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  Max Yergan

  Max Yergan

  Race Man, Internationalist, Cold Warrior

  David Henry Anthony III

  NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESS

  New York and London

  www.nyupress.org

  © 2006 by New York University

  All rights reserved

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Anthony, David Henry, 1952–

  Max Yergan : race man, internationalist, cold warrior / David Henry

  Anthony III.

  p. cm.

  Includes bibliographical references and index.

  ISBN-13: 978-0-8147-0704-3 (cloth : alk. paper)

  ISBN-10: 0-8147-0704-1 (cloth : alk. paper)

  1. Yergan, Max, 1892–1975. 2. African Americans—Biography.

  3. African American political activists—Biography. 4. African

  American intellectuals—Biography. 5. African Americans—Politics

  and government—20th century. I. Title.

  E185.97.Y47A58 2005

  323'.092—dc22 2005018268

  New York University Press books are printed on acid-free paper,

  and their binding materials are chosen for strength and durability.

  Manufactured in the United States of America

  10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

  Contents

  Preface

  Frequently Used Abbreviations.

  Introduction: In Search of Max Yergan

  1 Beginnings: Boyhood, Baptists, Bangalore

  2 World War One

  3 South Africa, Part I

  4 South Africa, Part II

  5 Progressive Leader, 1936–1948

  6 About Face, 1948–1975

  Epilogue

  Notes

  Bibliography

  Index

  About the Author

  All illustrations appear as a group following p. 218.

  Preface

  This book is the culmination of a journey of three decades. It mirrors the odyssey of its subject and the larger migrations of millions of diasporic peoples, first and foremost those of African descent, or “Africans born in exile,” as Kwame Nkrumah often described them. Because the author shares that designation, this cannot be an impartial undertaking. At its start, Max Yergan’s biography seemed a straightforward story of one person’s engagement with the ideas, fictions, dreams, and realities of his time(s); in its unfolding it has become far more, as it is also what Dr. Du Bois might have argued is in its own way part of the tale of a “race.”

  The very scope of this drama has dictated that it be related from multiple vantage points, on several distinct “screens,” shifting sets and casts of characters at a dizzying pace. Because it is a story of dispersal, it could not easily be retraced by one researcher alone, and so my debts are many. As I suspected at its outset, and subsequently came to know all too well, it was also a saga that could not be written alone. I have been helped by scores of colleagues in large and small ways, during the long life of this complex and singularly challenging project. Many of those helpers are no longer with us, but they remain a vital part of the telling of this tale, and thus deserve mention.

  The idea for this project took shape in conversations with Tom Wing Shick, my “big brother” at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. When we met in 1972, he took me under his wing and helped me explore our mutual interest in Pan-Africanism and allied trends showing the enduring connections between Africa and African-Americans. First as my supervisor when I worked as a project assistant helping him with a path-breaking course on Pan-Africanism, and during and afterward as a mentor, guide, colleague, and friend, he helped prepare me for what lay ahead.

  It is impossible to imagine how this work could have taken shape without the University of Wisconsin–Madison. My adviser, Steven Feierman, deserves special mention in this regard. By asking probing questions and responding to draft upon draft, he played a major role in transforming an inchoate idea into a master’s essay, laying the groundwork for this book. Of equal importance were my M.A. committee members, Jan Vansina and William Allen Brown, each of whom shared more than an academic interest in this project, each having migrated far from home, thus imparting insights from a variety of viewpoints. Their guidance helped me through a particularly challenging period of my life, and their example gave me both the persistence and the technical skill to find and incorporate evidence of almost every kind. Moreover, I deeply appreciate their willingness to support research that flowed from and epitomized the broader subject of the pull that a diaspora can have upon people of African descent.

  There were also those whose teaching deepened my appreciation of South Africa, such a vital part of this story. These included Daniel Kunene, Harold Scheub, Wandile Kuse, and, beyond the classroom, my erstwhile comrades in MACSA, the Madison Area Committee on Southern Africa. The work itself took me literally around the world—from the State Historical Society of Wisconsin and the Memorial Library of the University of Wisconsin to the former YMCA Bowne Historical Library in New York City, where Cheryl Gaines and John Randle helped me immeasurably, literally loaning me the keys to the kingdom on weekends. There I pored over manuscript collections from YMCA personnel posted at the far corners of the globe, from North America to Africa, Asia, and Latin America. At the Y I was also helped by Ruth Hartson, formerly of the International Division, and Leo G. Marsh of the Black and Nonwhite Ys, or BANWYS. After the YMCA files were relocated to the YMCA of the USA Archives in St. Paul, Minnesota, I received aid from Andrea Hinding, David Carmichael, and Dagmar Getz.

  Correspondence between Yergan and ecumenical, humanitarian and philanthropic leaders led me to the Sterling, Beinecke, and Divinity School Libraries at Yale. In this connection I would like to thank Africana bibliographer Moore Crossey and the archival staffs of the Beinecke and Sterling libraries and Martha Lund Smalley and staff at the Divinity School Libraries, Yale University; former Yale graduate students Lewis Warren and Joseph “Kip” Kosek; and Yale anthropology professor Kamari Clarke.

  I also thank the staff of the Schomburg Center for Research into African-American Culture, especially the late Ernest Kaiser. At the Paul Robeson Archives, I was given considerable aid by Roberta Yancey “Bobbi” Dent and by Paul Robeson Jr., who shared personal recollections and granted access to the Robeson papers, as well as granting me permission to use photographs taken by his mother, Eslanda Cardozo Goode Robeson, during her 1936 tour of South Africa on which Paul Junior accompanied her.

  Ms. Mary Yergan Hughes facilitated my access to an unpublished manuscript biography by Ruby Pagano, drawn from correspondence inaccessible to other researchers.

  Patricia Haynes, record manager of Carnegie Corporation of New York, provided me with copies of correspondence concerning Max Yergan. The assistance of Karen L. Jefferson, Elinor Des Verney Sinnette, Esme Bhan, Ida Jones, and other archival assistants and staffers at Howard University’s Manuscripts and Archives Division proved invaluable.

  I also thank the following:

  The late Richard Newman and Randall Burkett, formerly of Harvard and now at
Emory University, who helped me acquire a Du Bois Institute Fellowship.

  Susan McElrath, archivist, Mary McLeod Bethune Museum and Archives; Bernard R. Crystal, Rare Books and Manuscripts, Butler Library, Columbia University; and the Bailey Howe Library, University of Vermont in Burlington, for material on Ned Carter and the Institute of Pacific Relations.

  Wilson N. Flemister, director, Division of Archives and Special Collections, Robert W. Woodruff Library, Atlanta University Center; Amy Hague, assistant curator, Sophia Smith Collection, and Archives, Smith College, for help with the Mary van Kleeck correspondence.

  Erika Tysoe-Dülken of the Communication Department of the Library of the World Alliance of YMCAs in Geneva, Switzerland.

  Matthew Gilmore, reference librarian, Washingtonia Division, D.C. Public Library.

  David Wigdor and staff, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress.

  Ann Allen Shockley and Fritz Malval, archivists, Fisk University, Nashville; Khalil Mahmud, archivist, Lincoln University, Pennsylvania.

  Rockefeller Archive Center, North Tarrytown, New York, for access and a grant-in-aid to consult the RAC archives and the Russell Sage and Carnegie Foundation records.

  The New York City Department of Records and Information Service, Municipal Archives and Research Center, for access to the papers of the late Mayor Fiorello La Guardia.

  Regina Greenwell, archivist, Lyndon Baines Johnson Library, Austin, Texas.

  Marilla B. Guptil, chief, Archival Processing and Preservation Unit, United Nations Organization; Nancy S. MacKechnie, curator, Rare Books and Manuscripts, Vassar College Library, Poughkeepsie.

  Christine Ledger and Manuel Quintero, cosecretaries general, and M. François Burgy, archivist, World Student Christian Federation, World Council of Churches Library, Geneva, Switzerland.

  The staff of the Houghton Library at Harvard University; the staff at the West Virginia State College Archives for material from the collection of President John W. Davis; Nancy Cricco and at New York University Archives.

  In South Africa I owe thanks to Ms. A. C. M. Torlesse and Ms. Susan de Villiers, Cory librarians, Cory Library for Historical Research, Rhodes University Library, Grahamstown; Mrs. Hanna Botha, curator of manuscripts of the Stellenbosch University Library; the staff of the National Library of South Africa; the staff of the library of the University of Cape Town; the late Govan Mbeki; the late Walter Sisulu, Vusi Kaunda, Stan Fish, Christopher Saunders, Pam Allen, and visiting students Cara Moyer and Amber Willat.

  In Tanzania, East Africa, I met a number of South Africans, some freedom fighters, some allies in struggle, who offered me cordial hospitality and shared vital information. These included the late I. B. Tabata, Jane Gool, N. “Chucha” Honono, Essie Bullock Honono, Archie Mafeje, and my own diasporic kinsman, Clyde Daniels-Halisi.

  In Southern Africa itself, I was helped both by mail and later in person by an astounding array of persons during ten months in Lesotho and in shorter but no less meaningful sojourns in South Africa itself in 2000, 2001, and 2002, along with Robert R. Edgar, whose collegial camaraderie deserves special mention. In Lesotho I benefited from the kindness of Howard and Donice Jeter, Joan and Paseka Khabele, May and Bill McClain, Kwesi and Pumza Prah, Tefetso Mothibe, Motlatsi Tabane, David Ambrose of the National University of Lesotho, and the sage recollections of W. M. and Blanche T. Tsotsi, Fanana “Roch” Fobo, and J. M. Mohapeloa. Stephen Gill and the staff of the Morija Museum and Archives, especially T. M. Leanya, helped find and translate documents from Leselinyana.

  Generous and heartfelt assistance also came from the late Herbert L. Aptheker, Keletso Atkins, Villiers G. Bam, Jonathan Beecher, Arnold Beichman, Thomas A. Brady, Michael Brown, David Brundage, Paul Buhle, Carolyn and Edmund “Terry” Burke, Randall K. Burkett, William Cadbury, Alan Christy, Wilmoth D. Carter, Peter Coleman, Marvel Cooke, R. Hunt Davis Jr., Dave Dodson, Martin Bauml Duberman, Kathy Durcan, Penny von Eschen, Susan Rosenfeld Falb, Frederick V. Field, Jack Foner, John Hope Franklin, George S. Frederickson, Glenda Gilmore, John Haley, Charles P. Henry, Robert A. Hill, Adam Hochs-child, William L. Holland, Sylvia Holmes, Dorothy Hunton, Joyce F. Kirk, Harvey Klehr, Phyllis Ntantala-Jordan, Robin D. G. Kelley, Saul Landau, Sid Lemelle, Earl Lewis, Marvin Liebman, Jack Maddex, Nana Mahomo, Pat Manning, Ntongela Masilela, Joe Matthews, Laura McShane, the late August Meier, Ed Mesnick, the late Donald G. S. M’Timkulu, Mark Naison, the late Richard Newman, Richard D. Ralston, Edwin S. Redkey, Don Rothman, Maxine Scates, the late Tom Wing Shick, Carol Smith, the late Louise Thompson Patterson, Adell Patton Jr., Daniel Pope, the late Morris Urman Schappes, Buchanan Sharp, Zoe Sodja, Tyler Stovall, David G. Sweet, the late Mary Ellen Sweet, Cheryl Van de Veer, Jan Vansina, the late James M. Washington and Howard Winant.

  I also owe a special debt of gratitude for the following former University of California–Santa Cruz students: Christine Bering, Ken Brown, Amber Maisha Carter, Anthony D. Crawford, Africa Evangeline Davidson, Chris Duvall, Riyad Koya, Kristal Edwards, Andrew M. Generalao, Melita McNeil, Ryan Monihan, Hawa Macalou, Francisca Olaíz, Hyim Jacob Ross, Phoebe M. Schraer, Alainna Ceton Thomas, and Lightfoot Wilhite.

  I do not know where to begin in thanking the staff of the McHenry Library of the University of California–Santa Cruz, among them Deb Murphy, Margaret Gordon, and Stan Stevens.

  Special thanks go to Bob Edgar, for taking an unusual interest in this project from our first meeting when C. R. Daniels-Halisi introduced us in the mideighties, steadfastly supporting it in ways exemplifying the essence of collegiality. I cannot thank Bob enough.

  I have been assisted in myriad ways by the institutions with which I have been affiliated during the life of this book. These include Coppin State College, the University of Oregon, the Center for African Studies of the University of Florida at Gainesville, the William Edward Burghardt Du Bois Institute of Harvard University, the University of California President’s Fellowship Office, and the Department of History, the Faculty Senate, the Division of Humanities, and the Center for Cultural Studies of the University of California–Santa Cruz.

  Sylvia G. Holmes helped me enormously as well, both from the vantage point of the steno pool of Oakes College and then as provost and CAO assistant during the years I served as provost of Oakes College, writing scores of letters, helping in transcriptions of interviews, making telephone calls, and otherwise making herself indispensable.

  Most importantly, I wish to thank my family, first and foremost Allison Anitra Sampson-Anthony, for reading, reacting to, resisting, discussing, dissecting, divining, and deconstructing drafts and for putting up with a disruptive presence for longer than anyone should have had to. Next, peace and praise to my parents, Carolyn F. Metcalf Anthony and the late David Henry Anthony Jr., and to my late maternal grandmother, Ella Wilma Allen Metcalf, “Chickasaw Freedman,” for sparking and nurturing a thirst for the field of historical reconstruction. I hope that what follows is worthy of what they each taught me. Finally, to Adey, Djibril, and Daoud for being.

  Frequently Used Abbreviations

  AAC

  All African Convention

  ABCFM

  American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions

  AFL

  American Federation of Labor

  AME

  African Methodist Episcopal

  AMEZ

  African Methodist Episcopal Zion

  ANC

  African National Congress

  BANWYS

  Black and Nonwhite YMCAs

  CAA

  Council on African Affairs

  CCF

  Congress on Cultural Freedom

  CCNY

  City College of New York

  CPSA

  South African Communist Party

  ICAA

  International Committee on African Affairs

  ICU

  Industrial and Commercial Workers’ Union

  IIRI

  International Industrial Relations Institute

  IPR />
  Institute of Pacific Relations

  KUTVU

  University of the Toilers of the East Named for Stalin

  NAACP

  National Association for the Advancement of Colored People

  NNC

  National Negro Congress

  SCA

  Student Christian Association

  SCM

  Student Christian Movement

  SNYC

  Southern Negro Youth Congress

  SVM

  Student Volunteer Movement

  WASU

  West African Student Union

  WSCF

  World’s Student Christian Federation

  Introduction

  In Search of Max Yergan

  In the summer of 1916, a 24-year-old African-American man stood on a platform at Storer College in Harper’s Ferry, West Virginia. The airy site held enormous significance for the entire assemblage, especially several Black YMCA secretaries, their White ecumenical and phil-anthropic benefactors, and the youth they were attempting to groom for future service. It was here that John Brown led his raid against the ruling class of slaveowners by laying siege to the federal arsenal in 1859. Fifty-seven years later, the gesture had not lost its luster for the sons of slaves comprising the vast majority of those gathered to pay solemn tribute to Brown, his allies, and the grandson of a bondsman, Max Yergan.

  On the stage with the strikingly handsome young student secretary were a college president and a stage full of veteran YMCA organizers. Black and White, young and old, North and South, cleric and layperson—all were represented on that day. And each of these constituencies sensed something special in the young man with the piercing stare and the eloquent turn of phrase that made a lasting impression. It was one of many times when Max Yergan would accomplish this august feat. A man of words who used them to propel himself and others to faithful, principled action, this intrepid son of the South was now on his way to the far end of the earth. Soon he would become the first Black American to do YMCA work in India. In an era in which Black progress was often measured by pioneering endeavors, this YMCA secretary was about to make history in a time of war in a land held by the most widely ramified empire in the modern world. And all this from modest Raleigh, North Carolina.