A Hubert Harrison Reader - Hardcover

Harrison, Hubert

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0819564699 ISBN 13: 9780819564696

Publisher: Wesleyan University Press, 2001

Synopsis

The St. Croix, Virgin Islands-born Hubert Harrison (1883-1927), known as "the father of Harlem radicalism," was a brilliant writer, orator, educator, critic, and political activist in New York in the 1910s and 1920s. Historian J. A. Rogers, in World's Great Men of Color, refers to Harrison as "the foremost Afro-American intellect of his time" and (amid chapters on Booker T. Washington, William Monroe Trotter, W. E. B. Du Bois, and Marcus Garvey) emphasizes that "none of the Afro-American leaders of his time had a saner and more effective program." During the 1910s and 1920s Harrison was a major influence on A. Philip Randolph, Garvey, and a generation of World War I-era activists and "common people." He is one of the truly important, yet neglected, figures of early twentieth-century America.

This individually introduced and annotated collection of one hundred thirty-eight articles offers a comprehensive presentation of Harrison's writings on class and race consciousness, socialism, the labor movement, the New Negro movement, religion, education, politics, Black leadership and leaders, international events, Caribbean topics, the Virgin Islands, literature and literary criticism, and the Black theater. Historian Ernest Allen, Jr., emphasizes that this work will "change the way we tend to look at Black thought generally in this period."

About this title

About the Authors

Jeffrey B. Perry is an independent scholar and author of the first critical biography of Harrison.

Jeffrey B. Perry is an independent, working-class scholar formally educated at Princeton, Harvard, Rutgers, and Columbia University. His research focuses on the role of white supremacy in undermining efforts at social change and on the importance of the struggle against white supremacy to social change. Perry preserved and inventoried the Hubert H. Harrison Papers (now at Columbia University's Rare Book and Manuscript Library) and is the author of Hubert Harrison: The Voice of Harlem Radicalism, 1883-1918 and of the forthcoming Writings of Hubert Harrison. He is also the literary executor for Theodore W. Allen, author of The Invention of the White Race. Perry is currently editing and inventorying Allen's papers and edited and introduced Allen's Class Struggle and the Origin of Racial Slavery: The Invention of the White Race.

From the Back Cover

"With publication of this volume it will be possible to trace the evolution of Harrison's thought for the first time ever. The appearance of Harrison's writings will most certainly not only fill a gap in our understanding of black radical and nationalist writings around the World War I period and beyond, but will also change the way in which we tend to look at black thought generally in this period."--Ernest Allen, Jr., W. E. B. Du Bois Department of Afro-American Studies, University of Massachusetts at Amherst

The brilliant writer, orator, educator, critic, and political activist Hubert Harrison (1883-1927) is one of thr truly important, yet neglected, figures of early twentieth-century America. Considered "the foremost Afro-American intellect of his time," Harrison, "the father of Harlem radicalism," combined class consciousness and race consciousness in a coherent political radicalism which stressed the revolutionary importance of struggle for African American equality, emphaized the duty of all workers to oppose white supremacy, and urged Blacks not wait on whites before taking steps to shape their future. His efforts significantly influenced A. Philip Randolph, Marcus Garvey, and a generation of activists and "common people."

This collection of essys, editorials, reviews, letters, and diary entries presents Harrison's views on class and race consciousness, socialism, the labor movement, the New Negro mopvement, religion, education, politics, Black leadership, international events, Caribbean topics, literary criticim, and the Black theater. It offers a profound and often unique analysis of issues, events, and individuals of early twentieth-century America and provides critical insights and counterpoints to the thinking of Booker T. Washington, W. E. B. Du Bois, and Garvey.

Jeffrey B. Perry is an independent scholar and author of the first critical biography of Harrison.

From the Inside Flap

"With publication of this volume it will be possible to trace the evolution of Harrison's thought for the first time ever. The appearance of Harrison's writings will most certainly not only fill a gap in our understanding of black radical and nationalist writings around the World War I period and beyond, but will also, I suspect, change the way in which we tend to look at black thought generally in this period." Ernest Allen, Jr., W.E.B. DuBois Department of Afro-American Studies, University of Massachusetts at Amherst

Edition details

• Publisher: Wesleyan University Press
• Publication date: 2001
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0819564699
• ISBN 13: 9780819564696
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 473
• Editor: Perry Jeffrey B.