“Hate Christ” is the Slogan of the Communists. St. Louis: The Cross and the Flag, [c. 1950]. Broadside, 11” x 8.5”. [with] Ask our School Board Why—Langston Hughes is Recommended Reading for our Children…Hicksville, NY, [ca. 1950]. Broadside, 11” x 8.5”.

Scarce anti-Langston Hughes ephemera circulated by right wing groups in the 1940s and ‘50s, accusing Hughes of being an anti-Christian, communist traitor.

The immediate occasion for these attacks was Hughes’s poem “Goodbye Christ,” which he wrote during a 1932 trip to the Soviet Union and which both of the present broadsides reproduce in full. A critique of Christianity’s capitalist ethos, the poem quickly sparked controversy (within both white and African-American communities) after it was published in The Negro Worker. Hughes spent the rest of his life defending and later disavowing the poem. The opening of Goodbye Christ reads as follows: "Listen, Christ, / You did alright in your day, I reckon — / But that day's gone now. / They ghosted you up a swell story, too, / Called it Bible — / But it's dead now. / The popes and the preachers've / Made too much money from it. / They've sold you to too many."

The first broadside, entitled ”Hate Christ” Is the Slogan of the Communists, features a poorly-reproduced photo of Hughes, and was first circulated by far-right demagogue Gerald L. K. Smith in 1943 during a protest against Hughes's speech at Wayne State University. The broadside characterizes Hughes as “one of the most notorious propagandists for the lovers of Stalin,” and as the “notorious Negro Stalin lover” who “moves in the circles of mongrelizers and race mixers.” Smith first reprinted “Goodbye Christ” in an issue of The Cross and the Flag, and here describes it as a “hymn of hate designed to persuade the simple Christian, whether he be black or white, to throw down Christ, to say goodbye to Christ, and embrace Marx, Lenin and Stalin.” This broadside saw at least three editions, the present edition published between 1947–53 (when Smith’s organization was based in St. Louis). The Cross and the Flag is here billed as “the official organ for the crusade of Christian Nationalism.” Rates are given for those interested in acquiring extra copies of the broadside.

The second broadside was distributed by the Hicksville Education League of Parents, and encourages parents to “ask our school board why Langston Hughes, is recommended reading for our children while None Dare Call It Treason (a then-popular right-wing work by John A. Stormer) is banned. The group reprints three Hughes poems: Goodbye Christ, Workers Song, and Ballad of Lenin. The text concludes: “Langston Hughes is listed as a traitor to the United States and the rest of the free world,” and cites a report by the House Committee on Un-American Activities.

OCLC records four copies of Hate Christ broadside and no copies of the Hicksville broadside.

CONDITION: Two horizontal creases and some toning along folds of “Hate Christ”; Hicksville broadside folded, browning along crease, and general toning.