Before the Nazis came to power in Germany, Soviet officials labeled the United States the most racist country in the world. Photographs, children s stories, films, newspaper articles, political education campaigns, and court proceedings exposed the hypocrisy of America s racial democracy. In contrast, the Soviets represented the USSR itself as a superior society where racism was absent and identified African Americans as valued allies in resisting an imminent imperialist war against the first workers state.
Meredith L. Roman s Opposing Jim Crow examines the period between 1928 and...