Cause at Heart: A Former Communist Remembers

by Junius Irving Scales, Richard Nickson, Telford Taylor (Introduction), Vernon Burton (Introduction), James R. Barrett (Introduction)

Overview

Born in 1920 in Greensboro, North Carolina, Junius Scales, whose great-uncle had been governor of the state, grew up in the privileged environment of his family's estate. The only black people he knew were the servants. Wanting to improve the lot of workers, mainly African-American, he joined the Communist Party in 1939 while at the University of North Carolina, seeing in the Party an opportunity to right the wrongs done to blacks and poor working people.

Scales rose quickly within the Party to coordinate civil rights and labor organizing activities in several Southern states. He went underground when Party leaders were trailed and harassed by federal authorities. In 1954, FBI agents arrested Scales in Memphis for violation of the Smith Act of 1940. The only American convicted solely for being a member of the Communist Party, Scales would serve 15 months in prison before his 6-year sentence was commuted by President Kennedy in 1962.

Cause at Heart follows Scales from his privileged southern upbringing through the awakening of his social conscience, his civil- and labor-rights work for the Party across the South, his arrest and trials, his disillusionment with the Party, and his time in prison. In a new afterword, Barbara Scales, who was 10 years old when her father went to prison, recounts what it was like to be Junius Scales' daughter.

"It is the calm, even voice of Junius Scales we hear in Cause at Heart... this moving and memorable document... It is the voice of a decent, idealistic man who spent 18 years of his life in the Communist Party... And we don't hear a false note: he is telling us the truth, as he reveals his illusions and delusions, his weaknesses and his strengths, his passionate belief in his party and the Soviet Union, and all the nagging doubts as well. He spares us nothing... Cause at Heart is an intelligent, rock honest... memoir, an interesting document that helps to explain in no small measure the tragic attraction the strange and hydra-headed American Communist Party held for the many decent human beings who passed through its revolving doors." -- William Herrick, The New York Times

"Scales's political life... is beautifully described in this well written book. His scenes of prison life alone -- where he won respect from his fellow inmates and jailers alike -- make remarkable reading." -- Monthly Review

"Compelling reading, especially the discussions of Scales's arrest, trials, and prison experience, interwoven, as they are, with his reevaluation of the Party." -- Journal of American History

"An important and often moving account of the Communist Party's role in labor organizing and civil rights activities in the South during the 1940s... [Scales'] memoir succeeds in capturing the hope and enthusiastic dedication that motivated him and many of his compatriots... the story of one individual's unending quest on behalf of human decency and justice." -- Patricia Sullivan, Southern Changes

"An engrossing saga." -- Michal R. Belknap, The Georgia Historical Quarterly

"A book of unique perception and value. It is must reading for anyone interested in the era of Joseph McCarthy." -- Choice

Product Details

BN ID:	2940162149316
Publisher:	Plunkett Lake Press
Publication date:	05/29/2018
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Sales rank:	1,040,580
File size:	6 MB

About the Author

Junius Irving Scales (1920-2002) was born into a wealthy North Carolina family on March 26, 1920. He read omnivorously in his father’s enormous library in the family home, near Greensboro, North Carolina and, later, in the Intimate Bookshop in Chapel Hill, when the family moved to that university town. There he became acquainted with the leaders and thinkers of the Communist movement and decided to commit himself to battling injustice and inequality. He had grown up with deep respect for the Negro servants and staff at his home and never tolerated racial segregation. He befriended the President of Bennett College, the historically Black women’s college in Greensboro and frequented his wife’s salon. He joined the Communist Party on his 19th birthday, March 26, 1939.

Junius served in the United States armed forces during the war. When he returned to university, he found a changed party and a changed society. The Communist Party eventually came under attack from forces within the FBI and the Congress. Junius was on the most wanted list from 1951 until his arrest in 1954 and then was on trial with appeals and retrial and further appeals until 1961. The Supreme Court decided 5-4, upholding the lower court and so he went to prison. He served 15 months of a six-year sentence and was released by President Kennedy in 1962, but never pardoned.

Richard Nickson (1917-2012) became a life-long friend of Junius on the campus of UNC, Chapel Hill. A professor of English Literature at William Paterson in New Jersey, Nickson was president of the Bernard Shaw Society, editor of The Independent Shavian and poet, whose Staves: A Book of Songs has been rendered by composers and singers across the country. He wrote numerous documentaries but was most proud of helping Junius finally tell his story.