Document 14: "Hail the Heroic Scottsboro Mother, Mrs. Ada Wright!" Flyer for 17 December 1932 rally, mimeograph, Clarina Michelson Papers, Tamiment Library, New York University.

Introduction

    With this flyer, announcing the rally to welcome Ada Wright back from her European tour, the Communist Party message had become fully integrated with the worldwide struggle to "Free the Scottsboro Boys." Whereas previously the message centered on her hard life as a widow woman, a domestic worker, a poor black in the white supremacist (‘boss-white’) South, now she had endured "hardships and imprisonment" as a Party worker and had become a symbol of the unity of "white and Negro workers." In taking full credit for saving the lives of the Scottsboro Boys and forcing the appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, the Communists forged a link between Scottsboro and the workers' larger cause: "The fight on behalf of the Scottsboro boys is inseparably connected with the fight of the white and Nero workers of Harlem against hunger, against discrimination, against racial persecution."

    But unity of action across racial lines--even in the North and even on basic economic and survival issues--remained a radical concept. Even as a hero, Wright's primary role remained that of Scottsboro Mother, a symbol of changing perceptions of blacks, the breaking down of stereotypes, and of sympathy and support for the cause of interracial cooperation toward a common goal.

HAIL THE HEROIC SCOTTSBORO
MOTHER, MRS. ADA
WRIGHT!

DEMONSTRATE TO DEMAND THE RELEASE OF THE
SCOTTSBORO BOYS
Saturday, Dec. 17th, at 2 P.M.

COME TO THE SPANISH WORKERS CENTER, 24 W. 115th St. THERE WILL BE A PARADE TO THE HARLEM WORKERS CENTER, 650 LENOX AVE. WHERE MRS. ADA WRIGHT WILL SPEAK.

    With joy and pride we hail Mrs. Ada Wright, the heroic mother of two of the Scottsboro boys upon her safe return from the strenuous tour of 16 European countries, on which she suffered many hard-ships and imprisonment.

    As members of a unit of the Communist Party composed of Negro and white workers living in this neighborhood, we are calling upon all workers who read this message to participate in the reception in honor of Mrs. Ada Wright, which is being arranged in Harlem this Saturday, Dec. 17th by the International Labor Defense. We will also honor the memory of Louis Engdahl, the Gen. Secretary of the I. L. D. who accompanied Mrs. Wright to Europe and who succumbed to illness while in Moscow.

    The purpose of this great rally is likewise to demand the unconditional release of the nine innocent Scottsboro boys, seven of whom are still faced with the threat of execution at the hands of the savage white ruling class of the South. This rally will help to cement the unity of the white and Negro workers of Harlem to fight together for relief, against evictions, against every form of discrimination and racial oppression. It was this united struggle in which the Communist Party of the U. S. was the acknowledged leader that stayed the execution of the Scottsboro boys and compelled the U. S. Supreme Court to grant them a new trial.

    The fight on behalf of the Scottsboro boys is inseparably connected with the fight of the white and Negro workers of Harlem against hunger, against discrimination, against racial persecution. The Scottsboro boys themselves were unemployed Negro workers who were framed up while travelling in search of a job.

Fight against starvation and persecution! Fight for relief at the expense of the bosses and the government!

    The houses in our neighborhood are filled with unemployed families, many of them facing eviction and starvation. The "Amsterdam News" of Nov. 30, 1932 carries news of the suicide of Ernest Booker, Public Porter 995. Similar cases happen almost daily. While workers are driven to suicide by hunger, discrimination and racial persecution are rampant.

    Do not permit the rich oppressors and exploiters to lynch workers as they attempt to do with the Scottsboro boys, let us not permit them to starve workers to death or drive them to suicide. Organize Block Committees; join the Unemployed Councils and the Communist Party! Let us smash the whole system of racial persecution. Rally to greet Mrs. Wright-demand the release of the Scottsboro boys!

--Neighborhood unity of the Communist Party, U.S.A.


 
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