We Charge Genocide is a petition charging the United States government with genocide based on the UN Genocide Convention. This paper was written by the Civil Rights Congress (CRC) and presented by William L. Patterson to the United Nations at meetings in Paris in December 1951.
The document pointed out that the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide defined genocide as any acts committed with "intent to destroy" a group, "in whole or in part". To build its case for black genocide, the document cited many instances of lynching in the United States, as well as legal discrimination, disenfranchisement of blacks in the South, a series of incidents of police brutality dating to the present, and systematic inequalities in health and quality of life. The central argument: The U.S. government is both complicit in and responsible for a genocidal situation based on the UN's own definition of genocide.
The document received international media attention and became caught up in Cold War politics, as the CRC was supported by the American Communist Party. Its many examples of shocking conditions for African Americans shaped beliefs about the United States in countries across the world. The United States government and press accused the CRC of exaggerating racial inequality in order to advance the cause of communism. The U.S. State Department forced CRC secretary William L. Patterson to surrender his passport after he presented the petition to a UN meeting in Paris.
Background Soon after the United Nations was created in 1945, it began to receive requests for assistance from peoples across the world. These came from the indigenous peoples of European colonies in Africa and Asia, but also from African Americans. The first group to petition the UN regarding African Americans was the National Negro Congress (NNC), which in 1946 delivered a statement on racial discrimination to the Secretary General. The next appeal, from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1947, was more than 100 pages in length. W. E. B. Du Bois presented it to the UN on 23 October 1947, over the objections of Eleanor Roosevelt, the widow of the late president and an American delegate to the UN. Du Bois, frustrated with the State Department's opposition to the petitions, criticized president Walter White of the NAACP for accepting a position as consultant to the US delegation; White in turn pushed Du Bois out of the NAACP. The petitions were praised by the international press and by Black press in the United States. America's mainstream media, however, were ambivalent or hostile. Some agreed that there was some truth to the petitions, but suggested that "tattling" to the UN would aid the cause of Communism. The Soviet Union did cite these documents as evidence of poor conditions in the United States. The Civil Rights Congress (CRC), the successor to the International Labor Defense group and affiliated with the communist party, had begun to gain momentum domestically by defending Blacks sentenced to execution, such as Rosa Lee Ingram and the Trenton Six. The National Negro Congress joined forces with the CRC in 1947.
Contents The petition quotes the UN's definition of genocide as "Any intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, racial, or religious group is genocide." It concludes that "the oppressed Negro citizens of the United States, segregated, discriminated against, and long the target of violence, suffer from genocide as the result of the consistent, conscious, unified policies of every branch of government. If the General Assembly acts as the conscience of mankind and therefore acts favorably on our petition, it will have served the cause of peace." The CRC emphasized that attempting to destroy a group "in part" was part of the definition, and argued that treatment of African Americans qualified as genocide.
As evidence, the 237-page petition addresses the question of racism in the United States from different angles. It lists hundreds of wrongful executions and lynchings, refers to at least 10,000 undocumented cases, and also charges that Southern states in the U.S. had engaged in a conspiracy against African Americans' ability to vote through poll taxes and literacy tests. In addition to legal discrimination, the petition discusses systematic economic inequalities and differences in quality of life.
Delivery On 17 December 1951, the petition was presented to the United Nations by two separate venues: Paul Robeson, concert singer and activist, together with people who signed the petition, handed the document to a UN official in New York City, while William L. Patterson, executive director of the Civil Rights Congress, delivered copies of the petition to a UN delegation in Paris. W. E. B. Du Bois, also slated to deliver the petition in Paris, had been classified by the US State Department as an "unregistered foreign agent" and was deterred from traveling.John Docker, "Raphaël Lemkin, creator of the concept of genocide: a world history perspective", Humanities Research 16(2), 2010; accessed via ProQuest. Du Bois had previously had an expensive legal battle against the Justice Department.Anderson, Eyes Off the Prize (1995), p. 169. "Du Bois was ready to take his stand. He anticipated the inevitable passport problems with the State Department but did not forsee the warnings from his attorney as well as from his new wife, Shirley Graham. They cautioned him just after winning that bitter and expensive legal battle against the Justice Department, it would not be wise to provoke another indictment."
The 125 copies Patterson mailed to Paris did not arrive, allegedly intercepted by the US government. But he distributed other copies, which he had shipped separately in small packages to individuals' homes.James L. Hicks, "Patterson Charges U.S. Stole Passport", Baltimore Afro-American, 2 February 1951.
The document was signed by many leading activists and family of Blacks who had suffered in the system, including: W. E. B. Du Bois, African-American sociologist, historian and Pan-Africanist activist George W. Crockett, Jr., African-American lawyer and politician Benjamin J. Davis, Jr., African-American lawyer and Communist New York councilman Ferdinand Smith, Communist labor activist and co-founder of the National Maritime Union Oakley C. Johnson, Communist activist Aubrey Grossman, labor and civil rights lawyer Claudia Jones, Communist and Black nationalist activist Rosalie McGee, the widow of Willie McGee, who in 1951 was executed after being controversially convicted of rape by an all-white jury Josephine Grayson, the widow of Francis Grayson, one of the "Martinsville Seven", who in 1951 were executed in Virginia after a much-publicized trial and conviction by an all-white jury Amy and Doris Mallard, family of Robert Mallard, lynched in 1948 for voting Paul Washington, veteran on death row in Louisiana Wesley R. Wells, prisoner in California facing execution for throwing a cuspidor at a guard Horace Wilson, James Thorpe, Collis English, and Ralph Cooper, four of the Trenton Six Leon Josephson, Communist attorney who was imprisoned for contempt of the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC)
Patterson said he was ignored by US ambassador Ralph Bunche and delegate Channing Tobias, but that Edith Sampson would talk to him.
Patterson was ordered to surrender his passport at the United States embassy in France. When he refused, U.S. agents said they would seize it at his hotel room."W. L. Patterson Says U.S. Bars Him At U.N.", The New York Times, 1 January 1952, p. 10; accessed via ProQuest. Patterson fled to Budapest, where through the newspaper Szabad Nép he accused the U.S. government of attempting to stifle the charges."U.S. 'Muzzle' on Genocide Charge Alleged", The Washington Post, 1 January 1952, p. 2; accessed via ProQuest. The U.S. government ordered Patterson to be detained when he passed through Britain and seized his passport when he returned to the United States.Martin, "Internationalizing 'The American Dilemma'" (1997), pp. 50–51. As Paul Robeson had been unable to obtain a passport at all, the difficulty these two men faced in traveling led some to accuse the United States government of censorship.Louis Lautier, "U.S. Should Revise Its Passport Denial Policy", Baltimore Afro-American, 29 December 1951."Paul Asks Passport to Give UN Report", Baltimore Afro-American, 15 December 1951.
Reception We Charge Genocide was ignored by much of the mainstream American press. One exception, the Chicago Tribune, called it "shameful lies" (and evidence against the value of the Genocide Convention itself)."The Genocide Trap", Chicago Daily Tribune, 22 December 1951, p. 8; via ProQuest. I. F. Stone was the only white American journalist to write favorably of the document.Martin, '"Internationalizing 'The American Dilemma'" (1997), pp. 51–52. The CRC had communist affiliations, and the document attracted international attention through the worldwide communist movement.Martin, "Internationalizing 'The American Dilemma'" (1997), p. 37. Raphael Lemkin, who invented the term "genocide" and advocated for the Genocide Convention, disagreed with the petition because the African-American population was increasing in size. He accused its authors of wishing to distract attention from the genocides in the Soviet Union, which had resulted in millions of deaths, because of their communist sympathies. Lemkin accused Patterson and Robeson of serving foreign powers. He published an op-ed in The New York Times arguing that African-Americans did not experience the "destruction, death, annihilation" that would qualify their treatment as genocide.
The petition was particularly well received in Europe, where it received abundant press coverage.Martin, "Internationalizing 'The American Dilemma'" (1997), p. 53. We Charge Genocide was popular almost everywhere in the world except in the United States. One American writer traveling India in 1952 found that many people had become familiar with the cases of the Martinsville Seven and Willie McGee through the document.Martin, "Internationalizing 'The American Dilemma'" (1997), p. 54.
The American delegation heavily criticized the document. Eleanor Roosevelt called it "ridiculous". Black delegates Edith Sampson and Channing Tobias spoke to European audiences about how the situation of African Americans was improving.Martin, "Internationalizing 'The American Dilemma'" (1997), pp. 49–50.
At the request of the State Department, the NAACP drafted a press release repudiating We Charge Genocide, calling it "a gross and subversive conspiracy". However, upon hearing initial press reports of the petition and the expected NAACP response, Walter White decided against issuing the release. He and the board decided that the petition did reflect many of the NAACP views. For instance, the organization had long been publishing the toll of blacks who had been lynched."White Turns Down State Dept. Bid", Baltimore Afro-American, 8 December 1951; via ProQuest.Martin, "Internationalizing 'The American Dilemma'" (1997), pp. 46–47. "How can we 'blast' a book that uses our records as source material?" asked Roy Wilkins.Anderson, Eyes Off the Prize (1995), p. 166–167.
The CRC's power was already declining due to accusations of Communism during the Red Scare, and it disbanded in 1956.
The United Nations did not acknowledge receiving the petition. Given the strength of U.S. influence, it was not really expected to do so."UN May Not Accept CRC Petition", Atlanta Daily World, 18 January 1952; accessed via ProQuest.
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