Harry Haywood
| Harry Haywood | |
|---|---|
Haywood in 1948
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| Born |
Haywood Hall February 4, 1898 South Omaha, Nebraska, U.S. |
| Died | January 4, 1985 (aged 86) |
| Resting place | Arlington, Virginia, U.S. |
| Occupation | Political figure |
| Spouse(s) | Gwendolyn Midlo Hall |
| Children | Dr. Haywood Hall Dr. Rebecca Hall Leonid A. Yuspeh |
Harry Haywood (February 6, 1898 – January 4, 1985) was a leading figure in both the Communist Party of the United States (CPUSA) and the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU). His goal was to connect the political philosophy of the Communist Party with the issues of race. In 1926, he joined other African-American Communists and travelled to the Soviet Union to study the effect of Communism on racial issues found in the United States. His work there resulted in his selection to be the head of the Communist Party's Negro Department. The party platform changed by the late 1930s and began to stray away from advocating for African-American self-determination. As the party's platform changed over time, Haywood lost his stance within the party. His work also included creating a group to help the Scottsboro boys case. Haywood was also an author. His first book was Negro Liberation, published in 1948. After he was expelled from his affiliating party, he wrote an autobiography called Black Bolshevik, which was also published in 1978. He contributed major theory to Marxist thinking on the national question of African Americans in the United States. He was also a founder of the Maoist New Communist Movement.
Harry Haywood was born Haywood Hall, Jr., on February 4, 1898, in South Omaha, Nebraska, to former slaves Harriet and Haywood Hall, from Missouri and West Tennessee, respectively. They had migrated to Omaha because of jobs with the railroads and meatpacking industry, as did numerous other southern blacks. South Omaha also attracted White immigrants, and ethnic Irish had established an early neighborhood there. Haywood was the youngest of three sons.
In 1913 after their father was attacked by whites, the Hall family moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota. Two years later in 1915 they moved to Chicago. During World War I, he served with the Eighth Regiment, a black United States regiment. Upon his return to Chicago, the younger Hall was radicalized by the bitter Red Summer of 1919, especially the Chicago race riot, in which mostly ethnic Irish attacked blacks on the South Side.
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