Socialism, Red-Baiting, and the Black Freedom Struggle

Few words in American politics are used as loosely, or as strategically, as socialism. In campaign ads it is routinely folded into communism, and both are presented as the enemies of free enterprise. For Black Americans, that blurring has never been an abstract debate. It has been a weapon aimed at people demanding fair wages, decent housing, and equal protection.

Three Words, Three Meanings

In plain terms, communism, as practiced by the Soviet Union and its allies, meant one-party rule and state ownership of nearly all property. Democratic socialism, by contrast, seeks to expand public goods and workers' power through elections, civil liberties, and a mixed economy. Social democracy, familiar in Scandinavia, keeps markets and private business while funding universal health care, education, and strong labor protections. Programs Americans take for granted, such as Social Security, Medicare, public schools, and minimum-wage laws, were once denounced as "socialist." Treating every public investment as a step toward dictatorship erases these distinctions.

When Equality Was Called Subversion

From the 1910s onward, defenders of Jim Crow insisted that Black protest was foreign-inspired. A. Philip Randolph, a socialist who founded the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters in 1925, was branded dangerous for organizing Black workers. During the Cold War, Paul Robeson lost his passport, and Trinidad-born activist Claudia Jones was deported in 1955. The FBI under J. Edgar Hoover surveilled Martin Luther King Jr. in part on the theory that communists steered the movement. Southern segregationists, meanwhile, labeled the NAACP and integration itself as "communist" schemes. The charge rarely depended on evidence. It worked by making ordinary demands for citizenship sound like treason.

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A. Philip Randolph, founder of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters. HistorianSpeaks archive.

Paul Robeson, whose passport was revoked during the Cold War. HistorianSpeaks archive.

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Claudia Jones, deported from the United States in 1955. HistorianSpeaks archive.

King's Larger Critique

By the late 1960s, King spoke openly about economics. He told his staff that the movement must address "a broader distribution of wealth," and he warned against the "giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism, and militarism" in his 1967 Riverside Church address. His Poor People's Campaign demanded jobs, income, and housing for poor Americans of every race. King rejected Soviet communism, yet he also criticized capitalism that ignored human need. His position shows that one can challenge economic injustice without embracing authoritarian rule.

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Martin Luther King Jr. at the podium. HistorianSpeaks archive.

Candidates on the Tightrope

Black candidates have long faced the same smear in new form. Shirley Chisholm's 1972 presidential run, Jesse Jackson's 1984 and 1988 campaigns, and Harold Washington's 1983 victory in Chicago all drew attacks that cast economic fairness as radicalism. Barack Obama was repeatedly called a "socialist" for the Affordable Care Act, a market-based plan built partly on earlier Republican ideas. Today, proposals for Medicaid expansion, student-debt relief, or community investment are often attacked with the same label, while Black progressives and moderate Democrats alike must decide whether to embrace the word, redefine it, or avoid it.

Jesse Jackson, whose 1984 and 1988 presidential campaigns drew "radical" attacks. HistorianSpeaks archive.

Harold Washington, elected Chicago's first Black mayor in 1983. HistorianSpeaks archive.

Why It Matters Now

The misuse of these terms narrows what voters believe is possible. Polls by the Pew Research Center have found that Black Americans hold more favorable views of socialism than the public as a whole, reflecting lived experience with markets that excluded them through redlining, wage discrimination, and denied credit. Yet many Black voters also prize entrepreneurship and ownership. The real question is not capitalism versus communism. It is whether government will ensure that opportunity reaches communities long shut out.

Understanding the difference between these words is a form of civic self-defense. When a label replaces an argument, history suggests we should ask who benefits from the confusion.

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Not the Same Word: Socialism, Red-Baiting, and the Black Freedom Struggle