Benjamin J. Davis, Jr. (September 8, 1903-August 22, 1964) was an African American lawyer and Communist elected in 1943 to the New York City Council representing Harlem. He served two terms as the Communist Councilman from Harlem. However, he was unceremoniously – perhaps, illegally – ousted in 1949 as the Red Scare intensified. During the 1950s McCarthy period, he served five years in jail as a victim of the fascist Smith Act. Gerald Horne’s Black Liberation / Red Scare: Ben Davis and the Communist Party is the definitive biography of Davis, and his autobiography is titled The Communist Councilman from Harlem.
