30. Yergan to “My Dear Friend,” 1 May 1937, Box 180, Bunche Papers, Folder—Yergan/Additional Data, UCLA. This was still the era of the Popular Front.
31. Yergan (Brussels) to Bunche, 15 April 1937, Box 180, Bunche Papers, Folder—Yergan/Additional Data, UCLA.
32. For evidence of Frieda as intermediary see S. Neugebauer (Frieda’s sister) to Bunche, 14 October 1937, Ralph Johnson Bunche Papers, Box 1B, Schomburg Collection.
33. The FBI compiled an ongoing list of people photographed in the Daily Worker. Yergan appeared twice, on 14 April 1937 and 26 July 1938. The list was forwarded to the Navy. “Index of Photographs Which Appeared in the Daily Worker from February 2, 1932 to December 31, 1942,” appended to Jean S. Conover, Information and Privacy Coordinator, Naval Investigative Service, to author, 26 February 1985.
34. Robert Edgar, ed., An African-American in South Africa: The Travel Notes of Ralph Bunche (Athens: Ohio University Press, 1992).
35. Yergan (London) to “My Dear Friend,” 1 May 1937, Box 180, Bunche Papers, Folder—Yergan/Additional Data, UCLA.
36. Diary, Ralph Bunche, 1937. See Edgar, An African-American in South Africa.
37. Yergan to Bunche, 17 May 1937, Box 180, Folder—Yergan/Additional Data, Bunche Papers, UCLA.
38. Ras Makonnen: Pan Africanism from Within, as told to Kenneth James King (London: Oxford University Press, 1973), 158. Makonnen, however, who had read Marx, insisted he was not anticommunist, but like Padmore considered African interests to take priority over those of the Soviet Union.
39. Nkrumah, Ghana: The Autobiography of Kwame Nkrumah (New York: International Publishers, 1957; reprinted 1972), 22–23; “A Full and Illustrated Report of the Proceedings of the Restoration of the Ashanti Confederacy, January 31–February 4, 1935” (Accra: West African Sentinel, n.d. [ca. 1935]). On WASU see Gabriel Olakunle Olusanya, The West African Students’ Union and the Politics of Decolonisation, 1925–1958 (Ibadan: Daystar Press, 1982).
40. Essie’s assessment is in African Journey, 86–129. For a symbolic look at Nyabongo’s universe see The Story of an African Chief (New York: Scribner, 1935), Africa Answers Back (London: Routledge and Sons, 1936), and Winds and Lights: African Fairy Tales (New York: Voice of Ethiopia, n.d. [ca. 1939]).
41. Telephone interview, Donald G. S. M’Timkulu (Canada), 29 March 1994. He died at ninety-two in 2000. Among Yale’s first African students, during the war years he attended the London School of Economics. M’Timkulu was headmaster at the ABCFM-run Adams College, later becoming a Fort Hare education professor.
42. Yergan to “My Dear Friend,” 1 May 1937, Box 180, Folder—Yergan/Additional Data, Bunche Papers, UCLA.
43. Yergan to Robeson, 25 May 1937, Paul Robeson Papers, MSRC/HU.
44. Yergan to “My Dear Friend,” 1 May 1937.
45. Dorothy Butler Gilliam, Paul Robeson: All American (Washington, D.C.: New Republic, 1976), 89.
46. Yergan to Bunche, 26 January 1936, copy courtesy of Charles P. Henry, African-American Studies, University of California–Berkeley.
47. Yergan to Locke, 17 May 1937, Alain Locke Papers, MSRC/HU.
48. Meeting cards “Announcing an Important Meeting at International House,” 31 August and 7 September 1937, courtesy Charles P. Henry, University of California–Berkeley.
49. Jones to Tobias, 8 September 1937, Yergan File, UCLA. Ex-Colored Work Department secretary Tobias was a Yergan ally.
50. “Negro for College Post: Max Yergan Recommended for New Course at City Institution,” New York Times, 15 April 1937; “Negro Appointed to CCNY Teaching Staff: First of Race,” Reporter (School of Business and Civic Administration), 3 May 1937. Courtesy Ruth Hartson, YMCA International Division.
51. Telephone interview, Morris Urman Schappes, editor, Jewish Currents, 5 May 1994.
52. Interview, Herbert Aptheker, San Jose, California, 16 September 1988.
53. Morris Schappes interview, 5 May 1994.
54. Morris Schappes interview, 5 May 1994.
55. “Negro Appointed to CCNY Teaching Staff.”
56. Morris Schappes interview, 5 May 1994.
57. Telephone interview, Morris Urman Schappes, editor, Jewish Currents, 19 April 1994.
58. Though evidence is scanty, Yergan was associated with the Meröe and Frederick Douglass societies. Prominent in the latter was the young Black Communist Louis Burnham. See Robert (Robbie) Cohen, When the Old Left Was Young (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993), chapter 7, part 4.
59. I owe this document to Carol Smith of City College. Copy Tamiment Library. While the texts are not mentioned in full, they may have been as follows: Lucy Mair, Primitive Government; Carter G. Woodson, The African Background Outlined; Maurice Delafosse, The Negroes of Africa; and John Henderson Soga, The South-Eastern Bantu (Abe-Nguni, Aba-Mbo, Ama-Lala). That seems more plausible than Soga’s later The Ama-Xosa: Life and Customs (Lovedale Institution, Alice, South Africa: Lovedale Press, 1932). He also used a text by Franz Boas, with whom he later corresponded.
60. Yergan to Secretary to President, 12 November 1937, President’s Personal File 4266; Telegram, M. H. McIntyre, Secretary to the President, to Yergan, 13 November 1937, FDR Library, Hyde Park.
61. Yergan to Secretary to the President, 12 November 1937, President’s Personal File 4266, FDR Library, Hyde Park.
62. Telegram, M. H. McIntyre, Secretary to the President, to Max Yergan, 13 November 1937; Telegram, Yergan to Secretary to the President, 15 November 1937; Telegram, Yergan to M. H. McIntyre, Secretary to the President, 15 November 1937. The final telegram withdrew the request, due to the pressure of time. President’s Personal File 4266, FDR Library, Hyde Park.
63. Wilson to Yergan, 28 October 1937, Frank T. Wilson Papers, Lincoln University Archives.
64. “Max Yergan Addresses Chapel,” Lincolnian, 10 December 1937.
65. Max Yergan, National Negro Congress, to Excellency, 9 December 1937, State Department Central Decimal Files, National Archives, File 738.39/221 LS.
66. Welles to Yergan, 19 December 1937, State Department Central Decimal Files, National Archives, File 738.39/221 LS. Earlier, Welles had told his aide that he wondered whether a response to Yergan was “necessary or desirable,” and he allowed the aide to draft an acknowledgment letter for his signature. Welles to Duggan, 9 December 1937.
67. John Baxter Streater, “The National Negro Congress, 1936– 1947,” Ph.D. dissertation, University of Cincinnati, 1981, 225.
68. Yergan to J. H. Harmon Jr., 7 January 1938; L. D. Reddick to Yergan, 11 January 1938 and 15 January 1938; Davis to Randolph, 21 January 1938; H. M. Rollins to Davis, 22 January; William A. Braxton to Yergan, 29 January 1938; Helen R. Bryan, Committee on Race Relations, Society of Friends, to John P. Davis, 24 January 1938, all in National Negro Congress Papers, Reel 14., Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.
69. LeBron Simmons to John P. Davis, 8 February 1938, NNC Papers.
70. Clarence Pickett, Journal, 8 February 1938. Courtesy American Friends Service Committee Archives, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
71. The 28 February event was in Flash (CCNY Communist Youth League). FBI Max Yergan file, Confidential: 19 March 1942. FOIA declassified and provided to author.
72. Record of Interview, President’s Office, Carnegie Corporation, 11 May 1938, Carnegie Archives.
73. Mary van Kleeck to Yergan, 28 June, 5 July, 13 July; GMW for Associate Director [Mary van Kleeck] to Yergan, 9 August; Yergan to Miss Meyer, International Industrial Relations Institute, 26 August; GMW to Yergan, 14 September; Yergan to E. C. Morris, Office Secretary to Yergan, 16 September; Yergan to van Kleeck, 4 October, 1938, Mary van Kleeck Papers, Sophie Smith Collection, Smith College.
74. Mary van Kleeck to Yergan 26 October 1938, Mary van Kleeck Papers, Sophie Smith Collection, Smith Collection. This was the organ of the Royal Institute of International Affairs.
75. Yergan to Bunche, 23 November 1938, Box 180, Bunche Papers, Folder—Yergan/Additional Data, UCLA.
76. B
unche to Yergan, 13 December 1938, Box 180, Bunche Papers, Folder—Yergan/Additional Data, UCLA.
77. “Book Notes,” International Labour Review 38:6 (December 1938).
78. Mary van Kleeck to Yergan, 10 January 1938, Mary van Kleeck Papers, Sophie Smith Collection, Smith College.
79. Mary van Kleeck to Yergan, 3 January; Yergan to van Kleeck, 16 May 1939, Mary van Kleeck Papers, Sophie Smith Collection, Smith College.
80. Mary van Kleeck Papers, Box 9, Folder 17, Archives of Labor History and Urban Affairs, Wayne State University, Detroit. Reference provided courtesy of Raymond Boryczka.
81. “Dr. Yergan Enlightens Student Body on Plight of South African Natives,” Lincolnian (Lincoln University), 4 November 1939.
82. Lincolnian (Lincoln University), 4 November 1939.
83. Yergan to Boas, 30 November 1939, Franz Boas Collection, American Philosophical Library, Philadelphia. I thank Robert S. Cox, keeper of manuscripts, for providing me with this copy.
84. Boas to Yergan, 9 December 1939, Boas Papers, American Philosophical Library, Philadelphia.
85. “Woman Journalist’s Safari,” Rand Daily Mail, 26 August 1947, 5; Anthony, “Who Was Frieda Neugebauer?” Unpublished manuscript.
86. Bunche, Davis, to van Kleeck, 25 February 1935; Helen B. Russell to Ralph J. Bunche, 27 February 1945; Bunche to van Kleeck, 1 March, 1935; Ralph Bunche file, Box 10, folder 163, Mary van Kleeck Papers, Sophie Smith Collection, Smith College.
87. “Minutes of the Meeting of the National Committee of the National Joint Action Committee for Genuine Social Insurance Held February 21, 1935 at the City College of New York,” National Negro Congress Papers, I.
88. The Russell Sage Foundation and Social Action in America, 1907–47: A Guide to the Microfilm Collection, David Hammock, editorial adviser (New York: University Press of America, 1988).
89. New York City Equity, December 1935, Russell Sage Foundation Collection, Early Office Files, Box 14, RG IV4B1. Folders 120–126, 158, Department of Industrial Studies—Gen, 1927–1937, Rockefeller Archive Center, Pocantico Hills, N.Y.
90. M. van Kleeck, VI, Important Interviews, Yergan, Max, regarding his paper on “Standards of Living of Native Workers in Africa,” also for IIRI Conference. Report for month ended 30 June 1937, dated 1 July 1937, Russell Sage Foundation, Early Office Files 158, Department of Industrial Studies, Monthly Reports, 1937–1943, IV 4B1.B Box 15 Folder 127, Rockefeller Archive Center, Pocantico Hills, N. Tarrytown, N.Y.
91. Yergan to Bunche, 22 June 1937, Bunche Papers, Box 180, Folder—Yergan/Additional Data, UCLA (hereafter RJBP).
92. “To IRI Members and Others Interested,” appended to van Kleeck to Bunche, 2 July 1937, RJBP.
93. Yergan to Bunche, 6 July 1937, RJBP.
94. Yergan to Bunche, 26 July 1937, RJBP.
95. Van Kleeck (The Hague) to Bunche, 6 August 1937, RJBP.
96. Yergan to Bunche, 13 August 1937, RJBP.
97. “Dear Friend,” 31 August 1937, RJBP.
98. Yergan to Xuma, 3 September 1937, Xuma Papers, UCLA.
99. Grondwet meant “Constitution” in Dutch and Afrikaans. The irony was that this lofty democratic device applied only to Union Whites, a point Yergan wanted Xuma to capture.
100. Jones to Tobias, 8 September 1937, File B, Box 68, YMCA Bowne Historical Library.
101. Max mischievously wrote that Jones’s hostile response constituted “the best evidence of the value of the meeting.” Yergan to Wilson, 16 September 1937; Wilson to Yergan, 23 September 1937, Frank Wilson Collection, University Archives, Langston Hughes Memorial Library, Lincoln University, Pennsylvania.
102. Yergan to Wilson, 16 September 1937, Wilson Papers, Langston Hughes Library, Lincoln University.
103. Yergan to “Dear Friend,” 9 October 1937, File B, Box 68, Bowne YMCA Headquarters Library. Though often eschewing racial nationalism, Max was not above using it. This is consistent with the position of many Black leftists.
104. Yergan, “The Historical Struggle of the Negro People,” Official Proceedings of the Second National Negro Congress, Metropolitan Opera House Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, October 15–17, 1937 (Philadelphia: NNC, 1937).
105. Interview, Louise Thompson Patterson, Oakland, California.
106. Yergan, Foreword, Fight the Fifth Column, ed. Martha Millet (1940).
107. Charles V. Hamilton, Adam Clayton Powell: The Political Biography of an American Dilemma (New York: Collier-Macmillan, 1991), 105.
108. Yergan to Mr. Paul Robeson, c/o Clarence Mews [sic], 18 February 1942, Correspondence—Yergan, Max, Robeson Papers, MSRC/HU. Clarence Muse (1889–1979) was a famous African-American actor.
109. Yergan to Robeson, 18 February 1942, Correspondence, S–Z, Robeson Papers, MSRC/HU.
110. Yergan to Robeson, 18 February 1942.
111. Telegram, Yergan to Early, 18 February 1942, President’s Official File, Box 4, Folder OF 93, McIntyre to Yergan with Attachments, 19 February 1942, FDR Presidential Library, Hyde Park, National Archives and Records Administration (NARA).
112. Yergan to Marvin McIntyre, Secretary to the President, 19 February 1942, President’s Official File, box 4, Folder OF 93, FDR Presidential Library, Hyde Park, NARA.
113. President’s Official File (OF), Box 4, Folder OF 93, FDR Presidential Library, Hyde Park, NARA.
114. Letter, McIntyre to Yergan with attachments, 19 February 1942.
115. Telegram, Stephen Early, Secretary to President, to Yergan, 19 February 1942.
116. The significance of the southern background of McIntyre and Early is discussed in Charles W. Eagles, Jonathan Daniels and Race Relations: The Evolution of a Southern Liberal (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1982), 88. “Two of [FDR’s] personal assistants, Stephen Early and Marvin McIntyre, were white Southerners who disliked the efforts of Mrs. Roosevelt and others in the administration to aid Negroes.” Williams seems to have been more pliable, but not where Black left-wingers were concerned.
117. Llewellyn Ransom, “All-Harlem Conference Calls for National Unity,” People’s Voice, 7 March 1942, 24.
118. Telegram, Max Yergan to Richard Wright, 4 March 1942, James W. Johnson Collection, Beinecke Rare Books and MS Library, Yale University.
119. Yergan, Max, Ref: 3RD card, 3-6-42, American Committee to Save Refugees, 100-26011-3, appended to Robert S. Tolle, Captain, U.S. Navy, Director, Naval Investigative Service, to Anthony, 22 May 1985, ref 5262 F85-76 Ser 02-00499. This may also have been spurred or reinforced by the coincidence that Yergan’s namesake, Max Jr., allegedly held a Young Communist League card. Yergan, Jr., Max. ONI-FBI-MIS, B-7-CP, 3-5-43, 100-26011-13. Declassified through FOIA and sent to author.
120. Younger to Ladd, 19 March 1942, Max Yergan File. FOIA declassified and sent to author. John Baxter Streater Jr., “The National Negro Congress, 1936–1947,” Ph.D. dissertation, University of Cincinnati, 1981, 306–7.
121. Hackworth to Welles, 27 May 1942, 800,20211, “Council for Pan American Democracy,” State Department Archives, NARA. For evidence of Hackworth’s specialist credentials see Digest of International Law (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1940–1944).
122. Yergan, Max, Ref: 3RD card. FOIA declassified and sent to author.
123. Daily Worker, 7 November 1942.
124. Edward Strong to Mary McLeod Bethune, 3 January 1943.
125. “South Africa’s Aid in War Described,” New York Times, 26 January 1943, 6:7.
126. Confidential. War Department, Headquarters Second Service Command, Governors Island, New York, 14 April 1943, Subject: Eastern Seaboard Conference on the Problems of the War and the Negro People. Seven days later this was sent by the Director, Intelligence Division, 2nd S.C. to FBI Headquarters, N.Y. (Regraded Unclassified 18 October 1984).
127. Yergan to FDR, 27 April 1943. Official File (OF) Box 5, Folder OF 4245-G, FDR Presidential Library, NARA.
128. Bunche to Yergan, 29 April 1943, Box 180, Bunche Papers, UCLA.
129. “Yer
gan Speaks Here Sunday,” Chicago Defender, 29 April 1943.
130. “A Former Associate of Powell,” “Confidential letter to the Members of the City Council,” La Guardia Papers, Box 3316 #203 1943, Mayor’s Committee on Conditions in Harlem: Race Discrimination—Detroit Investigation, Departmental Correspondence Received and Sent Personal Memos, Folder #1A, New York Municipal Archives and Record Collection.
131. “Harlem Disorders Bring Quick Action by City and Army,” New York Times, 2 August 1943, 1, 16.
132. J. Edgar Hoover to Major General Edwin M. Watson, Secretary to President, Letters, 2 and 4 August 1943, President’s Official File, Box 18, Folder OF 10-B, No 2375, FDR Presidential Library, Hyde Park, NARA.
133. Yergan to Walter F. White, 6 August 1943, NAACP Papers, Library of Congress; “Minutes of Harlem Cultural Committee Meeting,” 10 August 1943, NNC Papers, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.
134. Yergan met the mayor on August 27, September 21, and, with Tobias and another local leader, December 20. Fiorello H. La Guardia Appointment book, MARC. Hoover, however, continued disparaging him. Hoover to Watson, 24 September 1943, President’s Official File, Box 21, Folder OF 10-B, FDR Library, Hyde Park, NARA.
135. Congress Vue 1:10 (March 1944): 6.
136. Yergan to Eleanor Roosevelt, 25 February 1944; Roosevelt to Yergan, 3 March 1944, Eleanor Roosevelt Collection, Box 50, Folder 20.1 (1944–1945), FDR Library, Hyde Park, NARA. E.R. tactically begged off, however.
137. “State Department Hears Yergan on Plans to Help Africa,” Daily Worker, 28 March 1943.
138. Eichelberger Commission to Study the Organization of Peace to Bunche, 5 April 1944; Bunche to Eichelberger, 11 April 1944; Bunche Papers, UCLA.
139. “Welfare of African People Theme of N.Y. Conference,” People’s Voice, 15 April 1944, 7; “Would Help Colonies: International Agency to Rule in Africa Is Proposed,” New York Times, 15 April 1944, 5. Proceedings of the Conference on Africa—New Perspectives: Under Auspices of Council on African Affairs at the Institute of International Democracy— April 14, 1944 (New York: Council on African Affairs, 1944).
140. “The Future of Africa,” New Masses, 18 April 1944.
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