Manning Johnson

Manning Rudolph Johnson (December 12, 1908 - July 2, 1959)[1] was the Communist candidate for U.S. Representative from New York's 22nd Congressional District, 1935; he subsequently left the party, wrote Color, Communism, and Common sense,[2] and was a government witness in the perjury trial of Harry Bridges and before the Committee on Un-American Activities.[3]

Biography

In the perjury trial of Labor Leader Harry Bridges in 1949, he was a government witness.[4] In a Time magazine article dated Dec. 26, 1949 entitled "You'd Be Thin, Too", he was described as "husky, big-jawed ... A smooth, deep-voiced Negro." His testimony that he saw Bridges address a Communist National Committee meeting in 1936, and how he recalled voting to "re-elect" Bridges to the national committee two years later under the alias of "Rossi" was instrumental in Bridges' conviction.[5]

In 1953 he testified before the Committee on Un-American Activities of the U.S. House of Representatives, 83rd Congress. Robert L. Kunzig, chief counsel for the committee, asked "Was deceit a major policy of Communist propaganda and activity?" Manning R. Johnson answered, "Yes, it was. They made fine gestures and honeyed words to the church people which could be well likened unto the song of the fabled sea nymphs luring millions to moral decay, spiritual death, and spiritual slavery...".[6][7] He also testified in 1949.[8][9]

Manning Johnson died following an auto accident which had occurred on June 26, 1959 just south of Lake Arrowhead Village, California. He is buried at Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery in San Diego, California.[10]

His book, Color, Communism, and Common sense, was quoted by G. Edward Griffin in his 1969 motion picture lecture More Deadly than War ... the Communist Revolution in America.

He recorded a speech, known as "Manning Johnson's Farewell Address", with his views on equality, respect and vision for the future, criticizing the practices of the NAACP and of Negro radicals. It was available on an LP recording from KEY Records[11] in the mid 1960s.

References

  1. ↑ "Harry Bridges; the rise and fall of radical labor in the United States", Larrowe, Charles P., 1972, pg. 311
  2. ↑ (Publisher: The Alliance 1958)
  3. ↑ Ellen W. Schrecker No Ivory Tower: McCarthyism and the Universities, Oxford University Press, 1986 p. 235.
  4. ↑ Trials: You'd Be Thin, Too Time Magazine, Dec.26, 1949
  5. ↑ Lawrence Davies, "Bridges is termed leading Red in '36: Johnson, Ex-Communist, Says Union Leader Was Elected National Committee Member " The New York Times, Dec 14, 1949, p. 1
  6. ↑ Quoted in Treason in the Church: Trading Truth for a "Social Gospel" (www.crossroad.to).
  7. ↑ United States. Investigation of Communist Activities in the New York City Area ... Hearings Before the Committee on Un-American Activities, House of Representatives, Eighty-Third Congress, First Session. Washington: U.S. Govt. Print. Off, 1953. OCLC 34990883
  8. ↑ United States. Hearings Regarding Communist Infiltration of Minority Groups. Hearings Before the Committee on Un-American Activities, House of Representatives, Eighty-First Congress, First Session. Washington: U.S. Govt. Print. Off, 1949.
  9. ↑ United States. Hearings Regarding Communist Infiltration of Minority Groups. (Testimony of Manning Johnson) Part II...July 14, 1949.
  10. ↑ National Cemetery Administration. U.S. Veterans' Gravesites, ca.1775-2006 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2006. Ancestry, Inc. Retrieved 13 July 2018
  11. ↑ http://www.manningjohnson.org
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