The Communist

Paul Kengor

• Publisher: Mercury Ink
• Year: 2012
• eBook ISBN: 9781451698152
• Topic: Politique et relations internationales
• Subtopic: Biographies politiques

“I admire Russia for wiping out an economic system which permitted a handful of rich to exploit and beat gold from the millions of plain people… As one who believes in freedom and democracy for all, I honor the Red nation.” —FRANK MARSHALL DAVIS, 1947

In his memoir, Barack Obama omits the full name of his mentor, simply calling him “Frank.” Now, the truth is out: Never has a figure as deeply troubling and controversial as Frank Marshall Davis had such an impact on the development of an American president.

Although other radical influences on Obama, from Jeremiah Wright to Bill Ayers, have been scrutinized, the public knows little about Davis, a card-carrying member of the Communist Party USA, cited by the Associated Press as an “important influence” on Obama, one whom he “looked to” not merely for “advice on living” but as a “father” figure.

Aided by access to explosive declassified FBI files, Soviet archives, and Davis’s original newspaper columns, Paul Kengor explores how Obama sought out Davis and how Davis found in Obama an impressionable young man, one susceptible to Davis’s worldview that opposed American policy and traditional values while praising communist regimes. Kengor sees remnants of this worldview in Obama’s early life and even, ultimately, his presidency.

Is Obama working to fulfill the dreams of Frank Marshall Davis? That question has been impossible to answer, since Davis’s writings and relationship with Obama have either been deliberately obscured or dismissed as irrelevant. With Paul Kengor’s The Communist, Americans can finally weigh the evidence and decide for themselves.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Description
• About Paul Kengor
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Introduction: Past Is Prologue
• Chapter 1: Growing Up Frank
• Chapter 2: Atlanta, 1931–32: The Communists Swarm to Scottsboro
• Chapter 3: Frank’s Work for the Atlanta Daily World (1931–34)
• Chapter 4: Paul Robeson and Progressive Dupes
• Chapter 5: Back to Chicago: “Peace” Mobilization and Duping the “Social Justice” Religious Left
• Chapter 6: War Time and Party Time (1943–45): Frank with CPUSA and the Associated Negro Press
• Chapter 7: The Latter 1940s: Frank and the Chicago Crew
• Chapter 8: The Chicago Star
• Chapter 9: Frank’s Writings in the Chicago Star (1946–48)
• Chapter 10: Frank Heads to Hawaii
• Chapter 11: Frank in the Honolulu Record (1949–50): Target, Harry Truman
• Chapter 12: Frank in the Honolulu Record (1949–50): Other Targets, from “HUAC” to “Profits” to GM
• Chapter 13: Frank and the Founders
• Chapter 14: 1951–57: Frank on Red China, Korea, Vietnam, and More
• Chapter 15: Mr. Davis Goes to Washington
• Chapter 16: Frank versus “the Gestapo”
• Chapter 17: American Committee for Protection of Foreign Born
• Chapter 18: When Frank Met Obama
• Chapter 19: When Obama Leaves Frank: Occidental College
• Chapter 20: Frank Re-Emerges—and the Media Ignore Him
• Chapter 21: Conclusion: Echoes of Frank
• Motivation and Acknowledgments
• Appendix: Frank Marshall Davis Documents
• Notes
• Index