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| African Blood Brotherhood | |
|---|---|
| Name | African Blood Brotherhood |
| Founded | 1919 |
| Dissolved | 1920s (reorganized 1925) |
| Headquarters | New York City |
| Leader title | Founders |
| Leader name | Cyril V. Briggs; Hubert Harrison; George S. Schuyler |
| Ideology | Black liberation; socialism; anti-imperialism; Pan-Africanism; Marxism |
African Blood Brotherhood was a radical Black liberation organization active primarily in the United States during the early 20th century that advocated armed self-defense, anti-colonialism, and socialist transformation. It emerged in the wake of World War I and the Red Summer of 1919, positioning itself at the intersection of Pan-Africanism, Marxism, and Marcus Garvey-era nationalism. The Brotherhood engaged in political education, self-defense, publishing, and alliance-building with international communist and anti-imperialist movements.
Founded in New York City in 1919, the Brotherhood arose from networks that included veterans of the First World War, activists from the Harlem Renaissance, and migrants from the Caribbean and Africa. Founders and early leaders included Cyril V. Briggs, Hubert Harrison, and George S. Schuyler, who drew on experiences linked to the Chicago Race Riot, the Elaine Massacre, and the broader context of the Red Summer. Influences included the ideas circulating around Marcus Garvey, W. E. B. Du Bois, A. Philip Randolph, Garveyism, and the international currents represented by the Russian Revolution and the Comintern.
The Brotherhood combined elements of Pan-Africanism, socialism, and militant self-defense, advocating both immediate protection for Black communities and long-term systemic change. Its program referenced anti-imperialist struggles in Haiti, Liberia, Greece (Greece), and India while engaging with debates among figures such as Vladimir Lenin, Rosa Luxemburg, Pan-African Congress, and Marcus Garvey. The organization critiqued the electoral strategies of leaders like Booker T. Washington and the integrationist approaches associated with NAACP, favoring mass mobilization similar to movements led by labor organizers and radical publications such as The Crisis and leftist newspapers that included the readership of The Messenger.
Membership drew from a diverse pool including Caribbean migrants, African Americans from urban centers such as Harlem, activists linked to the Universal Negro Improvement Association, veterans of the First World War, and intellectuals associated with the Harlem Renaissance such as Claude McKay and Langston Hughes. Organizational structure was relatively small and clandestine, with local cells modeled on the revolutionary cells of the Communist Party USA and influenced by organizing tactics consistent with the Industrial Workers of the World. Leadership figures like Cyril Briggs also maintained connections to editors and journalists at publications comparable to The Outlook, The Messenger, and other leftist organs. The Brotherhood also interacted with student activists from institutions such as Howard University and Tuskegee Institute.
The Brotherhood organized self-defense patrols during the Red Summer riots, published a newspaper that criticized police violence and lynching, and campaigned against deportations connected to events like the Palmer Raids. It agitated for labor rights alongside unions associated with figures such as A. Philip Randolph and supported strikes and boycotts that intersected with the initiatives of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers and other industrial unions. The group promoted international solidarity with anti-colonial campaigns in British West Indies, protests related to the Paris Peace Conference (1919), and efforts to contest colonial rule in West Africa and the Caribbean. Its publication output and pamphleteering echoed the polemical styles of contemporary journals including The Masses and New Masses.
The Brotherhood maintained a complex relationship with both the Black nationalist currents represented by Marcus Garvey and the international communist movement associated with the Comintern and the nascent Communist Party USA. Tensions emerged with the Universal Negro Improvement Association over strategy, rhetoric, and leadership, while alignment with socialist and communist actors created both opportunities for support and sources of controversy, especially in interactions with mainstream civil rights organizations such as NAACP and labor federations like the American Federation of Labor. The Brotherhood's critiques of reformist approaches placed it in ideological dialogue with radical thinkers like Hubert Harrison and critics such as Alain Locke.
By the mid-1920s the Brotherhood had declined as a distinct organization, with many members absorbed into the Communist Party, labor movements, or continuing in Garveyist circles; prominent remnants included ongoing publishing efforts and local defense committees. Its legacy influenced subsequent Black radicalism, Pan-African organizing, the development of self-defense traditions echoed by organizations such as the Black Panther Party, and scholarship by historians studying the Harlem Renaissance, civil rights, and African diaspora activism. Key archival traces appear in papers related to Cyril Briggs, Hubert Harrison, and civil liberties litigation files from defenses against lynching and deportation campaigns. Category:African-American history