Saturday evening. John C. Smith’s band will supply the music. The dance will be part of the program which the unit is now carrying on in Harlem in its fight for full social and political equality for the young Negro workers. All workers of Harlem and throughout the city are urged to come to this dance, the first of its kind ever given by the Harlem Young Workers League.
December 31, 1928.
Upper Harlem Youth to Give Inter-Racial Dance This Evening. The Inter-Racial Dance arranged the upper Harlem unit of the Young Workers (Communist) League will be held tonight, beginning early in the evening, at the Imperial Auditorium, 160 W. 129th St. The festivities will continue until dawn on Sunday, with John C. Smith’s Modern Jazz Orchestra supplying the jazz. The dance is part of the campaign the unit is waging for complete social and economic equality for the Negro workers.
January 18, 1929.
Tickets Going Quickly for Harlem Interracial Dance on Tuesday Eve. Announcement that the Hall Johnson Negro Choir will top the musical program next Tuesday evening, Jan. 22, at the Renaissance Casino, 138th St. and Seventh Ave., has resulted in a heavy run on tickets for the Inter-Racial Solidarity Demonstration Dance which is being run under the joint auspices of the Negro Champion and the American Negro Labor Congress. Other prominent artists on an outstanding program include Paul and Thelma Meeres, tango dancers; Doris Rheubottom, songbird of the Alhambra Theatre; Elizabeth Welsh, one of the most popular members of the cast of “Blackbirds.” Boxes are also selling rapidly, with the following organizations already listed for nineteen of the total of thirty boxes at the Renaissance Casino; Architectural Bronze and Iron Workers; Window Cleaners’ Protective Union No. 8; B. S.E.I.U. Haitian Patriotic Union; Spanish Workers’ Club; Tropical Stars; Haitian Progressive Union; “The Hammer”; New York Federation of Working Women; the International Labor Defense; the Anti-Imperialist League; the Workers’ International Relief; the Negro Workers’ Relief Committee; the Women Day Workers’ Union; the “New Masses”; Trade Union Educational League; the Office Workers’ Union; District 2 of the Workers Party; Section 4 of District 2 of the Workers Party; the Harlem Tenants’ League, and the Students’ Literary Association. Dance music will be furnished by the famous Vernon Andrade Renaissance Orchestra.
January 18, 1929.
Tenants’ League Dance. An Inter-Racial Dance is being staged by the Harlem Tenants League, Jan. 30, at the Imperial Auditorium, 150 W. 129th St.
January 30, 1929.
Inter-Racial Dance, Bronx. An Inter-Racial Dance will be given by the local section of the Party on Monday evening, February 11, 8 p.m., 1330 Wilkins Ave. near Freeman St. Station. Bronx. Harlem Jazz Band.
February 11, 1929.
Inter-Racial Dance. An inter-racial dance, for the benefit of the Negro Champion, Daily Worker and the Obrano has been arranged for Friday evening, March 22, at Imperial Auditorium, 160 W. 129th St.
March 19, 1929.
Workers of All Races at Solidarity Dance, Harlem, on Friday Nite. Negro, white, Chinese and Japanese workers will be represented at the Inter-Racial dance which will be given at the Imperial Auditorium, 160 W. 129th St., Friday evening. The Negro Champion, the Daily Worker and Vida Obrera, organ of the Spanish section of the Communist Party, will share proceeds of the event. Cyril Briggs, editor of the Negro Champion, reports that the committee in charge includes Latin, Negro and white American workers. The dance will “bring white and Negro workers, as well as Chinese and Japanese workers together ona platform of working class solidarity,” the statement issued by the committee declares. John C. Smith’s Negro Orchestra will provide dance music. Tickets may be obtained at the offices of the Negro Champion, 169 W. 133 d St.: Spanish Workers Club, 55 W. 113th St., and the Workers Bookshop, 26 Union Sq.
March 22, 1929.
Expect Record Crowd of White, Negro Workers at Unity Dance Tonite. All signs indicate a record gathering of Negro, white, Latin American, Japanese and Chinese workers tonight at the inter-racial dance given by Section Four at Imperial Auditorium, 1604 West 129th St. Various ticket stations report a big demand for tickets as a result of widespread distribution of advertising leaflets at the doors of Harlem factories. These inter-racial dances are proving one of the most effective means of bringing together workers of various races and serve to break down the prejudice with which the white ruling class seeks to divide and weaken the working class. Tickets may be secured at the Workers Book Store, the Champion office and the Spanish Workers Club. The committee in charge has spared no pains to make tonight’s affair one of the most enjoyable of this season’s working class affairs. Music will be furnished by the famous John C. Smith’s Negro Orchestra, and there will also be a presentation of “Marching Guns,” a Workers’ Laboratory Theatre production.
March 27, 1929.
New Inter-Racial Club in Membership Drive. The Harlem Inter-Racial Club, recently organized for the purpose of carrying on inter-racial social, educational and athletic activities, has started work with a great deal of energy. The baseball team of this young workers’ club is practicing every Sunday morning at 10 o’clock in Central Park East at 102nd St. The club is a member of the Labor Sports Union. Among the plans for the near future are lectures on Negro problems by prominent speakers and an inter-racial dance. A membership drive is now being conducted. Meetings are hold the first and third Tuesdays of the month at the temporary headquarters, 7 W. 137th St. For further information write to Leonard Patterson, 772 St. Nicholas Ave.
March 29, 1929.
Young Worker Dance. A spring inter-racial dance for the benefit of the Young Worker will be given by District 2, Y.W.C.L., at the Harlem Casino, 116th St. and Lenox Ave., Saturday, 8:30 p.m.
May 11, 1929.
Negro and White Workers in Chicago Hold Joint Affairs. CHICAGO, May 10. —The nation- wide Negro Organization Week is being observed by Chicago workers in mass meetings at factory gates, where many Negroes are employed, and in more restricted workers’ shop committee meetings, representing the same plants, in preparation to sending delegates to Cleveland. The organization week has its more social side in the arrangement of inter-racial dances. These dances follow the lead of a recent south ride affair which drew columns of vituperation from the capitalist press and praise on the front pages of Negro papers. Thus, for example, the “Whip,” a Negro paper, wrote about the latest inter-racial dance as follows: “The bug bear of the Nordic and the terror of the southern employers came to a full realization at an inter-racial dance under the auspices of the American Negro Labor Congress. A feature of the affair was the singing of the Communist hymn and several excellent musical numbers by singing choruses composed of both white and Negro workers. A fine free spirit of camaraderie prevailed, and the Communists certainly showed by their actions that their policy was not only on paper. Such affairs go far toward eliminating misunderstanding and prejudices between workers of different races.” On the other band, journalistic prostitutes wrote in capitalist and so-called “labor” papers that this was the beginning of the end of white supremacy, that this proved the truth of the brain-storm now being printed in the Chicago Tribune’s weekly magazine, “Liberty,” to the effect that the Communists wanted to kill off the white men and hand the white women over to the surviving colored races, etc. This, of course, proves that the agents of the employers realize that as soon as the white and colored workers join hands, the overthrow of the capitalist system and the establishment of a Soviet government representing workers of all races is much closer at hand. The next inter-racial dance here will be held in Mecca Hall, 2335 W. Lake St., on Saturday, May 11. An exceptionally good band, “Billy King’s Night Hawks,” will again supply the music that was so popular with those who attended the last affair. Chicago workers of all races will do well to attend this big event and further the unification of black and white workers in their struggle against the capitalist system.
May 17, 1929.
Toussaint Meeting In Phila. Monday; Inter-Racial Dance Success. PHILADELPHIA, May 16. —The first inter-racial concert and dance to be given in this city by the newly organized local of the American Negro Labor Congress, showed that workers of all races are willing to cooperate in the task of organizing. Arranged on small scale, the hall was crowded. About $25 was raised for the “Negro Champion.” A Toussaint L’Overture memorial meeting has been arranged for Monday evening, May 20, at O’Neill’s Hall, 1352 Lombard St., at which the speakers will be Richard B. Moore, president of the Harlem Tenants League of New York, and Herbert Benjamin, district organizer of the Communist Party.
May 21, 1929.
Negro, White Workers Honor “Toussaint” at Big Brooklyn Concert. 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.
May 31, 1929.
Harlem Labor Center. The second inter-racial dance and social of the season will be Riven at its headquarters tomorrow, 8:30 p.m., at 235 W. 120th St.
November 19, 1929.
Baltimore Workers Interracial Dance is Answer to Terror, BALTIMORE, Md., Nov. 18. —One answer to the reign of terror by white chauvinists against Negro workers in Baltimore was made by the Negro and white workers at the interracial dance held here by Communist and other militant workers. The hall was actually too small to accommodate the 500 Negro and white workers who attended this affair of solidarity between the workers of all races. More interracial dances are planned by the Communist Party.
December 14, 1929.
New Haven YCL Inter-Racial Dance. The New Haven Unit No. 2 of the Young Communist League will hold its first inter-racial dance at the Masonic Hall, 76 Webster St. on Jan. 11. All workers invited to attend. All organizations are urged to keep this date open.
December 21, 1929.
INTERRACIAL DANCE TONITE. An interracial dance will be held this evening at St. Luke’s Hall, 125 W. 130th St. The dance is held under auspices of the Harlem Tenants League. All workers are invited.
January 12, 1930.
Washington Inter-Racial Dance. An inter-racial dance under the auspices of the Communist Party and Young Communist League of Washington will be held Monday, January 6, 1930 at the Pythian Hall, 1200 U St N.W. Negro and white workers welcome. Admission 40 cents.
January 17, 1930.
Harlem Y.C.L. Interracial Dance and Welcome for N.E.C. Plenum Saturday, Jan. 18, at Imperial Hall. 160 West 129th St. John C. Smith’ “Harlemites.” Admission 75 cents.
NEW HAVEN INTER RACIAL AFFAIR SUCCESS. NEW HAVEN, Conn., Jan. 15. The first inter-racial dance held by New Haven Unit 2 of the Young Communist League, in the Negro section, was a success, and 10 applications were received for membership in the League.
January 25, 1930.
Inter-Racial Affair Tonight in Bronx. Recently a branch of the American Negro Labor Congress was organized in the lower Bronx. To inaugurate in a comradely manner this event an Interracial Dance and Banquet will take place tonight at 8 p.m., at 715 East 138th Street, Bronx. New York. All Negro and white workers are invited to attend this celebration and make it a success.
March 25, 1930.
Biggest Inter-Racial Dance. Over 1,500 Negro and white workers attended the Liberator-Labor Unity dance, held at Rockland Palace, Saturday, it was the most successful inter-racial dance ever held in New York City. The affair was a splendid expression of racial solidarity. William Z. Foster, general secretary of the Trade Union Unity League, and one of the delegates elected by 110,000 New York workers at the March 6 demonstration, spoke. “The bosses, by attempting to stir up race hatred,” said are at tempting to disunite the worker? We must smash this attempt to break the solidarity of both black and white workers—a policy that is backed by the A. F. of L. with its Jim Crow unions.”
Inter-Racial Dance in Washington. WASHINGTON, D. C„ Mar. 24. More than a thousand Negro and white workers attended the inter-racial dance here.
May 26, 1930.
Gain Inter-Racial Dance. Thursday. May 29. 68 Whipple St. Brooklyn, corner Broadway. Tuxedo entertainers. Admission 35 cents. Auspices Williamsburg Local A.N.L.C.
June 19, 1930.
NEGRO YOUTH TO FIGHT JIM CROW. Conference In Cleveland and Dance for Negro And White Workers. CLEVELAND, Ohio, June 18.—On Saturday, June 28, at the Workers Unity Center, 38th St. and Scovill Av., the Youth Committee of the American Negro Labor Congress will hold a conference against race discrimination. Sessions will start at 6 p.m. Following the conference there will be an interracial dance. This conference will lay plans for a broad campaign against race discrimination and the segregation of young Negro workers in the city of Cleveland. It will also begin a campaign against the miserable housing conditions throughout the Negro section. Many representatives from youth organizations have been invited to take part in this conference. During March of this year, young white and colored workers were beaten, jailed and fined because they demanded that colored workers be given service in Cleveland restaurants. Some of these workers will speak at the conference. All workers are invited to attend both the conference and the interracial dance.
July 4, 1930.
RESIST POLICE AT ILD PROTEST CLEVELAND, Ohio, July 3. Police made their first attempts, which proved unsuccessful, to break up an Inter-Racial Dance, organized as part of the Fifth Anniversary celebration of the International Labor Defense. The entertainment followed the open air demonstration held in the Public Square against the imprisonment of the six workers in Atlanta and against the persecution of workers and peasant in India by British imperialism, with J. Louis Engdahl, General Secretary of the International Labor Defense, as the principal speaker. Engdahl was speaking at the evening’s entertainment, the first time there had ever been any speaking at a similar affair. Workers present successfully resisted the demands of the police that there be no speaking, no mention of the Atlanta persecution of the six workers facing the electric chair in Georgia. This part of the program was carried through successfully and greetings from the gathering were unanimously voted sent to the prisoners.
September 5, 1930.
All Comrades and Workers are invited to attend an interracial dance given by Section 4, Communist Party, at 308 Lenox Ave. Saturday, Sept. 20, at 8 p. m Admission 35c.
September 11, 1930.
Interracial Dance. To be held this Saturday night, Sept. 13 at Workers Center. 105 Thatford Ave. Negro jazz band. Auspices Section 8, Communist Party. Admission 35 cents.
September 19, 1930.
Interracial Dance Held in Brooklyn, Friday. NEW YORK.—On Friday, Sept. 27, at 8:30 p. m., the Alfred Leavy Local of the American Negro Labor Congress will hold an inter-racial dance at 105 Thatford Ave., Brooklyn. This dance is given to help the most important work of the American Negro Labor Congress. All workers are invited to attend.
January 13, 1931.
SECTION FOUR DANCE FRIDAY. A Mid-Winter interracial dance is being held this Friday evening, Jan. 16. at the Finnish Hall, 15 West 126th St. The dance is under the auspices of Section Four, District Two of the Communist Party. All workers are urged to attend.
March 5, 1931.
Under the auspices of the Food Workers Industrial Union, a Food Workers’ Ball will take place Friday, March 6, at the Finnish Hall, 15 W. 126 Street. There will be an Interracial Dance which will be accompanied by the E. J. Morg orchestra. Since the purpose of this Ball is to establish and support the Food Workers and the Union, all workers are urged to attend.
March 26, 1931.
Youngstown, Ohio. An inter-racial dance will be given by the Labor Sports Union. Saturday March 28 at the U.K. Hall. 525 W. Rayen Ave. Negro and white workers are urged to attend this event of the season.
April 13, 1931.
Above: the Tom Mooney Hall, Left: Joseph Barter and Ellen Rodgers dance, Right: Walter Potryuski plays jazz on the accordion.
Chi. Inter-Racial Committee to Give Press Benefit Dance. CHICAGO, April 6. The Inter-Racial Committee of Chicago will give a Benefit Dance for the Libera tor, Daily Worker and the Young Worker, at the Forum Hall, 322 E. 43rd St., on Saturday night, May 9th. This inter-racial dance will be the biggest affair of the season. Hundreds of workers of all nationalities will be there. The Inter-racial committee, working jointly with the representatives from each paper, will have no stone unturned to assure all of having the time of their life. Take out your note book, make note of the time and the place so that you will not forget. The Liberator, the Daily Worker and the Young Worker are organizers of the working class. Help to keep them alive by subscribing for them, and supporting them in every form possible. Watch! the papers for further notice of this Dance. The officers of the Interracial committee are as follows: —C.M. Degroot, Sec’y-Treas.; K. White and F.C. Buery, Chairman oi Entertainment Committee.
September 8, 1931.
Attack Inter-Racial Dance in Harlem. NEW YORK. —A dance at which Negro and white workers were fraternizing together in defiance of the bosses’ edict that they should hate each other was broken up by Brooklyn police last Saturday evening. The affair was given by the Wallabout Street Group of the League of Struggle for Negro Rights. The workers were enjoying themselves and everything proceeded quietly until 1:30 a.m., when two burly representatives of capitalist “law and order” Invaded the place and ordered the workers to get out. When they found that the workers were not intimidated, and were prepared to defend their rights, the Cossacks turned on the musicians and ordered them to get out. Satisfied that they had spoiled the evening for the workers, the cops then took themselves off, greatly pleased, no doubt, with their service to the capitalist masters who life in frantic fear of the growing unity of white and Negro workers.
October 3, 1931.
Chicago Interracial Dance October 9 to Aid Build the LSNR CHICAGO, m.— A big interracial dance for the benefit of the League of Struggle for Negro Rights will be held Friday, Oct. at the Alvin Dansant, 51st and Michigan Ave. Program Includes dancing from 9 until 2 a.m. with music by the W.M. Luke’s snycopators. Tickets are now on sale at the Vilnia, 3118 S. Halsted St.; 3835 S. State St., Washington Park Open Forum and the Book store at 654 East 63rd St Tickets in advance 25 cents and 35 cents at the door.
March 21, 1932.
To Fight Clifton Police Ban on Unity of Negro, White Toilers Working-Class Organizations Call Big Conference for Sunday March 27 in N.J. CLIFTON. N.J., March 20. —A struggle against the spread of Jim-Crow practices in this city, arising out of the efforts of local police to ban inter-racial dances and social affairs, will be planned at a broad conference of many working-class organizations on Sunday afternoon, March 27, at Delekta’s Hall, Highland and Hope Aves. A dance held at Delekta’s Hall on Feb. 21 by the Rambler Sports Club, a group affiliated to the Labor Sports Union, a national organization of Negro and white workers, was attended by about 300 Negro and white workers. A few days later, the owner of the hall was arrested and fined $27 for renting his hall for a mixed dance. Chief of Police Holster made a statement to local newspapers that “we don’t tolerate mixed dances in Clifton.” On the same day that the owner of Delekta’s Hall was arrested, Frankie Finkel, a young Negro worker and president of the Ramblers’ Athletic Club, was arrested in Passaic and beaten by the police, who warned him against “associating with the police.” A protest meeting against these efforts by the police to prevent the unity of Negro and white workers was held on March 11 at Delekta’s Hall. Although the Ramblers’ Sporty Club had rented the hall for the meeting, the police terrorized the owner into refusing its use. A vigorous protest meeting was held on the street outside the hall. The conference on March 27 has been endorsed by a large number of working-class organizations. It will consider steps to be taken in a determined fight against Jim-Crow practices and discrimination against Negro workers in whatever form.
May 7, 1932.
Bloomington Police Establish Jim crow Dance Hall Edict. BLOOMINGTON, Ill.—After holding two inter-racial dances at the Eagle Hall here and after police women inspected each one of our dances and was forced to admit that everything was in perfect order, the Chief of Police told the members of the Unemployed Council that we wouldn’t get another permit to hold any more dances where colored people attended. Even though the city attorney advised the chief that there was no law against inter-racial dances. The Chief still said that if we held our dance, that he would frame the colored people who came. We are mobilizing the workers to fight against this ban and will force the police and others to keep their hands off. We expect some new developments in the next few days.
January 30, 1933.
Fight Ban on inter-Racial Dance in Baltimore, Md. BALTIMORE, Jan. 25. Tom Mooney Hall, where an inter-racial dance was to be held last Saturday night, was condemned by the city authorities as “unsafe” a few hours before white and Negro workers began gathering at the hall. The condemnation was not extended to the garage in the cellar of the building, or to an apartment above the hall. Large forces of police were on hand to keep the workers from entering the hall. That the purpose of the condemnation is to prevent white and Negro workers from fraternizing together, is admitted in the following statement in a news story in the Baltimore Sun of January 22: “Sponsors or mixed-color dances in Baltimore are facing lean days. They select a had for an affair, municipal officials condemn the premises as unsafe, and the police see that the condemnation order is obeyed.” The I.L.D. announced it would fight the condemnation order in the courts and through mobilizing the white and Negro toilers for a tremendous protest campaign.
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. National and City (New York and environs) editions exist
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