James S. Allen (1906-1986) was an American Marxist journalist, editor, activist, historian, leader of the Communist Party, USA, and former director of International Publishers. Allen is remembered as the editor of the CPUSA’s newspaper the Southern Worker; he is credited with bringing international attention to the campaign to save the lives of the Scottsboro Nine; and he is known as an expert on African American history. His book Reconstruction: The Battle for Democracy, 1865-1876 was recently republished by International Publishers with a new Foreword by Eric Foner.
Allen traveled to the Soviet Union in 1927, as part of the first American student delegation to visit the new socialist nation; he was later expelled from college for his radical activism. He wrote for the Daily Worker, was editor of the Labor Defender, the publication of the International Labor Defense, as well as editor of the Southern Worker. Allen wrote numerous pamphlets and books.