Mar 21, 2024 - Sale 2663

Sale 2663 - Lot 109

Unsold
Estimate: $ 1,000 - $ 1,500
(CIVIL RIGHTS.) Leaflet for the United Afro-American Union, an ephemeral relief group affiliated with both Garvey and the Communists. Mimeographed leaflet, 9 x 5¾ inches; horizontal fold, minimal wear. New York, circa 1940
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Additional Details

This leaflet is headed "Help Us to Help You!": "This is a call to the people of the Harlem Community. Join with us in this struggle against Relief Cuts. . . . Whether you are on Home Relief or a part time worker, or a full time worker on W.P.A.--you never can tell when you may need the support of a first-class fighting organization like the United Afro-American Union. . . . Negroes on Relief must join hands for their common good. . . . Don't let the grasping Landlords deprive you of your right to shelter. Our program is to fight against all forms of Negro Discrimination." The Union had two offices with open hours extending until 11 p.m., and two weekly meetings.

An interview preserved at New York University with a prominent Black Communist, Daily Worker editor Abner Berry, recalled the group's formation circa 1938: "Louis Campbell and Frankie Duty were the leaders of the Workers' Alliance. . . . They apparently left the Workers' Alliance and started picketing the Party headquarters, and organized something called the United Afro-American Union, which was an all-Black unemployed organization. . . . Whatever they organized couldn't have lasted a month long, or a week, or two weeks, you see. Because it was an organization that couldn't function, you know, without the support, and without the kind of organization which the Party had then. . . . The Garveyites and Nationalists in the Thirties were not capable of organizing themselves in stable groups or in any kind of national organization."

The Union was still active on 19 October 1940, when they joined a protest against a stalled housing project, as reported in the New York Age.