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no objection to any Communists including Ades speaking on the program, but
Bethel AME banned him, and, as the guests of the church, the Forum had to
comply. Subsequently, the CP statement reported, Forum officials claimed that
they had banned the Communists from their programs because of the CP's
opposition to religion.
The party rejected all of these explanations, claiming mysteriously that
"certain interests in this state have brought pressure to bear on the Forum and on
Bethel Church to keep Communist party speakers from their platforms." The CP's
statement indicated that these interests would later be named, and that further
information on them could be sought at the CP office. The CP then accused the
Forum leaders of betraying their identity as "new young leaders .. of a different
type" who are "not compromisers," by caving in to the "old compliant misleadership"
of the Black community. In closing, the statement thanked Socialist party
candidate Broadus Mitchell for stating that "he would not care to speak on a better
social order for colored people on a platform from which Bernard Ades was
excluded." Despite the fact that the CP's statement was replete with Third-Period-
style assertiveness - like claims that the CP "is organizing and leading the fight
against jim-crowism in Maryland," and the "forum leaders are now discredited" —
the unease of the Baltimore CP over its rejection by the Forum is palpable.
The break between the CP and the Forum did not, however, indicate a
break between the CP and the Baltimore freedom movement as a whole. The
Afro, in an unprecedented editorial, rejected the Forum's explanation of excluding
Ades because of time constraints, scolded it for "muzzling" the Communists, and
accused it of "making its name and purpose a misnomer." A week later, the Afro
endorsed four Communist candidates for the state legislature, along with three
Republicans and one Socialist (Clarence Mitchell). Nevertheless, as an indication
that CP fortunes were generally on the decline compared to those of the Socialists,
the Afro, after writing that either Broadus Mitchell of Bernard Ades as governor
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