A Hubert Harrison Reader

Front Cover
Wesleyan University Press, Jun 5, 2001 - History - 473 pages

Critical writings by the "father of Harlem radicalism".

The brilliant writer, orator, educator, critic, and activist Hubert Harrison (1883 - 1927) is one of the truly important, yet neglected, figures of early twentieth-century America. Known as "the father of Harlem radicalism,' and a leading Socialist party speaker who advocated that socialists champion the cause of the Negro as a revolutionary doctrine, Harrison had an important influence on a generation of race and class radicals, including Marcus Garvey and A. Philip Randolph.

Harrison envisioned a socialism that had special appeal to African-Americans, and he affirmed the duty of socialists to oppose race-based oppression. Despite high praise from his contemporaries, Harrison's legacy has largely been neglected. This reader redresses the imbalance; Harrison's essays, editorials, reviews, letters, and diary entries offer a profound, and often unique, analysis of issues, events and individuals of early twentieth-century America. His writings also provide critical insights and counterpoints to the thinking of W. E. B. DuBois, Booker T. Washington and Marcus Garvey.

The reader is organized thematically to highlight Harrison's contributions to the debates on race, class, culture, and politics of his time. The writings span Harrison's career and the evolution of his thought, and include extensive political writings, editorials, meditations, reviews of theater and poetry, and deeply evocative social commentary.

From inside the book

Contents

Politics
5
78
22
81
23
86
25
95
27
97
28
A Product of Black WorkingClass Intellectual Circles in New York
31
5
40
The Paris Peace Congress
209
Africa at the Peace Table
210
Antiimperialism
212
Britain in India
213
When Might Makes Right
215
The LineUp on the Color Line
216
On Civilizing Africa
219
Imperialist America review of The American Empire by Scott Nearing
221

The Press
46
IThe Negro Problem Stated
52
How to Do It And How
60
Southern Socialists and the Ku Klux Klan
76
The Labor Movement
78
The Negro and the Labor Unions
79
The Negro in Industry review of The Great Steel Strike and Its Lessons by William Z Foster
81
Race Radicalism The Liberty League and The Voice
85
How It Came to
86
Resolutions Passed at the Liberty League Meeting
88
Declaration of Principles of the Liberty League
89
The Liberty Leagues Petition to the House of Representatives of the United States July 4 1917
92
East St Louis Houston and Armed SelfDefense
93
The East St Louis Horror
94
Houston vs Waco
95
The New Negro 24 As the Currents Flow
97
Our Larger Duty
99
The Need for It and The Nature of
101
Two Negro Radicalisms
102
The Women of Our Race
105
In the Melting Pot re Herodotus
106
The Negro World 30 Race First versus Class First
107
Just Crabs
109
Patronize Your
111
An Open Letter to the Socialist Party of New York City
113
The Boston Chronicle and The Voice of the Negro 34 Race Consciousness
116
Lincoln and Liberty
129
Fact versus Fiction Chapter Two
130
Fact versus Fiction Chapter Three
133
New Negro Politics
136
The Drift in Politics
137
The New Policies for the New Negro
139
The Coming Election
140
Our Professional Friends
143
Politics in the 1920s
147
UNeeda Biscuit
149
The Grand Old Party
151
When the Tail Wags the Dog
154
Our Political Power
155
The Black Tide Turns in Politics
157
Leaders and Leadership On Booker T Washington
163
Insistence upon Its Real Grievances the Only Course for the Race
164
The Liberty Congress and W E B Du Bois
166
The Liberty Congress
168
The Descent of Dr Du Bois
170
When the Blind Lead
173
Problems of Leadership
175
Shillady Resigns
177
A Tender Point
178
Our White Friends
180
Time as Editor of the Negro World and Comments on Marcus Garvey
182
On Garveys Character and Abilities
188
The UNIA Convention
191
Convention Bill of Rights and Elections
192
Marcus Garvey at the Bar of United States Justice
194
The NegroAmerican Speaks
199
Antiimperialism and Internationalism The Great War
201
The White War and the Colored World
202
The White War and the Colored Races
203
WantedA Colored International
223
Disarmament and the Washington Conference
228
The Washington Conference
229
Disarmament and the Darker Races
231
The Caribbean
234
The Cracker in the Caribbean
236
Hands across the Sea
238
The Virgin Islands
240
A Colonial Problem
241
Caribbean Peoples in the United States
250
Hubert Harrison Answers Malliet
253
Meditations 85 Goodwill toward Men
257
Heroes and HeroWorship and the Heroic in Human History
258
A Soul in Search of Itself
260
On Praise
263
Lynching the Klan Race Relations
265
Race Relations
272
Democracy in America
282
Literary Criticism Book Reviews and Book Reviewing
291
Review of Terms of Peace and the Darker Races
297
T Lothrop Stoddard
305
The Brown Man Leads the Way review of The New World
315
W E B Du Bois
319
Africa
325
Octavus Roy Cohen
336
Nigger HeavenA Review of the Reviewers
344
The Harlem Renaissance
351
Harlems Neglected Opportunities
357
Satyricon of Petronius letter to the New York Times
364
Early Theater Reviews
369
Negro Society and the Negro Stage Preamble
370
Negro Society and the Negro Stage Part 2
373
Reviews from the 1920s
377
The Emperor Jones
378
A Critical Interpretation by a Negro Critic
383
Poets and Poetry 131 The Black Mans Burden A Reply to Rudyard Kipling
389
Another Negro Poet
391
Poetry of Claude McKay
392
Black Bards of Yesterday and Today review of The Book of American Negro Poetry selected and edited by James Weldon Johnson
394
The International Colored Unity League and the Way Forward
397
Program and Principles of the International Colored Unity League
399
The Right Way to Unity
402
The Common People
404
The Roots of Power
405
Biographical Sources on Harrison
407
Notes
411
Education 35 Negro Culture and the Negro College 36 Education and the Race
426
51
429
71
441
English as She Is Spoke 38 Education out of School
453
Read Read Read
454
General Index
457
102
458
109
459
111
460
122
466
124
469
126
470
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About the author (2001)

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