It happens all the time, especially among certain Christians. Whenever Black people organize for uplift someone raises the specter of “Communism.” Happened with the #MarchonWashington, too.
The FBI and J. Edgar Hoover hounded the Civil Rights movement and its leaders to try to find or fabricate evidence of Communist infiltration. Under pressure from Hoover, investigators made MLK into either a Communist puppet or leader.
On August 30, 1963 the head of the Domestic Intelligence Division, William Sullivan, called the “I Have a Dream” speech “demagogic” & wanted to “mark” King as “the most dangerous Negro of the future in this Nation from the standpoint of communism, the Negro and national security”
Even 20 years later, leading up to another March on Washington for “Jobs, Peace, and Freedom”, Carl McIntire, a prominent fundamentalist, led a counter-protest and said , "What they do next Saturday will help the communists take over the world.”
washingtonpost.com/archive/local/…
Opponents of racial justice often deploy labels such as Communism, Marxism, socialism, and critical race theory as attempts to set the limits of discourse and control the conversation. It’s not new, but it is a resilient tactic that has deceived too many.
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