Dr. Harold Arundel Moody and the League of Coloured Peoples,1931-1947: A Retrospective View

For further detail, see J.A. Langley , 'West African Aspects of Pan-African Movements', Ph.D. (Edinburgh University, 1968).

See Moody's biography by David A. Vaughan , Negro Victory ( London , Independence Press, 1950 ), p. 54.

Ibid., p. 55; and for further background see Chapter IV, 'Onward to the League'.

Sam Morris , 'Moody—the forgotten visionary', New Community (Vol. 1, No. 3, Spring 1972).

Born Jamaica 1882; arrived London 1904; M.B., B.S. London University 1912; married Olive Tranter 1913; purchased 164 Queens Road, Peckham together with medical practice associated with it, 1922.

Perhaps the generation born before the turn of the century and come to manhood before the outbreak of World War I was the last to accept implicitly the relevance of revealed Christian faith to the cause of social betterment and the moral conversion of man.

See Malcolm Muggeridge , The Thirties (London, Fontana, 1971), pp. 28-32 and passim.

Personal communications T. Ras Makonnen, Nairobi (December 1971) and C. L. R. James, London (January 1972). Dr. Moody's brother Ronald, the distinguished sculptor, stated in an interview in London in July 1970 that 'Padmore was a great friend of my brother's' and 'used to go to my brother's house.' Padmore represented the Pan-African Federation at Moody's funeral. See James Hooker , Black Revolutionary (London, 1967), p. 106; and also L.C.P. News Letter (Vol. XVI, No. 92, June 1947), p. 121, which incorrectly cites Padmore as representing the by then defunct International African Service Bureau.

The most complete holdings of The Keys and the News Letter are to be found in the British Museum, although Harvard University possesses a fair selection and a number of fragmentary holdings are still retained in private hands. For the News Letter, see also in London The Marx Memorial Library.

The Keys (Vol. 1, No. 1, July 1933), p. ii. Later (Vol. IV, No. 3, January-March 1937), a fifth object was added: 'To render such financial assistance to coloured people in distress as lies within our capacity.'

The Keys (Vol. 1, No. 1, July 1933), p. 2.

Published irregularly throughout the early and mid-1930s, variously in Hamburg, Copenhagen and Paris, by the International Trade Union Committee of Negro Workers, a branch of the Red International of Labour Unions, or Profintern.

Sam Morris, a Grenadian by birth, first came to Great Britain in 1939 and served for several years as Secretary to the League in the mid-1940s. He subsequently spent some time in Ghana as Kwame Nkrumah's Press Officer, but currently acts in London as Deputy Chief Officer of the Community Relations Commission.

Sam Morris , 'Changing Attitudes in Race Relations in Britain for the Twenty-One Years, 1948-1969', lecture delivered 16 July 1969. Copy of transcript kindly provided by speaker.

Despite Makonnen's militant and at times staunchly idiosyncratic brand of Pan-Africanism, it is worth noting that on 30 January 1936 Dr. Moody 'received a letter from a white friend in Denmark ... introducing "a very dear friend of mine, whom I know from the International High School in Helsingfors ... [who] has just arrived in London, and I would be grateful to you in case you would aid him wherever possible. I believe him to be able to do great things for African people. His intelligence is on the level with the most intellectual Danes".' See St. Clair Drake , 'Value Systems, Social Structure and Race Relations in the British Isles,' Ph.D. (University of Chicago , 1954), p. 110.

For these quotations I am indebted to Dr. Kenneth J. King of Edinburgh University for permission to examine the manuscript of Pan-Africanism From Within (forthcoming Oxford University Press), the soon to be published autobiographical reminiscences of Makonnen, prepared with the assistance of Dr. King.

The I.A.S.B. was founded in London in March 1937 with the avowed aim of assisting 'by all means in our power the unco-ordinated struggle of Africans and people of African descent against the oppression from which they suffer in every country.' See International African Opinion (Vol. 1, No. 1, July 1938), p. 2. The I.A.S.B. was dominated by West Indians and West Africans and numbered many left-wing M.P.s and intellectuals among its acknowledged patrons.

King, Pan-Africanism From Within.

C. L. R. James' career as Pan-African theorist, ideologue, historian, politician, novelist, playwright, critic of Anglo-Saxon arts and letters, and cricketing correspondent non pareil is too lengthy to itemize here. But from 1934 to 1938 he was an intimate colleague of Makonnen and Padmore in London.

Personal communication, January 1972.

The Keys (Vol.1, No. 1, July 1933), p. 5. The two books cited were The Life of Captain Cipriani and Crown Colony Government in the West Indies.

Learie Constantine, later Lord Constantine of Maraval and Nelson, enjoyed a long and distinguished career as international cricketer, social welfare officer, barrister and Privy Councillor. Following Dr. Moody's death he became for a time President of the L.C.P. It might be added that 'keeping his end up in the North' included his invaluable services as resident professional with Nelson in the Lancashire League. See The Keys (Vol. 1, No. 1, July 1933), p. 9. For Constantine's early years, see Cricket and I (London, 1932).

During the late 1940s, Drake, while lecturing in sociology and anthropology at Roosevelt University in Chicago, held a Julius Rosenwald fellowship for the purposes of his research, the fruits of which are cited in footnote 15.

Drake, op. cit., pp. 85 and 87.

Ibid., p. 90, citing The Keys for April-June 1935 (Vol. 2, No. 4), p. 65.

Ibid., pp. 87-96.

The Keys (Vol. 1, No. 4), p. 70.

Vaughn, op. cit., pp. 65-67.

For a brief analysis, see Philip Garigue , 'The West African Students' Union— A Study in Culture Contact', Africa (Vol. 23, 1953), pp. 55-69.

Ibid., citing the journal WASU (Vol. III, No. 1, March 1934), p. 6.

The Keys (Vol. 1, No. 4, April-June 1934), p. 84.

Vaughan, op. cit., pp. 63-4.

The Keys (Vol. 2, No. 4, April-June 1935), p. 66.

Vaughan, op. cit., p. 67.

The Keys (Vol. 2, No. 4, April-June, 1935), p. 69.

The Keys (Vol. 3, No. 2, October-December 1935), p. 20.

Vaughan, op. cit., p. 76. For a general treatment see ibid., pp. 75-81.

Drake, 105. But see as well 104-107 inclusive.

The Keys, (Vol. 3, No. 2, October-December 1935), p. 21.

Vaughan, op. cit., p. 78.

Drake, op. cit., p. 106.

Vaughan, op. cit., pp. 79-80. But see also The Keys (Vol. 3, No. 2, October-December 1935), p. 23. In the event of course, Moody's challenge was taken up neither by clergy or laity but by social anthropologists who, while providing highly illuminating studies, were in no position to effect those solutions that are still wanting.

For example in addition to the evidences of co-operation discussed in some detail below, the League, the NWA and the IASB jointly drew up and submitted a memorandum to the Bledisloe Commission, appointed to explore the possibility of closer union between the Rhodesias and Nyasaland. See The Keys (Vol. 6, No. 2, October-Decembcr 1938), p. 15.

For useful background to both of these, see W.M. Macmillan , Warning From the West Indies (London, Penguin , 1938).

The so-called Forster Commission for its Chairman, Mr. John Forster, at that time Deputy Umpire under the Unemployment Insurance Acts. For one authoritative judgment upon its accomplishments, see Parliamentary Debates, Conditions in West Indian Colonies (H. L. Deb., c. 837, 23 February 1938), for Lord Olivier's observation that having read the Report, 'I do not think very much of it ... I have no doubt they did the best they could.'

The Keys (Vol. 5, No. 4, April-June 1938), pp. 80-2.

For the N.W.A. and I.A.S.B. memoranda, see Public Record Office (C.O. 295/599, File 70297 part 2; and C.O. 295/606, File 703078). Also, International African Opinion (Vol. 1, No. 1, July 1938), pp. 9, 13, 16.

George Padmore , 'Parliament Upset by West Indies', The Crisis (April 1938), pp. 110-11. For a critical examination of the entire episode, see Roderick J. Macdonald , 'Uriah Butler, Sir Murchison Fletcher, and the Trinidad Oilfields Riots of 1937' , (forthcoming).

For the most part written by Padmore, but also by Peter Blackman of the League and C. L. R. James.

The Times (26 and 30 May 1938, 9 June 1938).

New Leader (15 December 1939).

See The Keys (Vol. 6, No. 1, July-September 1938), p. 10. Bridgeman at this time was Labour Candidate for the House of Commons for the Hendon Division of London, Kidd represented the National Council for Civil Liberties, and Webb, the Methodist Church.

When queried recently on this point, C. L. R. James affirmed that 'Certainly, it was a radical resolution'. Personal communication, C. L. R. James (January 1972). (Emphasis James.)

The Keys (Vol. 6, No. 1, July-September 1938), 10. But also see Vaughan, op. cit., pp. 88-90.

Dorothy Woodman, the wife of Kingsley Martin, long-time editor of the New Statesman, represented the Union of Democratic Control, and Bradley, the Colonial Information Bureau.

For a critical reaction to the composition and terms of reference of this Commission, see The Keys (Vol. 6, No. 2, October-December 1938), pp. 1-2, and International African Opinion (Vol. 1, No. 2, August 1938), pp. 1-2.

Moody's contacts were of course legion. Among some twenty British notables cited publicly at this time as 'Patrons' of the I.A.S.B., the following are representative: Rev. Reginald Sorenson, M.P.; Ellen Wilkinson, M.P.; Dorothy Woodman; Sylvia Pankhurst; Nancy Cunard; Morgan Jones, M.P.; D. N. Pritt, M.P.; Victor Gollancz; A. Creech Jones, M.P.; Noel Baker, M.P.; and F. A. Ridley.

The Keys (Vol. 6, No. 2, October-December 1938), p. 2.

A revised edition was published in paperback in New York by Vintage Books in 1963 and is currently in print.

The Keys (Vol. 6, No. 2, October-December 1938), pp. 12-15.

With the outbreak of war transformed into the monthly News Letter.

Vaughan, op. cit., pp. 96-7.

The term referring to peoples of African extraction throughout the world given scholarly currency in recent years most prominently by Professors St. Clair Drake of Stanford University and George Shepperson of Edinburgh University.

News Letter (No. 10, July 1940), pp. 63-4.

As evidence, the total listed under the heading Subscriptions and Donations in the annually audited accounts of the League climbed from some £134 in 1940 to over £1,140 in 1943. See the Annual Reports of the League for detailed breakdowns of income and expenditure.

The one exception was a series of monthly receptions held in conjunction with the Overseas League at Overseas House. Lady Simon, a long-time patron of the League frequently acted as hostess. Among the 'principal guests' were members of the Cabinet, 'Governors of all the colonial territories visiting Britain and representatives of all the State departments, Churches, Universities and other organisations concerned in colonial affairs.' Moody's biographer relates that the Doctor 'loved these happy occasions, moving amongst the guests with ease and destroying all barriers of colour or status. He would bring a shy new recruit to the R.A.F. across the room to be introduced to the Governor of the territory from which he or she came and present a coal black worker to the Secretary of State for the Colonies.' See Vaughan, op. cit., p. 112.

In this regard the League's Annual Report for 1941-2 commented that 'The English are just beginning to realise something of what the Colonies mean to them,' noting that the Times 'on two consecutive days' indicted Britain's colonial policy in articles entitled 'Why Singapore Fell' and 'Dutch Roots in East Indies', both of which accused the British, unlike the Dutch, of having 'no roots in the life of the people of the country' as a result of which following the Japanese invasion 'the bulk of the Asiatic population remained spectators from start to finish.'

News Letter (No. 23, August 1941). Moody had however, established particularly good rapport with Malcolm MacDonald. But this appears due more to MacDonald's sensitivity than to Moody's malleability.

News Letter (No. 23, August 1941), pp. 98-9.

Ibid., pp. 103-4. Moody to Moyne (24 April 1941).

Ibid., p. 117.

C.L.R. James , The Case For West-Indian Self Government (London, 1933), pp. 31-2.

News Letter (No. 23, August 1941), p. 119.

Drake, op. cit., pp. 114, 116.

L.C.P. Annual Report for the Year 1941-1942, p. 2.

News Letter No. 20, May 1941), p. 31.

News Letter (No. 26, November 1941) contains this correspondence in full.

Vaughan, op. cit., p. 121.

Churchill to Moody (29 September 1941). Letter reproduced in News Letter (No. 26, November 1941), p. 27.

Drake, op. cit., p. 116.

Vaughan, op. cit., p. 123.

Moody had been associated with the L.M.S. since his youth in Jamaica. For further detail on this association, see Vaughan, Negro Victory. Moody's chairmanship of the L.M.S. was hailed as 'news that would have thrilled David Livingstone,' and in fact came upon the seventieth anniversary of the latter's death. See Vaughan, op. cit ., pp. 125-9.

Vaughan explains that 'The Minister of Health gave special permission to his son, Dr. Harold E. A. Moody, who was eligible for national service, to take his father's place in his practice during this year of office.' Moody is reported to have travelled some 12,000 miles within the United Kingdom. Vaughan, op. cit., p. 127.

For this see in particular the reports in News Letter (Nos. 42 and 43 for March and April 1943). Also Vaughan, op. cit., pp. 123-4.

See the Twelfth Annual Report for the Year 1942-1943, p. 15.

For background to these, see Vaughan, op. cit., pp. 129-30.

News Letter (No. 48, September 1943), pp. 83 and 90. Also Vaughan, op. cit., p. 124. This ratio of representation is perhaps less impressive when it is recalled that the Phelps Stokes Commissions of almost a quarter century previous included one African among their eight members.

Thirteenth Annual Report for the Year 1943-1944, pp. 2-4.

Recent scholarly reference to this Congress is abundant, though for the most part cursory. For the fullest treatment, see George Padmore , (ed.) Colonial and Coloured Unity, A Programme of Action: History of the Pan-African Congress (Manchester , 1947; reprinted London, Hammersmith Book Shop, 1963).

In the light of the fact that the Labour Party came to power only a year later, it is instructive to note the role of Creech Jones in drafting this document.

Reproduced in the Fourteenth Annual Report, Year 1944-1945 , pp. 15-16.

Vaughan, op. cit., pp. 132-4. It might be noted that these expressed aims bore a certain similarity to those informing the establishment of the Institute of Race Relations in London more than a decade later.

Vaughan, op. cit., p. 153.

See the News Letters from 1947 on for detail.

Drake, op. cit., p. 117.

Morris , 'Changing Attitudes ...', p. 2.