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But I wanted to fight. I wanted to -- this guy to do something that would then make it possible for me to beat the hell out of him.

Now, I was small, you know. He was larger than I. But I don't remember that I had ever been that angry before in my life, or subsequently. I just kept thinking, God damn it, the capital of the United States, and this damn stupidity, you know.

I never understood why I never joined the Communist Party, in terms of the intensity of my resentment of American racism. And I guess the only reason why I never joined the Communist Party was because I didn't trust them. I didn't like their racial condescension, you know. And they certainly did a hell of a lot of proselyting.

Now, we're talking about 1935. Wasn't that --?

-- well, I'm really talking from '32 through '35.

'35, and this was really toward the height of their proselytizing.

Oh, no question about it. Some of my best friends were members of the Communist Party. One of them, Jackson, is I think chairman of their committee. He was from Richmond.. And he certainly went out of his way to try to convince me that this was the only solution to the economic and racial problems of America. But I just didn't believe it. I didn't believe the glibness, the simplicity of their arguments, and I didn't trust the faclity with which they could go from one side of a question to another, depending upon orders. And in New York, you know, during summer time, I deeply resented their belief that white women were adequate bait for young black males, to get into the Communist Party. I resented that