Among the best known campaigners for the Scottsboro defendants was Ada “Mother” Wright, mother of two of the accused, Andrew and Roy Wright. Touring and speaking widely, both in the U.S. and Europe, on her arrival to Harlem in March, 1934 she is greeted by thousands at an outdoor rally on the corner of 125th and Lenox. The police attacked the crowd with tear gas and clubs. Among those arrested was Sam Stein, tour organizer, who tells the story.

‘We Welcome Mrs. Wright’ by Sam Stein from Labor Defender. Vol. 10 No. 4. April, 1934.

“We welcome Mother Wright, We welcome Mother Wright” thundered 1,000 Negro and white workers who greeted Ada Wright, mother of Roy and Andy, two of the Scottsboro Boys as she stepped off the 125th Street station of the New York Central Railroad.

Lifting Mother Wright to their shoulders the workers paraded through Harlem’s streets shouting, “The Scottsboro Boys Must Be Freed.” They were greeted by workers from the tenements who waved to them in solidarity. Time and again radio police cars, sirens screeching, sped into the paraders in an attempt to break up the militant parade. The ranks remained solid to the dismay of the police who were lustily booed by the bystanders, Negro and white. A speakers stand was set up on 125th and Lenox Avenue in front of the I.L.D. Harlem Section office. While Griffin, Negro leader of Brownsville was speaking, 3 automobiles packed with detectives, and 3 radio police cars swooped down on the demonstration. Oscar Ames, detective, approached Sam Stein, I.L.D. organizer, and demanded a permit for the mass meeting.

“You know as well as I do that no permit is necessary for an open air meeting in New York. We have a perfect right to be here and we propose to stay right where we are”, said Stein. As Griffin left the platform, Stein got up and called on the workers to maintain iron proletarian discipline, not to be provoked by stool pigeons planted in the crowd by the police and to crowd close to the platform to protect Mother Wright and the other speakers. Angered at their failure to provoke the workers into some rash action the police drove two huge cars right on the sidewalk through the demonstrators. Answering Stein’s call again not to be provoked, the workers maintained discipline. This was too much for the police They sent for reinforcements. Four emergency squads, 10 radio cars, 18 motorcycles and 6 automobiles packed with dicks, in addition to reserves rushed from 4 police stations to the meeting. They made ready to break up the demonstration.

Mother Wright stepped on the platform at this time and called upon those present to raise their clenched fists and together roar, “The Scottsboro Boys must be freed! The Scottsboro Boys must be freed!” The sea of uplifted fists filled the air. A thousand determined shouts stopped the advance of the cops.

Mother Wright spoke and told of her visit to the Scottsboro Boys in jail and called on all the workers to carry on the struggle for the complete release of the boys. She received a thunderous ovation as she stepped off the platform, the N.Y. District of the I.L.D. rose to speak, Oscar Ames the detective, again questioned Stein about the permit. He repeated the meeting was orderly and no permit was necessary according to the laws of New York, and that the meeting would go on as it had a right to.

Suddenly the police hurled gas bombs towards the platform where Mrs. Wright was standing, automobiles with detectives drove right into the crowd with terrific speed, clubs cracked down on the heads of the unarmed workers, women and children were knocked over. Louise Lawrence Young, a young Negro girl, had two teeth knocked out. The workers stubbornly fought back. Policemen fell. 5,000 workers gathered and for two hours fought back the fascist attack of the police. From the tenements the workers hurled flower pots (without the flowers) down upon the police as well as other handy objects of solid a nature.

Sam Stein, white worker, Benny Stomps, Hugh Workman, Wm. May, Negro workers, were arrested. So crowded was the courtroom when their trial came up that the judge postponed the trial twice to discourage the workers from jamming the courtroom. However a sharp eye is being kept on the date of the coming trial and a tremendous demonstration led by the I.L.D. is being planned before the court.

A delegation representing 100,000 workers, headed by Mother Wright, visited Mayor LaGuardia and demanded the instant dismissal and arrest of all police concerned with this outrageous attack.

“Chief Inspector Valentine is heading a police department investigation in the matter,” said LaGuardia.

“Why not have Al Capone and the gangster Dillinger investigate themselves,” the delegation answered. “This is ridiculous. We demand that workers’ investigation committee look into the matter.”

LaGuardia was forced to consent to the placing of an I.L.D. attorney on the investigating committee. No police were present at the Scottsboro demonstration held the next Saturday.

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 issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/labordefender/1934/v10n04-apr-1934-orig-LD.pdf