Grecht was then Newark District Organizer of the Communist Party, which had 300 or so members in 1932, when she helped lead a campaign against the proposal during the Great Depression to deport unemployed Newark residents deemed non-citizens of the city for having lived their less than five years. 90% of Newark’s Black workers were then unemployed with a large amount relatively recent migrants to the city’s many working industries of a few years before. The area of this fight was a site of ‘urban renewal,,’ with most of the building and many of the streets now gone. Waverly St. today is Muhammad Ali Ave, a small section of Charlton still exists.

‘Attempt to Deport 500 Negro Families in Newark to South’ by Rebecca Grecht from The Daily Worker. Vol. August 13, 1932.

Those Who Have Lived There Less Than Five Years Not “Citizens”–Call Mass Conference to Mobilize White and Negro Against Bosses’ Scheme–BY DECISION OF THE TRUST-CONTROLLED CITY GOVERNMENT, 500 UNEMPLOYED NEGRO WORKERS AND THEIR FAMILIES ARE TO BE “DEPORTED” FROM NEWARK TO THE SOUTH.

Newark, New Jersey, has a new deportation policy.

The deepening crisis and increase in unemployment in Newark has hit the Negro masses especially. It is estimated that over 90 per cent of the Negro workers in this city are unemployed, compared with an approximate estimate of 50 per cent unemployment for the city as a whole. These figures give glaring proof of the discrimination and special oppression to which the Negro toilers are subjected.

New Form of Discrimination.

Now a new form of discrimination, a new method of oppression has been devised by the bosses’ city officials, who refusing to touch one cent of the profits of the rich for unemployment relief, are busily searching for new ways of throwing the burden of the crisis more heavily upon the shoulders of the impoverished masses, particularly on the shoulders of the Negro workers.

Negro workers, out of whose bitter toil and suffering huge profits have been piled up for the capitalists, are not “citizens” of this fair city if they have lived here less than five years. Negro workers who came to Newark, driven by hunger out of other states, in the vain hope of finding jobs, of finding protection from the race hatred and lynching terror of the South, only to find themselves here, as throughout the country, the objects of severe persecution and oppression, are now to be thrown out of the city like so much rubbish.

It is said that there is a “law” of Interstate Commerce prohibiting the ejection of unemployed workers from any city or state; but according to Egan, Newark’s red-baiting director of public safety, “The police would do the work,” law or no law.

The capitalist class anticipates sharp struggles of Negro and white workers for unemployment relief, as hunger and misery increase throughout New Jersey. Under the scheme of deportation, militant Negro workers can be singled out for attack, and the threat of ejection from the city held as a club over their heads to prevent militant action.

It is significant that while the first public statement of the policy indicated that Negro and white families would be evicted, now the principal emphasis rests upon Negro families. By this method the city government hopes to divide the ranks of Negro and white workers, set them against one another, and thus place a serious obstacle in the way of united struggle.

Urban League Backs Move.

To carry through this program, the city officials have enlisted the services of the New Jersey Urban League, through its secretary, Mr. R.L. Puryear. This bosses’ agency, betrayer of the Negro people, known nationally for its strike-breaking activity, is now working hand in hand with the police and poor departments of the city to drive Negro families out of Newark back to the South. Mr. Puryear, well-fed, well-paid “liaison” between the city government and the Negro masses, is out to round up Negro families for deportation.

Mr. Puryear’s heart is touched by the suffering of the Negro workers in Newark. He does not like to see them suffer poverty “in loneliness” in the North, so he is going to help them suffer poverty “among friends” in the South–the “friends” of race hatred and lynching terror.

Mr. Puryear is the one, through manoeuvering and soft-spoken threats, to persuade the Negro families to be thrown out that it is better for them to go “voluntarily,” than to go at the point of a policeman’s club or gun. Thus, cover of “humanitarianism,” to carry through one of the most atrocious policies against the Negro workers.

But Mr. Puryear is not alone. There is now a group of Negro business men, ministers, and politicians, who, under cover of attack upon Puryear for his “open” support of the Negro deportation policy, are giving indirect support to the government to enforce this policy. This group is not opposed to ejection of the Negroes “on principle” It is, presumably, opposed to deportation “by force,” and deportation only to the South, instead of to all sections of the country.

Equally with Puryear, this group of petty-bourgeois reformists fight against any call to the workers for mass struggle, and thus serves the purpose of the capitalists just as well. It differs from the Puryears only in the methods to be used, and with its skillful demagogy is even more dangerous and must be the more sharply fought.

Communist Party Calls for Fight.

Only the Communist Party and the Unemployed Council have raised the clear-cut issue of uncompromising struggle against all forms of deportation of unemployed workers from Newark, and mobilizes Negro and white workers to fight for unemployment relief, unemployment insurance, against all forms of discrimination against the Negro workers.

A mass conference is now being called in Newark, to mobilize the Negro and white workers for united struggle against the new deportation scheme of the bankers’ government, a scheme, which can be defeated only by the mass action of the workers themselves.

It is especially necessary to make this battle a part of the basic struggle against national oppression, for absolute equality for the Negro people–a struggle which will bring masses of Negro workers into the revolutionary fight against the entire capitalist system.

FIGHT TERROR ON NEWARK NEGROES. August 27, 1932.

Workers Defend Selves—11 Arrested

NEWARK, N.J. August 26. Newark Negro and white workers militantly defended themselves Thursday night when police attacked a rally organized and lead by the Communist Party to protest against starvation, the raging police terror and the deportation of Newark’s unemployed Negro families to the South. Over 2,000 workers were present in the demonstration which was held at Charlton and Waverley Streets in the Negro district. The police were present in force, mounted, foot and plain clothesmen and immediately launched an attack on a meeting which was started at Prince and Waverly. The workers reformed their ranks and rallied at Charlton and Waverley Streets, where Charles Mitchell, Communist candidate in the 12th Congressional District, began to address the workers Prolonged and tremendous cheering greeted Mitchell’s shout “Long Live the Communist Party.” The workers shouted slogans at both meetings, calling for the unity of Negro and white workers in the struggle against starvation, evictions, police terror and deportations. They militantly fought back as the police forces swooped down on horse and foot on the meeting. Scores of workers were brutally trampled under foot by the mounted police and clubbed. Eleven workers were arrested. At the hearing yesterday, five were held on charges of inciting to riot, including Charles Mitchell, the Communist candidate, and Seth Johnson and B. Woods of the Unemployed Council. Six were paroled. A conference has been called for Sept. 11, at 385 Springfield Avenue. Newark, to fight deportation of Negro and white unemployed workers to other states. All organizations are urged to send delegates.

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/1932/v09-n193-NY-aug-13-1932-DW-LOC.pdf