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Abstract
This dissertation is a study of the lives and thought of four African American women Communists—Audley “Queen Mother” Moore (1898–1997), Louise Thompson Patterson (1901–1999), Claudia Jones (1915–1964), and Esther Cooper Jackson (1917–). They joined the Communist movement during the 1930s and remained in it through the mid-1950s, the period marking the zenith and demise of the CPUSA's influence in American life. I contend that the American Communist movement enabled them to articulate what might be described as a black feminist perspective. Their journalism and grassroots organizing called special attention to the issues facing black women burdened by racism, poverty, and sexism, and they argued that the success of the American Left rested in its ability to address the issues confronting African American women. Holding formal, high-ranking posts in CPUSA-affiliated groups, my subjects also served as able “bridge leaders,” who built grassroots social justice movements and tried to serve as vital links between national Communist officials and African American communities. This study argues that the American Communist Party's Marxist-Leninist framework, internationalism, and unique approaches to questions of race, class, and gender enabled these women to develop theoretical and strategic insights that pushed the CPUSA in new directions. Critically examining their experiences highlight how these women, who too often are invisible in studies of the American Left, constituted a small but vibrant radical intellectual/activist community and served as important leaders in several of the major political, social, and cultural movements in the US and beyond during the mid twentieth century.
