Hosea Hudson

Hosea Hudson (April 12, 1898 – 1988) was an African-American labor leader in the Southern United States.

Hudson was born in Wilkes County, Georgia. He worked as a sharecropper in what was then known as the "Black Belt" of Georgia. which he joined after studying in New York City in the 1930s. Through his work, Hudson was often referred to as a militant fighter against racist oppression and economic exploitation. He is said to have been surprised at the abandonment of the Jim Crow Laws, but felt that was not enough. (Hudson himself had learned to read at the Communist Party's National Training School.) His story is also featured in a collection of stories about the Civil Rights Movement, as well as one on the Communist Movement in the United States.

Activities with the Communist Party The Communist Party drew Hudson's attention after the conviction of the Scottsboro Boys and the attack of sharecroppers in Camp Hill. One day, in September 1931, he was invited to a Party meeting by an old co-worker, Al Murphy of the Sharecroppers' Union. On September 8, 1931, Hudson attended his first Communist Party meeting. There were only about seven other people at the meeting, all from Stockham Pipe and Fittings or the surrounding community. Given that Hudson did not know much about the Party before his first meeting, he questioned whether or not he "could fit in." However, he came to realize that none of the other attendees could read or write. During that first meeting, the points Murphy made convinced the eight men to sign up for the Communist Party and form a unit for Stockham workers. The new members elected Hudson to be the unit organizer.

After a few months of organizing, Hudson's Party unit, despite the organizers' inexperience, "became a training school for men who later helped to make great labor history in Alabama." Since Hudson's unit was having success with Party organizing, stool pigeons became an issue at Stockham. To protect members from stool pigeons, leaders of the Party set up six separate groups. Hudson was the "organizer of Unit 1, which was responsible for Unit Numbers 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6." A person stooled (he was only a member, not a leader) on Unit 1, and since members knew nothing of other units, the stool pigeon only damaged Unit 1.

One Tuesday morning, the personnel manager pulled Hudson aside and told him he had to leave his company house. Hudson moved out the following Saturday. The Monday after, the assistant superintendent informed Hudson that he was fired, seemingly because of his Party work (the assistant superintendent asked Hudson about "what [he's] in" before firing him). A few days later, someone told Hudson to reach out to a Party organizer from New York. With that organizer's help, Hudson, his unit, and the five other unit leaders distributed leaflets that exposed the names and personal/professional information of the six Stockham stool pigeons all around town.

Many months later, while working a Welfare job, Hudson and his friend Bedell, who was also on Welfare, encouraged Hudson to get the Party unit back together. (After Hudson was fired, "the rest of [the] Party unit got scared and quit.") When they successfully got the unit back together, the group "began to read again and understand more about the Party and the history of the working class."

Years later in Birmingham, during November 1933, Hudson and other Party members organized a meeting to work towards Union rights for Black industrial workers. At the meeting, when only nine organizers were present, police arrested eight of them. The city kept Hudson and another organizer in jail from Sunday night to Tuesday: the day of their trial. The judge charged them with holding a Party "meeting to overthrow the government." Hudson pleaded not guilty. The two organizers were then placed back in a cell and then sent home the following afternoon.

Struggle for voting rights In May 1944, Hudson, as a member of the Labour and Industrial Committee, attended a conference to discuss Black voting rights. As a result of this meeting, the Negro Democratic Non-Partisan Voters League was formed and decided that Black people needed to work within their communities for the right to vote. Then, on a Sunday in Birmingham, the Committee of Industrial Union (CIO) met with two potential candidates, but neglected to invite the only two Black men in the organization. Therefore, at the next meeting, Hudson announced that he would not encourage the Black members of his local union, which was about 590 members, to vote for their candidate.

While encouraging those in his community to vote, he began to influence veterans, especially those who fought against Hitler. It was during this time that Hudson started to build momentum. The Federal Bureau of Investigation noticed that Hudson was receiving attention and the FBI began to feel threatened. Due to this, the FBI launched investigations on the leaders of Hudson's platform and labeled them as dangerous. The FBI investigation influenced the Ku Klux Klan to launch attacks on Black communities that supported Black youth. The attacks did not stop with the terrorist group. Attacks would also come from leaders in politics. Said political leaders include the Director of CIO, the CIO state president, and the District Director of Steel Union. The goal of these gatherings was to draw attention to the use of unskilled workers to carry out skilled labor, specifically road construction, without appropriate wages. A few years later, he was heavily involved in a trade-union at the Wallwork Foundry of the Tennessee Coal and Railroad Company. During this time, he was also a member of the Birmingham Industrial Union Council and named one of Birmingham Worldnewspaper’s “Men of the Year” in response to his role at the Alabama CIO convention supporting voting rights for Black Alabamians. At the Industrial Union Council meetings, he advocated for the election of Black delegates to the state Industrial Union Council, condemned discrimination, and addressed the 1945 lynching of two Black veterans.

In March 1946, 150 people from Alabama representing 26 WWII Veteran groups came together in a convention and created the Alabama Veterans Association. At the convention, they "voted to characterize the as 'Too little and too late,'" and discussed issues such as "the need for greater hospital, health and recreational facilities, low-cost price-controlled housing, state and federal FEPC laws; abolition of the poll tax and anti-lynching legislation." Hosea Hudson was one of the experts who led these discussions.

Written works Black Worker in the Deep South: A Personal Record. New York: International Publishers, 1972. As co-author (with Nell Irvin Painter): The Narrative of Hosea Hudson: The Life and Times of a Black Radical. New York: W.W. Norton, 1994.