Radical Voices: American Communism in U.S. History
Recently
I had the opportunity to involve a week-long discussion of American Communist
history in an undergraduate course on U.S. History since World War II. Noticing a trend among younger students to
see more visual components of history and to connect more directly with
relatable agents of history, I took the time to bring in oral histories and
personal autobiographies to cover the Communist experience from 1945-1957. Since this era was rampant with anticommunist
trials and conspiracy theories, it was a good stepping stone into the emerging
Civil Rights movement of the late 1950s and early 1960s. By utilizing first hand experiences and
autobiographical testimonies, students connected with the more personal level
of U.S. communism and ultimately saw the more humanist element of their
activism.
I began
collecting oral histories of existing CPUSA members in July of 2011. It was a project that was important to me
after I realized the substantial lack of autobiographical sources involved in existing
historiography. Additionally, recent
publications by International Publishers included autobiographies from some of
the Party’s oldest members such as Beatrice Lumpkin. Since then, these oral histories have become
a cornerstone of my research, as they are reflected against the works and
testimonies of Party leaders and the first generation of American Communist
scholars. When I was given the opportunity
to teach U.S. History since 1945, I found the golden opportunity to test the
sources’ use in the classroom.
I began
by having students read important conclusions about communism made by the U.S.
state department as well as cultural icons such as Pablo Picasso. Picasso’s testimony was especially helpful at
demonstrating a break between the perception of communism as a monolithic
threat and it as an ideology for change.
Subsequently, I had students read about and examine photographs of the
major Smith Act trials that occurred from 1949-1957 in addition to examining
the case of the Rosenberg’s. Finally, I
had the students examine the oral history of Michele Artt, daughter of two
CPUSA leaders indicted in the Michigan Six trial of 1952. The results were pretty interesting.
Students
were asked to use a course blog to report their feelings and responses to the
readings, testimonies, and trial results.
Nearly every student responded saying that examining the trials and
narratives gave them a “new understanding” of American Communism. Most had seen communism as a foreign ideology
and a political antagonist. After
reading Artt’s oral history, most expressed a new understanding as an American
implementation of a ideology for social change.
In other words, they saw communism in the United States as uniquely
American, and equated the suppression of communists with a trampling of basic
American values.
I think
this experience demonstrates a tremendous potential for utilizing oral
histories and autobiographies of American Communists in the classroom. For one, it helps decentralize the discussion
about communism away from Russia and China, and more into the strict realm of
political opinion. Discussing the lower
ranking members, as well, helps remove the perception of conspiracy with regard
to the movement’s leadership. Overall it
was a pretty enlightening experience and I think that there is definitely room
in American history courses to expand on social movements for change and
include American Communism into that lot.
