Ethiopia Pacific Movement:
Black Separatists, Seditionists, & How “White Supremacists” Stymied Back-to-Africa
Part I
 

Mittie Maude Lena “M. M. L.” Gordon.

5,215 words

During the tumult of the 1930s, there emerged a mass movement among American Negroes to separate from the USA and reestablish their roots in Africa. In contrast to the NAACP and the National Urban League, the Peace Movement of Ethiopia, aka Ethiopia Pacific Movement (EPM), did not receive sponsorship from Jacob Schiff, Lehman, Rockefeller, Carnegie, et al, but subsisted on nickels and dimes from its supporters. While we know more about the abortive sedition trials of “America First” advocates, not so much is realized on the trials of EPM and other black separatists.

In genuine white advocates such as Senator Theodore Bilbo and Colonel Ernest S. Cox, EPM and the Afro-American folk had no greater, more courageous, generous, and persistent friends. Anyone with a genuine understanding of the “Right” should not find this surprising, nor assume that it was pure opportunism without goodwill. The Right, being premised on a perception that there are traditions of a relatively persistent type that can be found in healthy societies across time, place, and even race, is intrinsically aligned with traditionalists whether in Europe, Africa, Asia, Russia, or the Americas. The obvious apparently needs reiterating amidst the torrent of falsehoods perpetuated by media and academia: it is the liberalism and capitalism of the Late West that seek universal standardization, dialectically, but cynically, proclaimed in the name of “difference.”

Ethiopia Pacific Movement

The Ethiopia Pacific Movement was founded on December 7, 1932, at a meeting comprising 12 black Chicagoans. The strength of the movement remained in Chicago, where 20,000 members were recruited. [1] [1]

The moving spirit was Mittie Maud Lena Gordon, born in Louisiana on August 2, 1889, who grew up in Arkansas with nine other siblings. Mittie’s father, Edward Nelson, was a minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Church. Nelson home-schooled his children, dismayed at the poor educational opportunities in Arkansas and elsewhere. He followed the Black Nationalist ideas of his Church’s bishop, Henry McNeal Turner (1834-1915), who advocated the return of black slaves and their descendants to Africa. [2] [2] As a nine-year-old, Mittie witnessed a lynch mob, which left a lasting impact, reinforced by what she saw of the black predicament as she widely traveled to churches with her father. [3] [3]

Turner was the organizer of one of the first regiments of colored troops (B Company) during the Civil War, for which he was Chaplain, and was elected to the Georgia state legislature in 1868. During the late 19th century he began to espouse Black Nationalism and emigration to Africa, and founded the International Migration Society. He organized two ships each of about 500 migrants to Liberia in 1895 and 1896. [4] [4]

As a widowed mother of two, Mittie relocated to Illinois in 1913. In 1917, an East St. Louis race riot erupted in response to the “Great Migration” of blacks from the South and the impact on white labor. Her ten-year-old son John was injured during the riots and died shortly after. Mittie moved to Chicago, as did many other blacks. This was at the time of the campaign by Marcus Garvey, the “Black Moses.” Here she married her second husband, William Gordon, also from the South. [5] [5] Having joined other black groups claiming to redeem her race, in 1923, Mr. and Mrs. Gordon joined Garvey’s Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA), stating later that “Garvey gave us light on Africa and taught us nationhood.” [6] [6] She was appointed lady president of a Chicago division of the UNIA.

Having been railroaded into jail in 1923 for fraud, for selling bonds to raise capital for ships that would convey blacks to Africa, Garvey was deported to his native Jamaica in 1927. Here he called a convention of UNIA. Mittie Gordon went to Kingston in 1929, staying there for about two months. It was dissatisfaction with attempts at Jamaica to diminish Garvey’s influence that resulted in Mittie helping to form a new movement. EPM was founded at the Gordons’ restaurant, where she and her husband met with 10 other black Chicagoans. She was elected President-General in 1933.

It was at a meeting of the Pacific Movement of the Eastern World (PMEW) that she started to circulate a petition for the emigration of Negroes to Africa. She came into conflict with PMEW leadership. [7] [7] The supposed identity between PME and the avowedly pro-Japanese PMEW caused significant problems for Mittie after Pearl Habor, as media and the state attempted to conflate the two.

The Constitution of the EPM announced:

The Peace Movement of Ethiopia is a friendly, social, charitable, expansive society. And the members pledge their loyal support to sustain this righteous efforts. Our motto is: “One God, One Country, One People.” Our aim is to return to our motherland, to our true name, to our language, and to our true religion. Therefore let Africa be free for the Africans, those at home and those aboard. We believe in the National-Hood of all Races, and the right of all national movements. We believe in the five (5) principles, Truth, Love, Unity, Peace, and Justice to all men, and the emigrating of a slave people to their own support. Being wholly devoted unto my God, my race, and my country, AFRICA. [8] [8]

“The objective of the Peace Movement of Ethiopia is to establish and proclaim confraternity, peace and unity among all people of African descent.” [9] [9] A list of principles follows:

To respect the legal rights of all races and governments.
To retain our national rights as other races the world over.
To work for the redemption of our native land Africa.
To elect our own leaders.
We do not oppose any form of true worship.
We believe in an independent nation in Africa for Blacks.
We believe in the slogan AFRICA FOR THE AFRICANS at home and abroad.
We freely coincide with the Nationalistic principles laid down by the Hon. Marcus Garvey.
We do not oppose any Nationalist Movement that stands for the betterment of its people.
We believe in the GOD of our fore-fathers, the history, language and Islam Religion.
We also accept the name ETHIOPIANS.
We believe in the independence of all races and where there are two (2) races in a country, both seeking rulership in said government, that the majority race should see that the minority race be dealt with fairly and with consideration. [10] [10]

“Ethiopia” referred to all those of African descent, from Pslam 68:31: “Princes shall come out of Egypt, and Ethiopia shall soon stretch forth her hands unto God.” The redemption of Africa as part of God’s divine plan was expressed at the induction ceremony of members. [11] [11]

Order was kept at the weekly meetings by the Protective Corps. Military training began in 1942, under the Liberian flag. It seems that the intention was for EPM settlers to provide a military contribution to their new homeland.

FBI investigations 

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Mrs. Gordon had been arrested in 1941 for counseling Negro registrants to evade the Selective Service Act. She had shortly before (July 30) appeared before a Local Chicago Draft Board, where she stated that she was advising EPM members not to complete questionnaires and to register as conscientious objectors. She appeared before the United States Commission for Chicago on August 2. Gordon stated she would desist, and the Motion of the Attorney General was consequently dismissed. An FBI report in October 1942 stated that Mrs. Gordon had, however, continued to make “seditious” statements. There are allusions to “Japanese” or “Filipinos” attending EPM meetings in Chicago.

In mid-1942, the state began to investigate the EPM, and worried about “active propagandizing for Nazism going on among Negroes.” A report was sent by “a confidential informant of the Bureau,” [12] [13] described as a “reliable source,” to the FBI on an EPM meeting of around 320 in Chicago on Sunday, May 31, 1942. Speakers were D. J. Logan and Mr. and Mrs. Gordon. Logan stated that Germany (“Nazism”) was not getting a fair share of land, economic goods, and “racial rights.” Mr. Gordon stated that Hitler did not hate Negroes, but pitied them. The report alleges that Mittie said Negroes would obtain land in Africa, where they would become a military force capable of “fighting all white people.” [13] [14]

Mrs. Gordon praised Marcus Garvey, the report referring to him as a “demagogic Negro who right after the last World War engaged in more race-baiting and prejudice arousing than any other Negro in recorded times.” The author of the report states that the focus was on the defense of Hitler rather than of Japan, which was regarded as unusual, given that there was said to be pro-Japanese agitation among the Negroes as fellow coloreds. The writer stated that for Negroes this “ignorant and backward” to support the Nazis they must be getting paid German money. FBI director J. Edgar Hoover commented at the end of the report that it is important the Bureau keep surveillance on the EPM.

The report of a June 7 meeting records that Mrs. Gordon described the movement as “Muslim,” and that “Christianity is a white man’s religion.” When she allegedly praised the Japanese invasion of the Aleutian Islands, she stated that despite what “stool pigeons” will claim, she is not “for Japan” but “for Africa.” [14] [15] There are later allegations by an “informant” that Mrs. Gordon referred to India joining Japan in the war, which was greeted with “thunderous applause,” and that “Seattle had just been bombed,” also greeted enthusiastically. [15] [16]

Supposedly at another meeting, the date of which has been blanked out, two well-dressed Orientals, who “looked like Japanese,” were present. After Mrs. Gordon was arrested for sedition in September, the FBI investigated her claims that India had joined with Japan, and that Seattle had been bombed. The FBI found that the infamous muckraker Walter Winchell had broadcast that Gandhi had joined with Japan, because his passive resistance movement against Britain was, to Winchell, tantamount to supporting the Axis. On the second point, Mrs. Gordon had misinterpreted a foreign news report on Vancouver Island being shelled by a submarine, and consequent blackouts from Alaska to California. [16] [17]

The report of an EPM meeting held on June 14 described Mittie as a “forceful speaker and a rabble-rouser,” given to “cursing a great deal.” She stated that she did not trust Negro preachers, lawyers, or politicians. She referred to being questioned by a grand jury on the origin of her funding, and her refusal to answer. She referred to the Japanese “attack on Alaska” (the seizure of several of the Aleutian Islands in June 1942). It is alleged that she said Japan would invade the USA and that the blacks would support the occupation. Despite the anti-white rhetoric, the “informant” regarded as a “contradiction” her praise for a “white man’ in the Senate. Mrs. Gordon had stated at the meeting that “we will have to stop fighting; some of the white men who are for us.” She referred to having several years previously gone to Congress to gain support for a black state in the South, and for the settlement of blacks in Liberia. She stated that although there was a black in Congress (Mitchell), it was a “white man, mind you,” who introduced a repatriation bill to Congress. [17] [18] This was Senator Theodore Bilbo.

Bilbo had written to Mrs. Gordon expressing his sorrow that she had been called before a grand jury, and urged her to continue with her Back-to-Africa petition, which he would reintroduce to Congress after the war. [18] [19]

At a meeting of about 300 on June 28, Mrs. Gordon allegedly stated that God would not let the Allies win the war, and referred “gleefully” to the U-Boat war against Allied shipping. [19] [20] An informant at a meeting held on August 2 stated he could not recall “specific remarks,” but that Mrs. Gordon had made “anti-Semitic statements, blaming Jews for the plight of the blacks, with particular reference to housing conditions.” She stated that “No Negro owes allegiance to any flag but the Liberian flag.” [20] [21]

A “Confidential Informant,” available as a prosecution witness, stated of a meeting held on August 9, that a speaker named Robinson urged Negroes to become “a close-knit nationalistic group.” The same informant attended a meeting the date of which is blanked out. Here, Mr. Gordon claimed that his wife had been visited by a government agent six times at their home, offering $2,000,000 if she would stop advocating the return of blacks to Africa. [21] [22] At a meeting held on August 23, “Mr. Branch” expressed particularly extreme opinions about whites, including patronizing white well-wishers, and stated that EPM did not want any connection between blacks and whites. Others disparaged American education as “poisoning the kids” and that education should wait until they resettle in Liberia. One speaker said that “I would kill my children before I let them go to a white man’s school.” [22] [23] At a meeting on August 30, Mrs. Gordon allegedly said that no matter what violence it takes, Negroes must go to Liberia. She was scathing of “educated” “N-I-G-G-E-R-S” (sic); particularly teachers and preachers. [23] [24]

William Gordon, though not a movement official, was an honored member who sat on the platform with officers. He stated that “we want the white people to stay white and the black people to stay black and to live apart in separate parts of the world.” He stated that many members of EPM were also members of the Garvey association, while black Muslims attended EPM meetings, recognizable by their red fez. He regarded the latter as too pro-Hitler in their statements, while asserting that EPM followed its own black Islam. He disparaged relationships that he saw taking place between black and white adolescents, and stated that the EPM believed lighter-complexioned Negroes should marry the blackest to maintain the black lineage. [24] [25]

Tried for Sedition

Such reports formed the basis for the charging of 85 blacks [25] [26] for “conspiracy to commit sedition.” A report states that investigations would continue, informants would be developed, made a reference to Japanese “circulating money freely” among the Negroes, and concluded to “present the facts in instant case to the United States Attorney for his opinion relative to prosecution of the above-named subjects.” [26] [27]

In August 1942, the FBI began investigating William and Mittie Gordon’s mail, divisional offices of the FBI were instructed to investigate those who corresponded with the Gordons, and information was forwarded to US Assistant Attorney William Connor who was considering whether prosecution of EPM officers should proceed. [27] [28]

Mittie and William Gordon, Seon Jones, and David J. Logan were arrested for “conspiracy to commit sedition.” Others arrested in Chicago on September 20 included members of the Brotherhood of Liberty for the Black People of America, Allah Temple of Islam, Colored American National Organization, and Century Service Exchange. In New York City, the so-called “Harlem Fuhrer” Robert Jordan (sentenced to ten years), an Irishman, Joseph Hartrey (six years), and three others from the Ethiopian Pacific Movement (confusingly a different organization to that of the PME) were arrested. In October, Rev. Broadster of the International Reassemble of the Church of Freedom League was arrested in New Orleans. In East St. Louis, two members of the PMEW were arrested. In Newark, seven members of the House of Israel were arrested for draft evasion, as were members of the Moorish Science Temple in Kansas City. [28] [29]

The media called them “a pro-Jap group of would-be fifth columnists.” A newspaper report commented that Mrs. Gordon had encouraged draft resistance among Negroes on the basis that they were citizens of Liberia, not the USA. [29] [30] A Time report stated that

All told, FBI rounded up 84 Negroes in Chicago, four in Manhattan, with more to come in other northern and midwestern cities — cultist-puppets who, FBI believes, are jerked by the Japs to stir up racial trouble. Last week FBI began arraigning them on charges of sedition, pro-Japanese activities, and draft dodging.

Startling claims poured from the jailed leaders. Mme. Mittie Maud said she had four million followers, all taught that they are citizens of Liberia, hence not subject to Selective Service. Elijah Muck-Muhd’s faithful knew themselves for Moslems, excused from the draft by direction of Allah in the person of his prophet, Muck-Muhd. Hammurabi’s disciples learned they were members of a Jap army within the U.S., that Negro hopes of betterment depended upon Jap victory. All of them, according to an FBI spokesman, had lavish and expensive costumes, plenty of money. The twoscore black Jap puppets had been set up in a dozen cities by members of Japan’s fanatical Black Dragon Society. Actually they had at most 50,000 followers at the time of Pearl Harbor, many less today. The ramified Japanese financing since 1930 had been mainly handled by a Major Satakata Takahashi of Imperial Japanese Intelligence, who began spreading cash and the two-race doctrine: one white, the other black, brown, yellow, red. At first a handful of U.S. blacks may have dreamed their yellow brothers would make them masters of U.S. whites. Later, FBI believes, racketeering took control. [30] [31]

Taking the Time article as typical of the way such “seditionists” were reported, Mrs. Gordon was obviously justified in her objections that the PME was being conflated with sundry others with which she had no connection. The allegation that the PME was flush with Japanese or any other money was nonsense, as is the reference to “lavish and expensive costumes.” The latter might refer to the costumes of the Moorish Science Temple and others, who affected an Afro-Masonry.

An FBI memorandum refers to the arrests of members of the Colored American National Organisation (aka Washington Park Forum), Allah Temple of Islam, and the EPM. 33 members of the Temple of Islam were taken into custody on 20 and 21 August. [31] [32]

In March of that year, Robert C. Jordan and Lester Holmes had been convicted under the Alien Registration Act of working for Japan. Jordan was described by media as a self-styled “Black Mikado.” While black Islam was the predominant religion of Jordan’s Ethiopian Pacific organization, Jordan adhered to Buddhism, and although the he was leader of the “Black Followers of Islam Plan,” he stated that the Buddhists of the East will fight to end white control, with support from Negroes. [32] [33]

Mrs. Gordon, in her unsigned statement to the FBI, reiterated that the first loyalty of her followers is to Liberia, but she denied ever hearing or making the more extreme statements accorded to her or others by FBI informants. She stated that the aims of securing emigration to Liberia and better conditions for those blacks who stay in the USA were peaceable. She did not see why blacks should fight the Axis unless a settlement with the US government could be negotiated. She stated that blacks and whites cannot coexist in freedom in the same country, and opposed “amalgamation” of the races just as whites believed in “a pure white race and no amalgamation.”

The FBI Chicago office appended a note to her statement that she had been “very violently outspoken” in regard to how blacks are treated — during questioning, she was “very antagonistic” and “very loudly spoken.” She alluded to the serious injury suffered by her son during the race riot at East St. Louis, and her experiences in the South as a child. An FBI agent condescendingly suggested that things might be better for the blacks, and a better plan might eventuate than emigrating to Liberia or Ethiopia if Negroes fought for an Allied victory. Mrs. Gordon retorted that if assurances cannot be given now they will not be given after the war. It was noted at this stage of the questioning that she was “calm and unruffled.”

Seon Jones, a carpenter born in Barbados in 1892 and naturalized as a US citizen shortly before his arrest, was the president of the Chicago Local No. 1 branch, the membership of which was several thousand. Jones insisted that he had never heard Mittie or any other EPM speaker make pro-Japanese statements. He stated that the EPM had no official position in regard to the Selective Service Act. He had registered in April that year, having served as a carpenter during the last war with a West Indian regiment.

David Logan, the EPM’s Chaplain, had joined in 1933. He had been a member of the Garvey movement since 1919, in which he was a colonel of the military division. He stated that those who signed the Back-to-Africa petition are regarded as “members”; hence, EPM was said to have several million. However, it would be incorrect to assume EPM was mostly a “paper” organization: chapters existed in 47 or 48 states, and chapter meetings were generally attended by 200 to 400. Dues were not solicited, and there were no paid officers. Money came through small donations and the selling of the EPM Constitution for 25 cents. (It might be added that when several disaffected members attempted to litigate against Mittie for misappropriation of funds, the court found financial records to be meticulously maintained, and recommended she be recompensed court costs by the litigants). Funds were maintained at the local chapter level.

Logan stated that blacks cannot be considered “free” so long they rely on the white man’s government, culture, and money. He denied making pro-Japanese statements during speeches. Logan’s comments to the FBI accord with those of Jones in insisting that the focus at meetings was on the question of an African homeland, not draft evasion. Logan did say that for blacks, Japanese rule would be no worse than white. Draft evasion was apparently advocated by the Washington Park Forum, who were associated not with EPM but, as Logan stated, with the Communists.

Indicted

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On October 23, Mittie was indicted on eight counts of sedition. The other EPM members were charged with “conspiring to commit sedition.” Among the evidence filed against Mittie were letters she had sent to President Franklin Roosevelt, Senator Bilbo, and the late Illinois Senator James Hamilton Lewis. It seems that the crime she had committed was to express the hope that after the war an international conference would include black “nationalist” delegates to discuss the return of blacks to Africa. [33] [35]

In early 1942, Mittie had written to Senator Bilbo: “We hope the war soon will be over. Then let us meet around a conference table with black men at the table to establish the peace of the world. Without this, there shall be no peace.” [34] [36]

Mrs. Gordon’s “sedition” is more apparent in the letter she wrote to President Roosevelt in 1941, drawing on a Supreme Court ruling in 1820 that those of African descent could not be American citizens. She contended that what was true then remains so, and that since one must be a citizen to be drafted, the questionnaires for draftees are not relevant to blacks. She stated that nothing was to be gained by blacks fighting the white man’s wars and referred to the “abhorrence” felt by blacks being reduced to government relief and food vouchers. She also referred to the Repatriation Bill that had been introduced to the Senate by Bilbo, supported by a petition of 400,000, arguing that since the war had retarded its passage, blacks should be exempted from the draft. [35] [37]

One of the more incriminating statements is her advice to a correspondent that s/he watch developments in the Pacific war, which will bring an end to the old order. [36] [38]  However, a week after Pearl Harbor, Gordon advised a correspondent that the focus should not be on what “side” the blacks are choosing other than to choose the side of “Africans at home and Africans abroad.” [37] [39]

These and other letters that the FBI secured as evidence of sedition are notable for the knowledge displayed by Mrs. Gordon, in contrast to the image of the uncouth Negro that FBI informants claimed comprised the PME. To an unknown correspondent who was held in high regard, and who seems to have faced an unspecified trial, Mrs. Gordon referred to the false information about the movement that was being conveyed to whites. She referred to the purpose of the movement in securing the Repatriation Bill, “without any disrespect for the white race.” “To those of our race who prefer to live in slavery, we have no quarrel. We are only seeking the self-respecting, race-conscious nationalists.” [38] [40]

A 1942 letter refers to replies that she had received from Senator Bilbo and Lt. Colonel Ernest S. Cox. [39] [41] Cox will be familiar to many readers as the author of the book White America. A well-known white separatist, Cox was described by the FBI as an “unofficial representative” of the PME and “other negro colonization movements.” He was unaware of any Japanese connections with the PME. Cox stated that he had been in communication with Mrs. Gordon since the start of the PME. He thought it possible that “amalgamationists” had sought to frame Mrs. Gordon, as they had framed Garvey. [40] [42]

Recipients of Gordon’s letters were to be “thoroughly interviewed” on their attitude towards the war, and attempts were made to secure original copies of the letters. [41] [43] A letter sent to Cox by Gordon after the arrests assured Cox that there never had been any association with the Japanese, and that it was the Oriental leader of the Peace Movement of the Eastern World attempting to organize among the blacks who had been associated with Japanese. He had been vigorously rebuffed by Gordon when he tried to subvert the PME.

The purpose of the PMEW had been to resettle blacks to Manchuria, to which Gordon objected, as she did her race being led by an Oriental. She had, however, helped with forming the PMEW in 1931, where she started promoting her petition. [42] [44]

PMEW was started at the instigation of the Black Dragon Society and led by Ashima Takis, a Filipino masquerading as Japanese and as a faith healer among the blacks. Ashima started lecturing at UNIA meetings in 1931, drawing from W. E. B. DuBois and Garvey in claiming an identity between the peoples of Asia and Africa.

Takis promised the blacks good wages and the opportunity to marry Japanese if they migrated to Japan, or what seems rather to have been Manchuria. He was eventually arrested for embezzling from the PMEW. Despite his bodily expulsion, he continued to misrepresent himself as a leader of the movement. However, for the state’s case, it was important to establish a connection between the PME and the PMEW. [43] [45]

The FBI evidence for sedition seems to have been meager. Interviewing Tommie Thomas, a leading activist in Arkansas, the FBI reported that Thomas had never received instructions on draft evasion, and had only ever known the PME to be a lobby for the resettlement of blacks to Africa. He had registered with his local draft board, [44] [46] as had others interviewed by the FBI.

Sam Hawthorne stated to the FBI that he had never heard Mrs. Gordon speak of Japan as a friend of the colored people. Mittie said that there would be a war, but blacks would not have to register; the implication being that she was optimistic about a recognition by the government on the non-citizen position of blacks. [45] [47] George G. Green, head of the Local 9 chapter, Mississippi, stated that Mrs. Gordon had written to him that PME members would be exempt from the draft, but she had not commented on evasion. [46] [48] What Mrs. Gordon did advise is that each member register as conscientious objectors if they felt they would be drafted. She had also stated to Bonner that the movement would continue lobbying until instructed by the government to desist. He alluded to communications with Mrs. Gordon referring to problems from false information sent by “oppositionists” to “white people.” [47] [49] The most incriminating of Mittie’s statements seems to have been her references to the rise of the East, war in the Pacific, and white people committing race-suicide, which would place the black man in a position to demand repatriation and self-government afterward; but she also regretted that the war had stopped the progress of the Repatriation Bill through Congress.

Just how enthusiastic for the draft were blacks expected to be? After World War I, the four black regular army units had been reduced in accordance with general policy. In 1939, there were only 3,640 black regular soldiers and 5 officers, three of whom were chaplains. In the Navy, black service had been limited to galley duties. Blacks were totally excluded from the Army Air Corps, Coast Guard, and Marines. Blacks began demanding greater participation via the Committee for Participation of Negroes in National Defense, [48] [50] along with Uncle Tom outfits such as the NAACP and Urban League.

If the PME, black Muslims, and others saw matters differently, that is hardly surprising. It was during the 1940s that the government started reversing policy, and then there was an outcry from media and other good citizens that a large number of blacks were not going to be spontaneously joyous about fighting another white man’s war. Those blacks who joined up found the experience less than edifying (as in Vietnam) and conflict was the result, while state propaganda attempted to portray a ridiculous image of the happy black serviceman. [49] [51] Gunnar Myrdal — in his study of US race relations, the Carnegie-funded American Dilemma — quoted a wide-spread epitaph for black soldiers: “Here lies a black man killed fighting a yellow man for the protection of a white man.” [50] [52]

Nonetheless, very few blacks evaded the draft as conscientious objectors. [51] [53]

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Notes

[1] [56] Keisha N. Blain, Set the World on Fire: Black Nationalist Women and the Global Struggle for Freedom (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2018), p. 56.

[2] [57] Blain, 49.

[3] [58] Blain, 50.

[4] [59] Ernest S Cox, Lincoln’s Negro Policy (1938), p. 32.

[5] [60] Blain, 51.

[6] [61] Quoted by Blain, p. 52.

[7] [62] Statement of M. M. L. Gordon to FBI, September 20, 1942.

[8] [63] Constitution of the Peace Movement of Ethiopia (Johnson Press, 1941).

[9] [64] Ibid.

[10] [65] Ibid.

[11] [66] Blain, 63.

[12] [67] FBI Chicago Office, Internal Security. “Foreign inspired agitation Among the Negroes,” July 3, 1942.

[13] [68] FBI report, “Peace Movement of Ethiopia,” June 4, 1942.

[14] [69] FBI report, Internal Security. “EPM,” June 10, 1942, p. 4.

[15] [70] Ibid.

[16] [71] FBI report, New York, September 25, 1942.

[17] [72] FBI report, June 19, 1942.

[18] [73] FBI report, July 22, 1942.

[19] [74] FBI report, June 10, 1942, EPM. Internal Security, p. 4.

[20] [75] FBI report, “The Peace Movement of Ethiopia,” September 16, 1942, p. 2.

[21] [76] Ibid., 3.

[22] [77] Ibid., 4.

[23] [78] Ibid., 5.

[24] [79] Statement of William Gordon to FBI, September 20, 1942.

[25] [80] Ernest Allen Jr., “Satokata Takahashi and the Flowering of Black Messianic Nationalism,” The Black Scholar, 24, no. 1.

[26] [81] FBI Report, June 10, p. 9.

[27] [82] FBI Chicago Office, Internal Security. “Sedition,” September 16, 1942, pp. 14-17.

[28] [83] Ernest Allen, op. cit.

[29] [84] “80 Arrested in Chicago in Sedition Plot,” New York Daily Mirror, September 22, 1942.

[30] [85] “U.S. At War: Takcihashi’s Blacks Monday,” Time, October 5, 1942.

[31] [86] Memorandum for the Director, FBI Washington, September 23, 1942.

[32] [87] Pittsburgh-Sun Telegraph, March 7, 1942, cited in FBI report, June 19, 1942.

[33] [88] FBI Chicago Office to Hoover, October 29, 1942. Originals of the letters were sought as evidence.

[34] [89] M. M. L. Gordon to Bilbo, January 27, 1942.

[35] [90] Gordon to Roosevelt, May 8, 1941.

[36] [91] Gordon, letter, January 21, 1941.

[37] [92] Gordon, letter, December 13, 1941.

[38] [93] Gordon, letter, April 19, 1942.

[39] [94] Gordon, letter, August 28, 1942.

[40] [95] Cox’s statement to FBI, November 3, 1942. File #100-5561.

[41] [96] A. H. Johnson, Special Agent in Charge, to Hoover, October 29, 1942, Chicago. File # 100-8932.

[42] [97] M. M. L. Gordon to Cox, October 1, 1942.

[43] [98] A. H. Johnson to Hoover, October 31, 1942.

[44] [99] FBI Little Rock Office, March 11, 1942. File #100-1377.

[45] [100] Hawthorne’s statement to FBI, November 5, 1942, File # 100-1130.

[46] [101] Gordon to FBI, #JAX 100-1130.

[47] [102] Thomas H. Bonner’s statement to FBI, November 18, 1942; Birmingham. File #100-2480. Bonner was the organizer of chapter local 10 and 11 in Mississippi.

[48] [103] Neil A Wynn, The Afro-American and the Second World War [104] (Ph.D. thesis, The Open University, New York, 1973), p. 66.

[49] [105] Wynn, 73.

[50] [106] Cited by Wynn, 47.

[51] [107] Wynn, 48.