The dangers of organizing the unemployed of South Carolina during the Great Depression as the police/klan, openly led by the Mayor, attack workers’ meetings.

‘Hooded K.K.K. Invades Greenville Unemployed Meeting’ from Southern Worker. Vol. 1 No. 35 April 18, 1931.

GREENVILLE, S.C. The mayor, the police and the bosses of the city are making use of the Ku Klux Klan in a desperate effort to stop the organization of the workers of this city by the Trade Union Unity League for unemployment relief.

In the course of three days, cowardly members of the K.K.K., hiding behind their robes and masks, twice took action against the workers of Greenville, with the full support and cooperation of the city government.

Attack Jobless Meet

A mob of about 100 robed Klansmen entered the Workers’ Hall here at 11-A O’Neil street on April 9, just before the regular weekly meeting of the Unemployed Council, and drove out the 25 white and Negro workers present. The crowd of workers had not yet gathered for the meeting.

The Klansmen beat the Negro workers over the head with their fists and when white workers attempted to interfere they were also beaten. L.C. McCurry, a local white worker, was so badly beaten that he vomitted. Threats were made against the organizers and they were told that if they did not leave town they would be taken “for a ride.” One of the women present was grabbed by a Klansman, who said: “Come on, Miss Holden, and let’s go,” but when it was explained that she was not Comrade Holden, organizer for the National Textile Workers’ Union, she was released.

Police Threaten Organizer

Three officers who were present made no attempt to interfere. After the raid and before the crowd left, the officers took W.G. Binkley, organizer of the Trade Union Unity League, and led him up the street and told him to leave town immediately. When Comrade Binkley asked whether this was a threat, one officer replied, “No, I am just advising you of what I know. Threats have been made that you would be taken for a ride and I am now warning you.”

Not a single organizer has left town and they have no intention of doing so. The workers are roused and enraged at the mob violence of the bosses and the action of Mayor Wellbourn of West Greenville two nights before.

Mayor Leads K.K.K.

When a committee of white and Negro workers of the Unemployed Council went before the city council. of West Greenville on the night of April 7 to demand relief for the thousands of starving unemployed workers, Mayor Welbourn met them outside and told them to wait until he called them.

After waiting for nearly an hour, the Mayor walked out to the crowd, but instead of inviting them in, he passed on and in about five minutes came back leading twenty-two hooded Klansmen, dressed in full regalia. They marched first around the delegation of workers and formed a crescent in front of them, apparently trying to scare the Negro workers who were present, but the workers all stood firm. After the Klansmen had marched into the hall and filled all the benches, leaving room enough to seat four or five, Mayor Welbourn invited the delegation in. The committee of workers read the statement and demands of the Unemployed Council demanding immediate relief from the millowners and the government of West Greenville.

“Workers Outcasts”

The leader of the Klansmen arose and warned all the workers to drop membership in the Unemployed Council. “The mills and the city government here is strong,” he said, “and you workers are the outcasts. You have no power and what you are trying to do will get you nowhere, but may get you in trouble.” The Mayor cheered this statement. Threats of mob terror was his way of answering the demands of the thousands of starving unemployed workers of the city.

The entire mob in K.K.K. regalia was composed of mill police and overseers and their henchmen from the Brandon and Poinsett mills. Two of the mob were from outside the mill villages, one a professional stool-pig- eon and the other one a shoe-shop keeper in Greenville.

Answer on May Day!

The presence of the mob at the City Council did not scare the Negro workers away as the boss press states. On the contrary, they remained until the last and walked away together with the white workers. On the following day the workers met before the Red Cross and presented a list of needy families who are starving and who are receiving no aid. The workers were told that they could not see Mrs. Leagn, head of the Red Cross who had fled to her private office. when the workers came in. The workers were told that the Red Cross had no time to look after their cases. The workers replied: “We will see you again tomorrow and shall keep coming back until something is done.”

It is going to take more than masked K.K.K. mobs to scare the starving workers of Greenville. The workers have been starving long enough. The whole boss class machinery is set to attack them, but the workers are going forward in their struggle for relief in spite of all threats. The May Day demonstration will rally the workers for struggle.

Answer to the K.K.K. by a Worker Correspondent.

Greenville, S.C. Here are these dirty lick-spittles in their garments of white telling the Unemployed Council if they want to get a job they must leave this Communist stuff. Now, I want to see all those jobs these dirty scoundrels have given the 10,000 workers looking for work.

As far as the organizer leaving town, that will not be done because we live here in Greenville and we have just as much right here as this dirty capitalist gang has. As far as us workers being given orders by this gang to stop putting out Communist literature, we are making arrangements to double that.

What the mill barons fear so bad is a general strike. On May 1st another wage-cut goes into effect and they are afraid of a strike then. Just last week a certain mill cut wages and it came very near a walk out.

Workers, we have been told by our fathers that they fought for freedom. but will you please show it to me. We are also told that we are guaranteed free press and free speech. Will you please show me where it is?

Workers, we have none of this. If we get any of it, we have got to fight all of this over again.

-Textile Worker.

Begun in August, 1930, Southern Worker was a semi-legal regional newspaper of the Communist Party, USA (CPUSA) primarily aimed at building the Party in the South among Black workers and farmers. Pseudonyms of editors and writers, false publication places, illegal paper drops, and clandestine meetings were a necessary hallmark of the Southern Worker’s life. The paper extensively covered the campaign against lynching and southern unionization efforts. Originally a weekly, it went to a monthly in 1934 and ceased publishing in 1937. Editors included Solomon Auerbach (under the name “Jim Allen”), Harry Wicks, and Elizabeth Lawson.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/southernworker/v1n35-apr-18-1931-sw.pdf