We respect [the IWW] as one of the
social and political movements
in modern times that draws no color line.
-WEB DuBois for The Crisis ———-
Hellraisers Journal – Saturday June 7, 1919
Fellow Worker Ben Fletcher, Prisoner at Leavenworth, Remembered
From The Crisis of June 1919:
I. W. W.
[by W.E.B. Du Bois]
Fellow Worker Ben Fletcher
AN editorial in the Easter CRISIS (written during the Editor’s absence) has been misunderstood and was, perhaps, itself partially misleading.
Mr. F. H. M. Murray of Washington, D. C., writes us:
In a recent editorial in your magazine the statement is made that there are no Negroes among the Industrial Workers of the World. While I am certain that the statement is erroneous, I am not at this moment able to lay my hands on anything in print to confirm my denial, except the following from an article in last Sunday’s New York Call magazine, by David Karsner, who reported the trial of the big batch of members of the I. W. W- in Chicago last summer and later the trial of the five Socialists at the same place. He is writing about Judge Kenesaw M. Landis, who presided at both trials and who imposed upon the hundred or so I. W. W., who were convicted, and the five Socialists, sentences aggregating over nine hundred years in prison and fines aggregating over two millions of dollars. Mr. Karsner says:
“There was only one defendant among the I. W. W., to my knowledge, who refused to believe in Judge Landis [during the trial]. He was Ben Fletcher, the sole Negro defendant. One day in the corridor I asked Ben what he thought of Judge Landis. Ben smiled broadly, ‘He’s a fakir. Wait until he gets a chance; then he’ll plaster it on thick.’ Ben was a sure-thing prophet, for the Judge plastered him with ten years, and his counsel said with not enough evidence to invite a reprimand.”
So it turns out that not only are there Negroes who are members of this militant workingmen’s organization, but some—or at least one-prominent enough to be regarded as worth putting behind the bars with the leaders-Haywood, Fanning and others.
I think that in the interest of the truth of history and for the honor of the black workers, you should correct the statement to which I refer.
I say “honor,” for even if we regard the I. W. W. as visionaries (John Brown, you know, was a “visionary”) however mistaken are their methods, if their methods are as generally set forth (which I do not believe) the success of the cause for which they are struggling and sacrificing and suffering should be particularly dear to our people, since in no other race or element of our population is there a larger percentage of workers; albeit, too many—what a pity!—are obliged to work in a menial, that is, a parasitic capacity.
THE CRISIS did not say or intend to say that no Negroes belonged to the Industrial Workers of the World, nor did it intend to condemn that organization. On the contrary, we respect it as one of the social and political movements in modern times that draws no color line. We sought to say that we do not believe that the methods of the I. W. W. are today feasible or advisable. And too we believe the Socialist Party wrong in its attitude toward the war, but we raise our hats silently to men like Eugene Debs who let not even the shadow of public shame close their lips when they think themselves right.
We believe that the crushing of the monstrous pretentions of the military caste of Germany was a duty so pressing and tremendous that it called for the efforts of every thoughtful American. But we recognize that some people did not agree with us and these folk we honor for their honesty, even though we question their reasoning.
It is no credit to American Negroes if they had NO “Conscientious Objectors.” It is tremendously to their credit that the vast majority of them thought straight and fought true in a mighty world crisis.
A biography of black IWW member and organiser Ben Fletcher, written by Jeff Stein. Originally appeared in the Libertarian Labor Review (Summer 1987) Scanned by Juan Conatz. Materials courtesy of Twin Cities IWW archives.
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Hold the Fort for We Are Coming; Union Men Be Strong
