Henry O. Mayfield

Henry O. Mayfield was born in 1907 in Florida. He received a primary school education before migrating to the foundries, mills, and mines of Jefferson County, Alabama. Mayfield became a miner and worked for seven years in the biggest foundry in Birmingham, the Stockholm Pipe and Fitting Company[2] and became a member of the United Mine Workers, one of the few labor unions of the time. From that union, he became an active organizer of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) in the late 1930s.[3] The CIO flourished during the time that Mayfield was an organizer. Deplorable working conditions led to a list of demands as part of a strike that included higher pay and better working hours.[2] The communities that Mayfield targeted as part of the organizing drives were miners, churches, civic organizations, and voters' leagues. He was of the strand of black male leaders that tried to abstain from drinking, opposed womanizing and felt free to intervene in comrades' marital problems.[4] Mayfield was a singer in the East Birmingham Stars quartet.[5] He had two children in his first marriage. After he and his wife separated, her family "cut him up", so he fled to Greenwood to live with his mother.[5] Mayfield joined the NAACP around 1938 with his good friend and fellow member of the Communist Party, Hosea Hudson. He enlisted in the military in 1943 during World War II at Fort Benning, Georgia, where he held the rank of Private.[6] Following his activist work with the CIO and the SNYC, Mayfield transitioned to working as the chairman of the board for Freedomways Associates, a popular black political and cultural journal.[1] Mayfield died on December 31, 1963, at 56 years old. At the time of his death, Mayfield was living in Brooklyn, New York, still working on the Freedomways Journal.[1]

Henry O. Mayfield was recruited into the Communist Party (CPUSA) by Hosea Hudson, with whom he worked as the CIO, and his main goal was to attract radical black workers.[5] To educate himself on Communist beliefs, including self-determination, he began by reading The Liberator with John Beidel, West Hibbard, Joe Howard, Charles DeBardelebel and Hudson. He was selected to go to Russia during his time with the Party to attend a Communist training school,[5] and was arrested in 1950 as part of Birmingham's "Anti-Red Drive."[7] They found Communist literature at his house during the arrest. He became an active member of the Party and, during the spring of 1932, was selected to be part of the Southern Section Committee, and later became a District 17 bureau member,[5] two roles that increased his involvement even more. In 1938 he was chosen as a delegate to the national Party convention in New York City, another high honor.

Mayfield's involvement with the Party included helping to create CPUSA-led trade unions that allowed Black workers, which was unheard of at the time.[8] He also used his ties in the CIO to urge members to join initiatives he was heading at the Party: joining anti-poll tax campaigns, registering to vote; reading New South and Daily Worker, two Communist newspapers; and attending nonunion political functions headed by the Party.[5] Another of Mayfield's roles in the Communist Party was delivering the Party's messages to prospective members in the South. Hudson was adamant about Mayfield having this role because of his approachability and well-spoken nature.[5] This essentially meant handing out leaflets with the Party's 15-point program. The program's aims included confronting police brutality against people of color, ending poll taxes, federal housing, and voting rights for all citizens.[2] As part of this last initiative, voting rights for all citizens, Mayfield and others founded the Right to Vote Club. This made procedural and legal information about voting easy to access and helped communities that were being barred from voting, primarily the black community.[4] This also marked the first time that the Communist Party created a program with the main focus of equal voting rights.[4]

Through his participation in the Communist Party, Mayfield collaborated with several other historically prominent Black activists. Many of these organizers were active in the Congress of Industrial Organizations, which was created in 1935 to advocate for the rights of laborers, specifically in the southern United States.[3] Among these leaders were Mayfield, Hosea Hudson, Andy Brown, and Ebb Cox. Ebb Cox was one of the first Black district representatives of the Steel Union. He lived in Wilkes County, North Carolina.[9] He worked with Mayfield in the fight for labor rights. Hosea Hudson, who wrote an autobiography about his life, was a civil rights leader from Georgia who became one of the most prominent civil rights leaders in Birmingham, Alabama.[9] Hudson was a sharecropper in the south and was displaced to become an industrial worker.[9] Hudson and Mayfield met each other through a city relief work project, and Hudson is one of the people that recruited Mayfield to the Communist Party.[5] They were also closely associated due to their standard connections in the Congress of Industrial Organizations and the Southern Negro Youth Congress. Thus, Hudson's autobiography provides essential insight into his own life and the organizing of Black activists in the South and Mayfield's life, which is rarely detailed in American history.

Mayfield, Hudson, Brown, and other Black activists like John Bedell and Sam Hall, were among those targeted by the FBI for their radicalism and participation in the Communist Party. Mayfield and others had to leave their homes in Birmingham for personal safety due to the FBI's heavy surveillance and harassment.[9] Specifically, Theophilus Eugene "Bull" Connor of the FBI was targeting these Black activists and conducting raids against anyone he considered a "radical".[9] The FBI would do anything in their power to mark Mayfield, Hudson, and the others as criminals, including spreading misinformation that Hudson was a murderer.[9] Henry Mayfield and Sam Hall both lost their homes that they were buying under GI loans due to this FBI interference in their lives.[9] they were with Hosea Hudson when she had to leave Birmingham due to Connor's extreme surveillance and invasive raids.[9] Evidently, Henry Mayfield and other Black leaders were all targeted by law enforcement and the U.S. government for their perceived radicalism.

Henry Mayfield became more widely known as a leader in the movement for Black freedom and equality after his involvement in the founding convention for the Southern Negro Youth Congress (SNYC). The SNYC was the predecessor of the SNCC and started in 1937.[9] The goal of the SNYC was freedom, equality, and opportunity for Black people in America, and it was especially focused on the struggles of Black youth.[10] The SNYC's first convention was located in Richmond, Virginia, and Mayfield acted as one of the founders in this convention along with over 500 delegates from 23 states and over 2,000 observers in the crowd.[10] Early working for SNYC, Mayfield was able to work on the planning committee with other black activists, including Hosea Hudson.[10] Mayfield had a great deal of sway and influence in the SNYC, serving as a chairman for some time.[11] The SNYC was especially known for its 4-point program, espousing the values of citizenship, jobs, education, and health. Due to the relatively uncontroversial nature of these points, the SNYC was even able to attract the support of some white Southerners to support their cause. Further, their organizing received endorsements from both the American Federation of Labor and the CIO.[11]

However, there was difficulty with the public perception of the SNYC in the late 1940s. Due to the presence of communist influence and organizers within their ranks, the Federal Bureau of Investigation took notice and began surveilling the members of the SNYC. This, combined with the Red Scare public panic regarding communism, caused disorder within the SNYC and weakened unity within the organization.[10] By 1949, the SNYC was effectively nonexistent due to internal disputes that cut the organization's functionality.[10]

After his recent service in World War 2, Mayfield became increasingly emboldened and helped to organize a march on the Jefferson County Courthouse with the help of the SNYC.[11] Mayfield and the SNYC were able to gather over 100 black veterans, all demanding their right to vote. Their protest was in response to the literacy tests and Jim Crow Laws that prevented them from being able to vote.[11] Many Black men refused to join the march or watched from the sidelines due to the incredible threat of racist violence from the Ku Klux Klan, as well as the police. These protests were incredibly poignant, as these black veterans had laid their lives on the line for their country and were still denied their right to vote.

Mayfield often advocated for better working conditions, especially in Birmingham, where he worked for the biggest foundry in the city. For 7 years, Mayfield worked for the Stockholm Pipe and Fitting company.[1] While working in this foundry, Mayfield and other communist organizers, such as Hosea Hudson, were crucial for their influence in workplace organization and were one of the main reasons why unions were created in the Sloss Iron Company, U.S. steel, and Republic Steel.[1] With Mayfield's deep determination and knowledge regarding both his craft and organization, Mayfield and other Black communists were able to encourage workplace activism which ultimately led to higher wages and safer working conditions. Due to their dedicated activism, these black organizers, including Mayfield, were even able to come together with the white workers and create even stronger unions.[4]

To have their demands for better working conditions and a higher wage to be met, Mayfield and other black workers went on strike in 1941. When working for the foundries in Birmingham, Mayfield stated that “The Negro workers were the main leaders in organizing unions in U.S. Steel, Republic Steel, and the Sloss Iron Company.”[1] In Birmingham, it was the black workers, led by Mayfield and other black organizers, who came together to petition for better working conditions. Only after the white workers found out that the Black workers would win in the Labor Board elections did they join their struggle. Mayfield believed that “The Negro workers trained the white workers in the struggle.”[1] Further, Mayfield stressed the importance of the entire Black family in organizing unions in the South. According to Mayfield, both the women and the children of the Black family played a leading role in union creation. While the men were on strike, the women could gather food for needy families while the boys joined the picket lines with their fathers.[1] This familial dynamic to organization created a model that could unionize the foundries of Birmingham.

However, after their organizing and unionization in the foundries had succeeded, the Black organizers were forced out of their leadership roles by white workers, and all support for their equality in the workplace was lost.[1] All Black workers who were truly militant in their desire for equality were also removed from the union. Due to this, Mayfield stated that “Only small gains have been made but only because the Negro fought for them.”[1]

Overall, Henry O. Mayfield made a significant impact as a Black activist and leader of the Communist Party and the Southern Negro Youth Congress (SNYC). He served the United States as a soldier in World War II and led veterans in the battle for the right to vote following the war.[9] Furthermore, he worked with other prominent Black leaders in the Congress of Industrial Organizations to advocate for the rights of laborers, especially in the southern United States.[3] Mayfield endured extensive FBI surveillance and was even arrested in his dedication to the Communist Party and the fight for Black freedom in America.[7] Mayfield's leadership and organizing are often overlooked in American history, and while he was well known within the communities that he led, his impact has not been adequately represented in historical literature.