Bill Gebert, District Organizer from the Communist Party in Chicago, on the murder three Black militants–C.P. member Abe Gray, John O’Neil and Thomas Page of the South Side Unemployed Council–by police during an eviction defense on August 3, 1931.

‘After the Chicago Massacre’ by Bill Gebert from the Daily Worker. Vol. 8 No. 190. August 8, 1931.

THE cold-blooded murder by Chicago police gunmen of Abe Gray–active member of the Communist Party, John O’Neil and Thomas Page–members of the Unemployed Council on the South Side of Chicago, is just an indication what methods the capitalist government will use in the coming third winter of unemployment against the 10 million jobless. But this also indicated that the masses of workers will fight as they never fought before, and no terror will stop them from fighting for social insurance for unemployed, for immediate relief and for milk for their starving babies.

On Monday, August 3rd, late in the afternoon, a 72 year old widowed Negro woman, Mrs. Diana Gross, was to be evicted from her flat at 5016 S. Dearborn St. The building is owned by the M.J. Kolliner real estate company. The news of the eviction reached the workers in the neighborhood and members of the branch of Unemployed Council and a few hundred Negro and white workers gathered in front of the building, protesting against the eviction. They put the furniture back. The police attacked the workers, killing 3, wounding many and arresting 30.

But the workers answered this bloody attack and fought with the police, capturing the guns from some of the policemen–disarming them. Three policemen were severely beaten up and sent to the hospital.

Because of the stubborn resistance of the workers and their militancy, it took more than an hour to disperse the growing crowd. Despite the killing of the three workers, the other workers did not give ground. An hour later, between 8-10,000 Negro and white workers assembled in Washington Park, protesting against the massacre and declaring their readiness to carry on the struggle against evictions, for lower rents, for social insurance and for full rights of the Negroes. The police did not dare to attack this mass of workers assembled in the Park, although at that time already hundreds of uniformed gunmen with riot and machine guns were assembled in the “Black Belt” of Chicago. In all working class neighborhoods, not only Negro, the workers are aroused in anger and indignation against the bloody massacre of unemployed workers. Meetings took place in different parts of the city at which Negro workers were invited to speak.

This attack on the unemployed workers was well prepared and organized in advance. “The Chicago Whip,” Negro bourgeois paper, in its edition of August First, on the front page reports a meeting of Negro and white landlords, at which the N.A.A.C.P., was represented, and at which a demand was made on the police for drastic action against the unemployed workers who were resisting evictions. This notice clearly indicates that the leaders of the NAACP, the landlords, Negro politicians, together with the state attorney’s office laid down the basis for the massacre. We call special attention to the fact that among the real estate firms present at that meeting was Kolliner & Co., which evicted Mrs. Diana Gross. In the same issue of the Chicago Whip, there is a report how the Unemployed Councils stop evictions. These stories clearly indicate that the struggle against evictions has become a powerful means of mobilizing the masses. Police Commissioner Alcock told the newspapers that in one eviction case a crowd of 5,000 gathered in 30 minutes and prevented the bailiff from evicting the families! And then he declares, “We are going to have serious trouble any day now perhaps, unless the organized charities can arrange to pay the rent for the families threatened with eviction.” Needless to say, the rents were not paid by the charities or the city and the process of eviction was continued and the police were working in conjunction with the real estate sharks, Negro bourgeoisie, politicians and fakers of the N.A.A.C.P. to prepare the bloodshed of the unemployed Negro workers.

Unemployment among the Negro workers is much greater than among the white. Out of 225,000 Negro population there is not less than 50,000 unemployed. Out of 1,000 eviction orders by the court 80 per cent were against Negroes. The Unemployed Council movement in the Negro neighborhoods becomes powerful. Not only dozens of evictions were stopped, but the charities were forced to give relief. In the territories of 14th St. and the South Side the movement assumes mass character. By shooting down of workers–the police, landlords and Negro bourgeoisie thought they could stop it. But it is already clear today that the murder of the three workers of the unemployed movement, the wounding of many and the arrest of 30 will not prevent the movement from growing and developing, but it will consolidate it rather, and the role of Mayor Cermak, his police, the landlords, Negro politicians-both republican and democratic, the Jim Crow-A. F. of L. becomes much more clear to the masses.

After the bloody massacre of the unemployed Negro workers and the determination on the part of the workers to continue their struggle, the city administration adopted a new method to break the struggle of the unemployed. The City Corporation Counsel, Sexton, called a meeting of the Negro politicians, pastors, etc. Among those present were Rev. J.C. Austin, pastor of the Pilgrim Baptist church; Tom Jenkins, state representative; Anton McGill, business manager of the Chicago Defender; W.W. Holland and J.B. Apperson, deacons of the Pilgrim church; Robert Ephrein of the Universal Negro Improvement Association; Alderman Robert Jackson; State Senator Albert Roberts, and Rev. Kingsley of the Good Shepherd Church. At this conference which was held secretly on the night after the bloody mass murders, the state corporation counsel discussed with these Negro misleaders and traitors ways and means of carrying on the fight against the unemployed workers. These fakers issued a statement condemning, not the police for shooting down the workers, but the “reds” for giving militant leadership to the masses. They also admitted their inability to be effective in fooling the Negro masses, because the Negro masses are losing faith in them and turning for leadership to the Communist Party. Reverend J.C. Austin of the Pilgrim Baptist church, the largest Negro congregation, declares, “I have addressed several of the meetings myself on the subject of ‘Christ and Communist,’ but you can’t talk religion to a man with an empty stomach.'” State Senator Roberts demanded that all meetings of workers on the South Side be stopped and demanded the arrest of every active worker in the unemployed movement.

White workers must unite with Negro workers against all the attempts of the white ruling class to attack the Negro workers and must fight for the full rights of the Negro masses. To carry these tasks to a developed mass movement, we must embrace the masses of workers in a broad mass organization such as the branches of the Unemployed Council, League of Struggle for Negro Rights, International Labor Defense and the leagues and unions of the TUUL and the best fighting workers into the ranks of the leader of this struggle–the Communist Party.

We must clearly understand the role of this attack against the working class as preparations for imperialist war which the capitalists are preparing against the Soviet Union, as one of their means in the attempt to solve the present crisis.

In connection with the trial of the 30 workers arrested, we must raise to the forefront the demand that the jury be composed of Negro and white workers, who are not prejudiced against the Negro, and who are not enemies of the Unemployed Councils. The development in Chicago among the unemployed workers is clearly indicating that the unemployed workers are taking the right path, that they are not going to starve–that they will fight, and only through fighting will they be able to get their demands–of social insurance, immediate relief for the unemployed, stopping of evictions, unity and solidarity of Negro and white workers, mass defense of the workers–Negroes especially–from police persecution.

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/1931/v08-n190-NY-aug-08-1931-DW-LOC.pdf