Changes

In 1928 the 6th Congress of the Comintern in Moscow resolved that the black population of the American South was a subject nation, thus capable of engendering a "national revolutionary movement," and ordered the CPUSA to give high priority to mobilizing blacks. The party made the 1931 Scottsboro lynching case its favoprite publicity issue, making the maltreatment of African Americans a matter of international concern for the first time, and locked it into the American radical-liberal political agenda. After 1928 the Party strongly supported civil rights for blacks, weeded out racism among its white members and tried to enlist a large black membership.  It enlisted only a small black membership, which tried to take over the [[Civil Rights Movement]]. Only one major figure in the Civil Rights Movement was a Communist, Stanley Levison, who was a top advisor to [[Martin Luther King]].   

In 1928 the 6th Congress of the Comintern in Moscow resolved that the black population of the American South was a subject nation, thus capable of engendering a "national revolutionary movement," and ordered the CPUSA to give high priority to mobilizing blacks. The party made the 1931 Scottsboro lynching case its favoprite publicity issue, making the maltreatment of African Americans a matter of international concern for the first time, and locked it into the American radical-liberal political agenda. After 1928 the Party strongly supported civil rights for blacks, weeded out racism among its white members and tried to enlist a large black membership.  It enlisted only a small black membership, which tried to take over the [[Civil Rights Movement]]. Only one major figure in the Civil Rights Movement was a Communist, Stanley Levison, who was a top advisor to [[Martin Luther King]].   

===Intellectuals===

===Intellectuals===

The Party had a small but influential following among intellectuals and artists, especially in New York City in the 1930s and early 1940s. There arose a bitter the conflict between anti-Soviet liberals and  anti-Stalinist Marxists on one side, and pro-Soviet "progressives," a group that sympathized with the CPUSA in the People's Front during 1935-39.  The anti-Soviet faction, led in part by philosopher [[John Dewey]], had a solid grasp of Stalinism allowing the liberals, the anti-Stalinist Marxists, and the ex-Marxists like [[James Burnham]] and [[John Dos Passos]] to join forces, thus providing the intellectual foundation for postwar liberal anticommunism.<ref> See  Judy Kutulas, ''The Long War: The Intellectual People's Front and Anti-Stalinism'' (1995)</ref>

The Party had a small but influential following among intellectuals and artists, especially in New York City in the 1930s and early 1940s. In 1935 the Party leaders created the "League of American Writers," downplaying the Party connection and overtly Marxist dogmas in an attempt to attract liberal, middle-class writers of established stature; after several years as a prestigious and broadly based organization, however, the league broke into hostile factions of progressives and Communists over such international issues as the Moscow show trials and the Hitler-Stalin Pact.

 

A bitter the conflict broke out between anti-Soviet liberals and  anti-Stalinist Marxists on one side, and pro-Soviet "progressives," a group that sympathized with the CPUSA in the People's Front during 1935-39.  The anti-Soviet faction, led in part by philosopher [[John Dewey]], had a solid grasp of Stalinism allowing the liberals, the anti-Stalinist Marxists, and the ex-Marxists like [[James Burnham]] and [[John Dos Passos]] to join forces, thus providing the intellectual foundation for postwar liberal anticommunism.<ref> See  Judy Kutulas, ''The Long War: The Intellectual People's Front and Anti-Stalinism'' (1995)</ref>

Most of the intellectual broke with the Party—usually in 1939 when Stalin made an alliance with Hitler.  The writers often wrote memoirs, including Howard Fast's ''The Naked God'' (1957), Richard Wright's ''American Hunger'' (1977), Elizabeth Bentley's ''Out of Bondage'' (1952), and --by far the most influential--Whittaker Chambers's ''Witness'' (1952). Typically the memoirs  show a common pattern of chronicling their authors' conversion to, disillusionment with, and repudiation of Communism, often followed by an overt effort to fight against the Communist movement. These memoirs also discuss the religious aspects of both joining and leaving the Communist Party, and their authors' subsequent roles as expert witnesses against Communism in court cases. Howard Fast's later memoir, ''Being Red'' (1990), differs from his earlier ones in that it builds upon the standard narratives common to ex-Communist memoirs to explore a larger view of the native tradition of American radicalism and its meaning for the author.

Most of the intellectual broke with the Party—usually in 1939 when Stalin made an alliance with Hitler.  The writers often wrote memoirs, including Howard Fast's ''The Naked God'' (1957), Richard Wright's ''American Hunger'' (1977), Elizabeth Bentley's ''Out of Bondage'' (1952), and --by far the most influential--Whittaker Chambers's ''Witness'' (1952). Typically the memoirs  show a common pattern of chronicling their authors' conversion to, disillusionment with, and repudiation of Communism, often followed by an overt effort to fight against the Communist movement. These memoirs also discuss the religious aspects of both joining and leaving the Communist Party, and their authors' subsequent roles as expert witnesses against Communism in court cases. Howard Fast's later memoir, ''Being Red'' (1990), differs from his earlier ones in that it builds upon the standard narratives common to ex-Communist memoirs to explore a larger view of the native tradition of American radicalism and its meaning for the author.