Kurtis Tyler
Dr. Miller
HIST 128
Reverend George Washington Woodbey: San Diego’s Socialist Preacher
George Washington Woodbey was born into slavery on October 5th, 1854 in Johnson County, Tennessee[1]. He learned how to read after the abolishment of slavery, and only went to common school for two terms[2]. He became a Baptist minister in 1874 in Emporia, Kansas. During his early political days, he was very active in the Republican and Prohibition parties. He ran on the Prohibition party ticket in 1896 while he lived in Nebraska[3]. Shortly after Woodbey became entrenched with socialist ideals, and announced he was going to support the socialist movement from then on out. Woodbey showed to fellow black Americans that they also have a voice and that action should be taken against discrimination.
In 1902, Rev. Woodbey traveled to San Diego, CA to visit his Mother. While in San Diego Rev. Woodbey became the minister of the Mount Zion Baptist Church[4]. He also became very active within the local socialist party chapter. Woodbey quickly became a leader within the socialist movement in Southern California at large. The socialist movement can be defined as the individual owning what he or she produces. Instead of earning a wage to produce something then a boss or leader deciding what to do with it. He gave speeches on the streets and lectures on the topic of socialism. Through the party Woodbey became an activist against racial inequality. For example, he led a successful boycott of a local hotel and restaurant which had denied him service due to the color of his skin[5]. He would also vocalize against police violence, of which he was a victim of multiple times.
Woodbey was in and of jail during his time in Southern California. This was due to his public speeches about socialism and his attempts to sell his books on socialism. After one particular event, in which Woodbey was beaten by an officer, he organized a group of protesters to march onto police station in order to inform the station of the officer’s behavior[6]. When he arrived at the station the same officer was present and started to physically abuse him once again[7]. Woodbey then attempted to charge officer that had beaten him for assault. Although all the witnesses defended Rev. Woodbey’s behavior for being “gentlemanly”, he lost the case when the jury declared that the officer was not guilty[8].
However, Woodbey did not consider this a total loss. He said, “The case has made more Socialist than I could have possibly made in many speeches”[9]. This was due to the injustice that had befallen Rev. Woodbey and projected the image of the police as “watch dogs of capitalism”. Rev. Woodbey was also viewed very highly of earning him the nickname of “The Great Negro Socialist Orator”. His booklet was so well received by the socialist community for being as “plain and simple” as possible that it was translated into three different languages[10].
His booklet, “The Distribution of Wealth”, consisted of letters between himself and his mother[11]. They began to write back and forth to each other when his mother found out that he was a socialist. She wondered if her son had given up being a minister in order to pursue politics. Woodbey then expresses to his mother that it is because of God and the bible that he is in fact, a socialist[12]. That God made the Earth equally for all that it should be available for all to use freely and that God created man to be free and that the color of his skin should not affect those freedoms. That man has the right to do with whatever he produces as he so chooses. Woodbey continues, by saying that capitalism does none of this. That in capitalism, the land is owned by a few. That companies make the worker produce and then exploit them by paying them low wages and no access to what they produced without punishment from the law.
Rev. Woodbey truly believed that socialism was the true way to freedom. This could be seen with the fact that he disagreed with the viewpoints of Booker T. Washington. Washington was an African American activist that had an accommodation standpoint on how to end racial inequality[13]. He founded the Tuskegee Normal and Institute in 1881, which educated African Americans in blue collar labor skill jobs and agriculture[14]. Washington gave numerous famous speeches, his approach to racial inequality about how African American’s make up a large portion of the population so if they are given better working conditions and more opportunities in the work force than production would go up. This is best displayed in his speech which became known as the “Atlanta Compromise”, Washington proposes that if given more rights in the work place that would increase production within the South by sixteen million laborers[15]. Washington also made it apparent that they did not even need all the rights that whites received, standing by his accommodation approach.
Rev. Woodbey acknowledged that Booker T. Washington was an educated gentleman, however, he believed he made a good servant of capitalism[16]. He informed the working that they should be educated in skilled labor in order to be exploited by capitalist. That his institution allowed black workers to compete with white workers for a general wage. Also, capitalist leaders did not care about unity and only cares for themselves. They will always try to exploit the worker at any given chance.
Reverend Woodbey would continue his socialist message and preachings until his death in 1935[17]. Rev. Woodbey used his religious leadership position and political views in order to point out multiple injustices that were happening within San Diego. Whether that was police brutality that was done on him personally or if it was on the class inequality that was being expressed through the exploitation of workers by capitalist. Rev. Woodbey was a prominent Black leader within the San Diego community that showed other members of the community that it was acceptable to fight against the status quo. That one could change society and that capitalism is not the only way that society could be run. He made clear to the African American community within San Diego that they, too, have a voice. Rev. Woodbey did not let notions of black inferiority stop him in anyway and publicly pointed out discrimination against race. He would also take action against discrimination, which further established himself as a positive role model in the fight against inequality.
Bibliography
Biography.com Editors. Booker T. Washington Biography. https://www.biography.com/activist/booker-t-washington. Accessed April 22, 1019
Boykin, George. George Washington Woodbey, Pioneering Black Socialist. American Thinker. As of September 4, 2011. https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2011/09/george_washington_woodbey_pioneering_black_socialist.html. Accessed April 10, 2019
Foner, Philip S. “Reverend George Washington Woodbey: Early Twentieth Century California Black Socialist.” The Journal of Negro History 61, no. 2 (1976): 136-57. doi:10.2307/2717267.
Washington, Booker T. “1985 Atlanta Compromise Speech.” History Matters. Accessed April 10,2019. http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/39/
Woodbey, George Washington. Black Socialist Preacher. San Francisco: Synthesis Productions, 1983
Woodbey, George Washington. The Distribution of Wealth. San Diego: George Washington Woodbey, 1910
[1] Boykin, George. George Washington Woodbey, Pioneering Black Socialist. American Thinker. As of September 4, 2011. Accessed April 10, 2019 https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2011/09/george_washington_woodbey_pioneering_black_socialist.html.
[2] Boykin, George. George Washington Woodbey, Pioneering Black Socialist.
[3] Foner, Philip S. “Reverend George Washington Woodbey: Early Twentieth Century California Black Socialist.” The Journal of Negro History 61, no. 2 (1976): 136-57. doi:10.2307/2717267
[4] Foner, Philip S. “Reverend George Washington Woodbey: Early Twentieth Century California Black Socialist.”
[5] Foner, Philip S. “Reverend George Washington Woodbey: Early Twentieth Century California Black Socialist.”
[6] Foner, Philip S. “Reverend George Washington Woodbey: Early Twentieth Century California Black Socialist.”
[7] Foner, Philip S. “Reverend George Washington Woodbey: Early Twentieth Century California Black Socialist.”
[8]Foner, Philip S. “Reverend George Washington Woodbey: Early Twentieth Century California Black Socialist.”
[9]Foner, Philip S. “Reverend George Washington Woodbey: Early Twentieth Century California Black Socialist.”
[10] Foner, Philip S. “Reverend George Washington Woodbey: Early Twentieth Century California Black Socialist.”
[11] Woodbey, George Washington. The Distribution of Wealth. San Diego: George Washington Woodbey, 1910
[12] Woodbey, George Washington. The Distribution of Wealth.
[13] Biography.com Editors. Booker T. Washington Biography. Accessed April 22, 2019, https://www.biography.com/activist/booker-t-washington
[14] Biography.com Editors. Booker T. Washington Biography.
[15] Washington, Booker T. “1985 Atlanta Compromise Speech.” History Matters. Accessed April 10,2019. http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/39/
[16] Woodbey, George Washington. Black Socialist Preacher.
[17] Foner, Philip S. “Reverend George Washington Woodbey: Early Twentieth Century California Black Socialist.”