COMMUNISTS: Harlem Homecoming

By nightfall all Harlem had heard the news brayed by Communist loudspeakers: the eleven convicted bosses of the party were out on bail. Hundreds of Harlem’s Negroes crowded into the streets to watch the triumphal homecoming of big, brassy Communist Ben Davis, their representative on the New York City Council.

Ben was smiling and cocky. Federal Judge Harold R. Medina had denied the Commies bail, but the court of appeals had released them (their bail: $260,000). In the glare of flaming red torches, Ben Davis crowed to a crowd on Harlem’s Lenox Avenue near 111th Street. “I am out on bail because you brought me out of jail,” he boomed. “I am back just in time to get re-elected . . . and no S.O.B. Medina is going to stop me.” Newly freed Comrades Robert Thompson and Henry Winston, who came along for the ride, tossed a little more verbal kerosene on the fire; so did Party-Line Chanter Paul Robeson.

Davis and friends piled into a car and rolled north on Lenox Avenue to address another gathering. An aroused, noisy crowd, some carrying torches, formed behind two blaring sound trucks and marched along Lenox after them. Ten policemen, who had let the parade form, got to worrying about possible trouble, and ordered the parade to halt for lack of a permit. One of the sound trucks broke into a menacing roar: “We will not be stopped by blue-coated fascists.” Onlookers could not agree on what happened next, but the Ben Davis victory parade suddenly degenerated into a near-riot. Hundreds of bystanders were caught up in the melee. The police put in a call for reinforcements, charged into marchers and bystanders alike, swinging their nightsticks. Then, from the tenements lining Lenox Avenue, a sudden, furious bombardment of bricks, empty bottles, broomsticks, tin cans and pots rained down on the cops. It was over as suddenly as it began. In 15 minutes of violence, seven people (six of them policemen) had been injured. Police arrested six men.

A little later, and several blocks to the north, Ben Davis beamed down on another cheering crowd from the balcony of Harlem’s Theresa Hotel, with Paul Robeson at his side. Both looked mighty pleased with the way things were going.