Tony Perez

This is an amazing book. It is a reproduction of what was, apparently, a unique volume of linocuts that were bound together in book form, with a forward by Mike Gold, who was a well-known author, and an editor of New Masses. Done sometime in 1935, it was discovered in the personal papers of Joseph North, also an editor of New Masses. At the end are reproductions of newspaper clippings and other documents related to the case.

The book is in three parts: Negroes Come to America, The Nine Boys of Scottsboro, and Black and White Unite. There is text in linocut on the verso and an image on the facing page. It is an extraordinarily powerful indictment of the racist court system which convicted and sentenced the Scottsboro defendants.

Robin D.G. Kelley has provided a foreword describing the history and importance of the Scottsboro case. Andrew H. Lee's introduction describes the work itself.

Lin and Perez dedicated the book to the International Labor Defense, which was instrumental in the defense of the case and in garnering popular support, and of which my grandfather, J. Louis Engdahl, was the General Secretary.… (meer)