Beginnings in Chicago

• The Daily Worker, the Party's newspaper, was headquartered first in Chicago, but later moved to New York CityBrand X Pictures/Brand X Pictures/Getty Images
  
  The beginnings of the Communist Party in America can be traced back to Chicago in 1919, when the Daily Worker, the party's newspaper, and the party set up headquarters in the city. The Communist Party moved its headquarters for The Daily Worker from Chicago to New York City in the late 1920s. While the Daily Worker was in Chicago, the group fought police persecution and got involved in labor disputes. Even after the headquarters of the party moved to New York in 1927, Chicago's communists remained active.
  
  

Support for the Working Man

• Workers were oppressed and looking for a voice in the 1920s and 1930sGeneral Photographic Agency/Valueline/Getty Images
  
  Communism was attractive in the days when blue-collar workers had little rights. Via support from the Communist Party, workers had a voice to address the injustices of the oppressive working conditions that they faced at factories and elsewhere. They organized workers, creating unions to combat the dangerous working conditions of the 1930s, especially meat packers. In addition, they organized schools, fraternities, language centers and libraries to support the communities of the workers, and, in doing so, attracted a number of people who would never have considered membership.
  
  

Civil Rights

• In addition to giving support to the working class, they also attempted to garner support by getting involved in civil rights, particularly focusing on African Americans. If the plight of the average worker was difficult in this era, it was nothing compared to the brutal treatment faced by African Americans. The Communist Party was active in the early civil rights movement. In one instance they organized and marched in a funeral for two African American workers killed by police. The total number of marchers was estimated to be over 60,000 by the party and significantly less, 15,000, by the media. Even if the number was closer to the latter, it remains a sizable group marching for civil rights in that era.
  
  

The Goal of the Communist Party in America

• Forget the good works, the goal was the overthrow of the U.S. governmentHemera Technologies/AbleStock.com/Getty Images
  
  The aim of the Communist Party wasn't to support America's workers, nor to help African Americans gain rights. Since the early days, when Communist journalist John Reed was given $2 million to infiltrate America and gain a foothold, the Communist Party's aims were decidedly anti-American. They chose civil rights and worker support because that gained them support in large urban areas and furthered their attempts at espionage. The goal wasn't to support Americans, but to overthrow the capitalist giant.
  
  

Espionage During World War II

• Top secret details on the Manhattan Project, the quest to develop an atomic bomb, were given to the Soviets by Communist Party spiesDigital Vision./Photodisc/Getty Images
  
  Foreign-born members made up a sizable portion of the Communist Party's numbers in the 1920s and 1930s. While their efforts at espionage were often clumsy at first, there was a decided effort to undermine the United States, especially during World War II. During the war, using members with connections at the State Department, the Soviets were able to breach the Manhattan Project. Alger Hiss and others passed classified information that assisted the Soviet Union in their efforts to become nuclear. But not all members were spies. Historians assert that though there were over 500,000 members during the war years, less than 300 of those were involved in spying.