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By Root 921 0

That, Genora told Sol, was a problem “for [Sol] and the party to work out,” for she made it clear that she was not soon coming back to Flint. Having found her niche in the SWP and the UAW in Detroit, she intended to stay. “I am serious,” she told Sol, “about wanting some time to do some reading. . . . If we’re ever going to be back together again, I’d like to know it. Our marriage, even though it isn’t the major consideration, certainly looks pretty hopeless right now, doesn’t it?”79 Sol replied the next day: “Ever since I first met you it hasn’t been easy to decide which way we were going.”80 He believed her “refusals to consider Flint at all delays our getting together for a long period of time. The only way I will get out of Flint as I see it is when I am needed in some more important center of activity.” Uppermost in his mind was Trotskyism for world revolution and “the establishment of the Socialist Republic of Labor, for the American worker.” He added, “Capitalism with its slave wage system must be abolished and dictatorship of the Proletariat must be instituted if the complete emancipation of [workers] is to be a reality.”81

Sol and Genora loved each other; that is clear. Nevertheless, each put party interests before the welfare of the other. Could their mutual love survive loyalty to the party? Genora told Sol when he went to New York in mid-May 1946 to “put the problems between us out of your mind so you can concentrate on the bigger party problems.” Was it loyalty to the party or personal pique that caused Genora to write in such a manner? She was “deeply hurt” by Sol constantly characterizing her as a “flighty person” and blamed such behavior on his “pride.”82 She asked him to stop classifying her disagreements with him as “psychological reactions.”83 Responding, Sol asserted that “we have interests that don’t coincide.” They had been married now for nearly five years, and he told Genora that “as long as you have the feeling that you can be happier elsewhere without me we can never be happy. It will always be between us.” He regarded his proposed visit to New York as a “sort of swan song” and looked forward to it “with regret” because he knew their love had been blind; but with her eyes wide open, Genora had perhaps found a “better and happier life” than the one she’d had with Sol.84

The upshot of this dialogue was that Sol would remain in Flint (except for occasional visits to New York, Detroit, and other cities where labor activities were intense), and Genora would stay in Detroit. Both made this decision on matters of principle; maybe their marriage was strong enough to sustain lengthy separations, but, then again, maybe it was not. The overriding allegiance of each was to the party; the triumph of the proletariat through the SWP became the thought that consumed both of them.

Relations between Sol and Genora reached a stalemate by summer 1946. Sol remained in Flint, and Genora was “sticking to the Briggs’ boys” in Detroit, many of whom had the “DTs” from too much alcohol consumption.85 Among the comings and goings on Gladwin Street, a stray Boston bulldog, which Genora named “Bozo,” took up residence. Sol was pleased with the canine because he thought it might give Genora extra protection at home.

About the boys, she wrote presciently that “I think I made a mistake in getting the bike. They are gone constantly and won’t do anything around here.” In September 1946, Denny and Jody were riding their motorized bike, with Denny guiding and Jody riding the handlebars. Apparently, Denny went through a stop sign, and although cabbie Merton L. Mace tried to dodge them, the two boys were thrown off the bike, and Jody suffered serious head injuries. Rushed to Hurley Hospital, he died two days later. A distraught Genora swore that Mace had been speeding and so could not stop in time. She sued for $25,000 damages but later dropped the charges.86 Denny survived the crash with minor injuries.

Genora took Jody’s body back to Flint to the Reigle Funeral Home, where several of his classmates were pallbearers. Condolences