The Communist Party of Maryland is the regional party of the

Communist Party USA The Communist Party USA, officially the Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA), is a communist party in the United States which was established in 1919 after a split in the Socialist Party of America following the Russian Revo ...

in the state of

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...

. Maryland's Communist Party was founded in 1919, the same year as the national party was founded, and is still in operation with its headquarters in Downtown Baltimore.

History

During the 1920s, Lithuanian Hall in the

Hollins Market Hollins Market is the name of the oldest existing public market building in the city of Baltimore, Maryland. It is a contributing property to the Union Square-Hollins Market Historic District. The market, located at 26 South Arlington Ave just ...

neighborhood was used as a venue for speeches by prominent members of the

, such as William Z. Foster and

Juliet Stuart Poyntz Juliet Stuart Poyntz (originally 'Points') (25 November 1886 – 1937) was an American suffragist, trade unionist and communist spy. As a student and university teacher, Poyntz espoused many radical causes and went on to become a co-founder o ...

. On October 13, 1929, a

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

branch of the CPUSA hosted a speech by Sol Hurwitz, the editor of the ''

Jewish Daily Forward ''The Forward'' ( yi, פֿאָרווערטס, Forverts), formerly known as ''The Jewish Daily Forward'', is an American news media organization for a American Jews, Jewish American audience. Founded in 1897 as a Yiddish-language daily socialis ...

'', and the speech was interrupted by a mob of

anti-Communists Anti-communism is political and ideological opposition to communism. Organized anti-communism developed after the 1917 October Revolution in the Russian Empire, and it reached global dimensions during the Cold War, when the United States and the ...

. The Communists inside of the hall defended themselves with chairs until the police arrived to disperse the mob. A number of Russians in Baltimore were involved in the party during the 1920s. The Communist Party in Baltimore had a Russian branch. With the approval of the national Russian-language organization of the

, members of Baltimore's Russian Communist branch often attended the Independent Russian Orthodox Church in Baltimore. Prokope Suvorov, the leader of the Russian Communist branch, taught the Russian language at the church. Another Russian Communist staged the congregation's plays, while other members sold Communist literature at the church. The Russian-American Communist

Alex Bail Alex Bail (1900 – June 8, 1973) was an American radical and union leader. Biography Early years Alex Bail was born in the Russian Empire in 1900. Communist years Bail entered the US labor movement in 1922. He was also an early member of th ...

was concerned by the religiosity of Baltimore's Russian Christian Communists, but his concerns were somewhat abated due to the portrait of

Vladimir Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov. ( 1870 – 21 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin,. was a Russian revolutionary, politician, and political theorist. He served as the first and founding head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 to 19 ...

hanging inside the Russian Orthodox church. Samuel Parker, an unemployed African-American

longshoreman A stevedore (), also called a longshoreman, a docker or a dockworker, is a waterfront manual laborer who is involved in loading and unloading ships, trucks, trains or airplanes. After the shipping container revolution of the 1960s, the number o ...

, was the Communist candidate for governor in 1930. Parker had been involved in politics for many years, but was inspired to run for governor after becoming disillusioned with the two major parties after the defeat of

Al Smith Alfred Emanuel Smith (December 30, 1873 – October 4, 1944) was an American politician who served four terms as Governor of New York and was the Democratic Party's candidate for president in 1928. The son of an Irish-American mother and a C ...

in the 1928 presidential election. His campaign focused on bread-and-butter issues, particularly the elimination of unemployment. Receiving only 616 votes, he was overwhelmingly outvoted by supporters of

Albert Ritchie Albert Cabell Ritchie (August 29, 1876 – February 24, 1936) was an American lawyer and politician. A Democrat, he was the 49th governor of Maryland from 1920 to 1935. Ritchie was a conservative who campaigned for, but did not win, the presid ...

. As Maryland state law dictates that candidates for governor must be at least 30 years of age, the 26 year old Parker would not have been legally allowed to become governor even if he had won the popular vote. In 1934, the lawyer

Bernard Ades Bernard Ades (July 3, 1903 – May 27, 1986) was an American Communist who is most known for his defense of Euel Lee, an African American accused of murdering a white family in Maryland in 1931. During a murder trial which was still heavily infl ...

ran for Governor of Maryland on the Communist Party ticket and received less than 8,000 votes. Despite the support of the African American community, he lost by a significant margin. From 1937 until the 1940s, the CP of Maryland ran a communist bookstore called the Free State Bookshop. Alexander Munsell and his wife Louise Ellen Munsell ran the bookstore adjacent to the Communist Party headquarters in

downtown Baltimore Downtown Baltimore is the central business district of the city of Baltimore traditionally bounded by Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard to the west, Franklin Street to the north, President Street to the east and the Inner Harbor area to the s ...

. The Free State Bookshop and another communist bookstore, the Frederick Douglass Bookshop, were monitored by FBI agents and informants. The Frederick Douglass Bookshop was described by the

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and its principal Federal law enforcement in the United States, federal law enforcement age ...

as a “Communist Party literature distribution point in the Negro section of estBaltimore.” For a decade these two communist bookstores served as central meeting places for the Baltimore's Communist Party, hosting meetings for party officials and new members. During his time at the

Baltimore School for the Arts The Baltimore School for the Arts (BSA) is a public performing arts high school located in Mount Vernon, Baltimore, Maryland, United States and is part of the Baltimore City Public Schools system. Established in 1979, The Baltimore School for the ...

in the late 1980s, the rapper

Tupac Shakur Tupac Amaru Shakur ( ; born Lesane Parish Crooks, June 16, 1971 – September 13, 1996), also known as 2Pac and Makaveli, was an American rapper. He is widely considered one of the most influential rappers of all time. Shakur is among the Li ...

was affiliated with the Baltimore branch of the Young Communist League USA. The Baltimore Young Communist League is now also known as the ''Tupac Shakur Club'' in his honor. He began dating the daughter of the director of the Communist Party of Maryland. In 1991, the ''Baltimore Sun'' ran an article that assessed the state of the Communist Party of Maryland at that time:

Baltimore's Communist Party traces it origins to a strike against the
B&O Railroad The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was the first common carrier railroad and the oldest railroad in the United States, with its first section opening in 1830. Merchants from Baltimore, which had benefited to some extent from the construction of ...
in 1877...
In the 1930s, Baltimore was designated by national party leaders as District 4 and was made up of about 20 "cells"...
The party focused its recruiting on companies with many blue-collar workers... Often, national leaders such as
Earl Browder Earl Russell Browder (May 20, 1891 – June 27, 1973) was an American politician, communist activist and leader of the Communist Party USA (CPUSA). Browder was the General Secretary of the CPUSA during the 1930s and first half of the 1940s. Duri ...
and William Z. Foster were guest speakers. The party held rallies... and fielded candidates in local elections...
After World War II... most of Baltimore's communists went underground. They maintained low-profile headquarters, successively, on Eutaw Street, Franklin Street and in the 200 block Liberty Street...
The communist witch hunts of the late 1940s and early '50s were not among the city's shining hours. In 1949, complying with laws requiring loyalty oaths and federal acts that effectively outlawed the party, city, state and federal authorities began to arrest known communists and to sentence them to jail, often for minor or fabricated crimes. Among those who served time were
Maurice Braverman Maurice Braverman (1916–2002) was a 20th-century American civil rights lawyer and some-time Communist Party member (and Party lawyer) who was convicted in 1952 under the Smith Act, served 28 of 36 months, then immediately faced disbarment, again ...
, the party's lawyer; Leroy H. Wood, its treasurer and George A. Meyers, a long-time local and national party leader. In 1952, Meyers spent 30 days in jail for refusing to name others in the party. One Evening Sun headline of the time: "FBI Informer Calls Meyers Key State Red."
What was left of the membership lacked the resources to carry on. Postwar prosperity and ideological differences with Soviet communism proved too much for Baltimore's communists, and the local party all but disappeared...1970s, and winning restatement in Maryland (1974) and federal courts (1975).

(Note that the ''Sun'' calls Braverman a Party lawyer.)

Organizing

The Communist Party of Maryland maintains the Baltimore Young Communist League (Tupac Shakur Club), the local Baltimore affiliate of the

Young Communist League USA The Young Communist League USA (YCLUSA) is a communist youth organization in the United States. The stated aim of the League is the development of its members into Communists, through studying Marxism–Leninism and through active participation ...

Members

, a lawyer who fought for the rights of African Americans and ran for Governor of Maryland on the Communist Party ticket. *

Albert Blumberg Albert E. Blumberg (August 10, 1906 – October 8, 1997) was an American philosopher and political activist. He was an official of the Communist Party for several years before joining the Democratic Party as a district leader. Early life Al ...

, a philosopher and political activist who was an official of the Communist Party for several years before joining the Democratic Party as a district leader. *

Maurice Braverman Maurice Braverman (1916–2002) was a 20th-century American civil rights lawyer and some-time Communist Party member (and Party lawyer) who was convicted in 1952 under the Smith Act, served 28 of 36 months, then immediately faced disbarment, again ...

, a civil rights lawyer and Party lawyer who was convicted in 1952 under the Smith Act, served 28 of 36 months, then immediately faced disbarment, against which he fought in the 1970s and won reinstatement in Maryland (1974) and federal courts (1975). *

Harold Buchman Harold Buchman was a 20th-Century American Communist attorney, "the most important communist member" of the Progressive Citizens of America (founded by former vice president Henry A. Wallace, president of the Roosevelt Democratic Party Club, and ...

, an attorney who was also a member of

Progressive Citizens of America Progressive Citizens of America (PCA) was a social-democratic and democratic socialist American political organization formed in December 1946 that advocated progressive policies, which worked with the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) ...

(founded by former vice president Henry A. Wallace) who was blacklisted by Hollywood and served as the state director of the Maryland

Progressive Party Progressive Party may refer to: Active parties * Progressive Party, Brazil * Progressive Party (Chile) * Progressive Party of Working People, Cyprus * Dominica Progressive Party * Progressive Party (Iceland) * Progressive Party (Sardinia), Ita ...

. *

, a rapper, writer, and actor who is widely considered to be one of the most influential rappers of all time.

References

Bibliography

*Browder, Earl * ''Browder Hits Anti-Soviet Plot speech of Earl Browder, at Aperion Manor, Brooklyn, NY, April 1, 1943''. Baltimore? : Communist Party and Young Communist League of Baltimore?, 1943. *Committee to Defeat the Smith Act. ''The Baltimore Smith Act Case: A Constitutional Crossroad'', Baltimore, 952?*Meyers, George A. ''An Indictment of the Baltimore City Jail'', Communist Party of Maryland and Washington, D.C., 95-?*Pedersen, Vernon L. ''The Communist Party in Maryland, 1919-57'', University of Illinois Press, 2001. *Skotnes, Adnor. ''A New Deal for All?: Race and Class Struggles in Depression-era Baltimore'', Duke University Press, 2013.

External links

Baltimore CPUSA official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Communist Party Of Maryland 1919 establishments in Maryland African-American history of Maryland Communism in Maryland