Jack Salzman, Cornel West Struggles in the Promised

Blacks and Jews: The Struggle in the Cities \\ 109
in America and free America from the stain and shame of slavery. The slaves are
today not free and on America, the stain of the shame of slavery is still evident." 3
What socialists believed as faith, communists believed as ideology. Most Jews
were not communists. But in the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s, many communists
were Jews. For those Jews who adopted or flirted with communism, a commitment
to Blacks stood as the centerpiece of their beliefs. The communists were the
first party to run a Black on the national ticket, nominating James W. Ford for
Vice President in 1932, 1936, and 1940. When the men known as the Scottsboro
boys were accused of raping two white women in Alabama, the lawyer that rushed
to defend them was Samuel Liebowitz, a Jew from Brooklyn, who became a folk
hero among southern Blacks. When the Communist Party turned its attention to
organizing Harlem, a disproportionate number of organizers were Jewish. 4
A Jew growing up in Brooklyn, in the Bronx, or on Chicago's South Side, a
Jewish neighborhood, did not have to be socialist or communist to inhale the talk
of socialism and equality that blew all around. It permeated life, creating a world
view in which Blacks were objects of sympathy rather than hate, potential allies
rather than foes, people who could be helped and who could make Jews feel good
for having helped them. Many Jews prided themselves on employing Black maids
when no one else would, on renting apartments to Blacks when no one else would,
and on making sure their used clothing went to Blacks who were less fortunate
and so obviously in need.
For their part, Blacks growing up in the north had a far more ambivalent view
of Jews, shaped by economic contact that almost always put Blacks one step below
Jews on the urban economic ladder. Whereas Jews often saw themselves reaching
out to "help" Blacks by extending them credit at stores, giving them jobs as
maids, passing on old clothes to their children, Blacks bristled at the patronizing
attitude that seemed to lurk behind every act of generosity. They chafed at the
vast economic disparity between Blacks and Jews.
Blacks in northern ghettos in the 1930s and 1940s often preferred working for
Jews. They were more courteous and often more generous. But wages were still
low and conditions often insulting. In an article for a Harlem newspaper in 1933,
two Black women wrote of the "Bronx slave market" in which Black women
worked as maids for white, usually Jewish, families. In 1935, when rioting broke
out in Harlem, it was directed against Jewish merchants and stores. Roi Ottley, a
Black author writing in 1943, charged that Jews had introduced the idea of
installment buying into Black life, inducing Blacks to spend beyond their means,
leading to a build up of resentment and anger. Jewish-owned pawnshops, Ottley
said, required Blacks to leave a suit for a month for a two-dollar loan—and then
charged an additional one-dollar storage fee. Jews drove a hard bargain. 5
For many Blacks, Jews were different from white people. There was "Mr.
Charlie," Black slang for whites, and there was "Mr. Goldberg," Black slang for
Jews. At their worst, Jews were the conniving tricksters who took advantage of
innocent Blacks beaten down by the oppression of white society. They were like