Robin D. G. Kelley is the the Gary B. Nash Professor of American History at UCLA, and the author of Hammer and Hoe: Alabama Communists during the Great Depression.
In 1930s Alabama, Communist Party members fought brutal repression to organize black and white workers in the Jim Crow South. Their efforts remain a source of inspiration for those fighting racism and exploitation today.
Historian Robin D. G. Kelley has uncovered a tradition of African American radicalism that was — and is — a crucial part of the American left’s history. He talks to Jacobin about the need to connect struggles against racism and class oppression.
The Pitzer College community voted to suspend a study abroad program with the University of Haifa because of its ongoing policies discriminating against Palestinians. But their president decided to overturn a democratic referendum supporting human rights.
During the Great Depression, black sharecroppers and the Communist Party waged war against tenant farming in the South.