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experience into an indignant, uncompromising expression of struggle against oppression which has characterized this outstanding family and the whole Negro people in their battle for equality in all phases of American life. To read Mrs. Jackson's description of her husband's life is to know that the FBI portrait of the Communist leaders bears no resemblance to reality, is a ridiculous and foul caricature. A ruling class that hunts down such a man as James Jackson, harasses his wife and attempts to intimidate their children, is on the wrong track and must be righted or removed before it leads the entire nation to ruin. Mrs. Jackson has given us a much needed addition to the libertarian literature of this ear when so much "writing" is but the hackneyed recasting of the contents of police dossiers. In it we see - despite the difficulties of the moment - the molding of a real people's leader, the happy conjunction of the man and the times which makes for important turns in history. We see James Jackson approaching the height of his powers at the very moment when the movement for Negro equality and the need for solidarity among all workers have reached an unprecedented intensity in our country. No doubt James Jackson will return to active leadership in the struggles of the Negro people and the toiling millions of this land, to the warm companionship of his friends and the boundless love of his family. When he does,the ranks of the struggle for social advance, democracy and peace will be stronger for his presence. But that "when" depends, not on him, but on us who read his wife's words. The tens of thousands who know him, and the millions who want justice are called upon to fight for political amnesty - freedom - for James Jackson and his colleagues just as he has fought, without stint, all his life, for the freedom and security of the masses of men and women of the South. Honest men and women must know that agreement with his politics is no prerequisite for recognizing a common stake in his liberty. He must and can be fought free. This pamphlet by his distinguished and courageous wife tells why and how. Louis E. Burnham New York, N.Y. 4 [[end page]] [[start page]] Background [[connected arrows pointing to right across page]] It is a great effort to write these words. Memories pour through my brain and fill my heart. It is hard to capture in words that which ought rightfully be told in song: words are flat and dead things but a song has life and soul, and nourishes dreams, and joy, and hope, and glorious deeds, like the story of my husband. It is a hard thing to confine oneself merely to making words about one's beloved upon whose face one has not looked for what seems an eternity of time. I want so much to have now his warm comradeship; to hear again from his lips those winged words of exciting promise as he would give voice to his confident dreams of a free and bountiful new life for the world's humble peoples. For nearly two years now, my husband has been a hunted and harried "fugitive" in his own land. The agents of the FBI - who in the whole history of their organization have never found a single one of the lynchers of mire than five thousand of my people - have subjected his family and his friends to the unrelieved terrors of constant "surveillance" and "interrogation" in their relentless search for the whereabouts of my husband and his colleagues. Our children especially have been the target of their vindictiveness. For a year and a half now FBI agents have been watching and shadowing our daughters and their young friends everywhere. Last year they made attempts to have our younger daughter, Kathy, expelled from a city - supported nursery school. But this attack was doomed to failure. The people of the community and throughout the city were enraged by this obvious persecution of a child because of the political beliefs of her father. The Department of Welfare was forced to withdraw its ridiculous order expelling little Kathy from nursery school after protests began pouring in from citizens of all political beliefs and from all walks of life. 5