Max Yergan

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Max Yergan (born 1892 in Raleigh, North Carolina; died 1975) was an African American activist notable for being a Baptist missionary for the YMCA, then a Communist working with Paul Robeson, and finally a staunch Anti-Communist who complimented the government of apartheid-era South Africa.

Yergan came to South Africa in 1920 as a missionary for the YMCA. As a YMCA activist he was interested in improving social work in the nation and this influenced the founding of the Jan H. Hofmeyr School of Social Work. As a whole his experiences in South Africa radicalized him to the point he came to desire a more radical direction for the YMCA than it was willing to accept. After attempts to radicalize the YMCA failed he resigned from the organization in 1936 and became committed to Marxism. On his return to the United States he became the first African American to teach at City College of New York, but he was dismissed for his politics.^[1]

The Cold War led him to become disillusioned with Communism and ultimately to become strongly hostile to it. In 1952 he spoke against Communism on a visit to South Africa and in 1964 he praised the South African governments "separate development" plan. In the last decade of life he co-chaired the conservative "American-African Affairs Association."^[2]

[edit] Print reference

• Max Yergan Race Man, Internationalist, Cold Warrior by David Henry Anthony, III (2006, ISBN 0814707041)

[edit] Internet references