When I became political and Communist, it was because they were the only people I had ever met who fought the color bar in their lives.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
I ain't a Communist necessarily, but I been in the red all my life.
The hopeless grief of those poor colored people affected me more than almost anything else.
I became a Communist because I fell in love with a man who was a Red and entered the Army to take care of the Fascists, and I knew it would please him if I became one.
Like the Negro League players, I traveled through the segregated south as a young man. Because I was black, I was denied service at many restaurants and could only drink from water fountains marked 'Colored.' When I went to the movies, I would have to sit in the Colored balcony.
There are conservative people in all colours in America.
I joined the Communist Party because I felt I had to be in some organization.
Well, I've been politically involved for a really long time. Growing up in the segregated South, it was a very painful experience for me to live through the open racism of the time.
I was very against pink and purple when I was young, because they were girls' colors. But that was only because I didn't want people to write me off for what I can do. When I got into my 20s, I decided that was stupid.
I grew up in a strongly socialist family. While I was at school, I worked in party politics and with organizations like the Anti-Nazi League. Everywhere I saw it, I fought prejudice.
I was even superior to the Communists and when they didn't go along with me, I quit them.