105 Years Ago -- On May 1, 1912, International Workers Day, Hubert Harrison, one of the featured English language speakers of the Socialist Party, spoke at the May Day rally at Union Square (New York City) which, according to the New York Times, was attended by "some 50,000 organized workers, men and women, wearing the bright red of socialism as the world wide band of labor." For information on Harrison’s life see “Hubert Harrison: The Voice of Harlem Radicalism, 1883-1918” (Columbia University Press). For comments on that work by scholars and activists CLICK HERE
Hubert Harrison: 134 Year Birthdate Anniversary (April 27); Founder of First Organization and First Newspaper Of the Militant “New Negro Movement” in “Black Star News” CLICK HERE
“The Developing Conjuncture and Some Insights from Hubert Harrison and Theodore W. Allen on the Centrality of the Fight against White Supremacy” ("Cultural Logic," July 2010)
"Do-it-yourself scholars: No backing from the ivory tower. Plenty of grit." By Merrell Noden ’78 in "Princeton Alumni Weekly" April 22, 2009 Issue To read the article CLICK HERE
104,000 VIEWS This Video on Theodore W. Allen’s “The Invention of White Race” Has Just Passed the 104,000-Views Mark.
104,000 VIEWS -- This Video on Theodore W. Allen’s “The Invention of White Race” Has Just Passed the 104,000-Views Mark. It opens with some insights from the life and work of Hubert Harrison.
Please take time to watch the video, to share it with friends, and to call the work of Theodore W. Allen and Hubert Harrison to the attention of others.
Theodore W. Allen’s “Invention of the White Race” has been referred to as a “classic” by historians Nell Painter, Gerald Horne, Wilson J. Moses, and Gregory Meyerson and by social anthropologist Audrey Smedley.
Labor historian Joe Berry says it “is one of the most important books of U.S history ever written.”
Historian Mark Solomon of the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research, Harvard University, says, “The profound insights in ‘The Invention of the White Race’ are essential both to understand the origins and destructiveness of white supremacy and to provide the means to conduct struggle against it. Allen’s study is mandatory reading for everyone concerned with justice, equality and the liberation of all from the binds of white supremacy.”
Long time activist Carl Davidson emphasizes that “You simply can’t understand America and who we are without this [“The Invention of the White Race”] book.”
Special thanks to those who contributed to the book launch event that was the basis of this video on Allen’s “The Invention of the White Race” – including filmmaker Fred Nguyen; Muriel Tillinghast and Sean Ahern of “The Hubert Harrison and Theodore W. Allen Society”; Kazembe Balagun, Max Uhlenbeck, and Liz Mestres of the Brecht Forum; and Jessica Turner of Verso Books.
A second video on “The Invention of White Race,” recently filmed at a “multi-racial” worker organizing conference in Greensboro, NC, has exceptionally clear slides and is also attracting increased attention – see HERE Special thanks to organizer Ben Wilkins, who coordinated the two-day conference, and to Eric Preston (and Fusion Films) for work on the video.
For information on Theodore W. Allen’s “The Invention of the White Race” Volume I: “Racial Oppression and Social Control" (including comments from scholars and activists, Table of Contents, and an overview of the volume) see HERE Note – the new, expanded Verso Books edition of this volume includes new introductions and notes, an expanded index, and a lengthy and detailed internal study guide.
For information on Theodore W. Allen’s “The Invention of the White Race” Volume II: "The Origin of Racial Oppression in Anglo America" (including comments from scholars and activists, Table of Contents, and an overview of the volume) see HERE Note – the new, expanded Verso Books edition of this volume includes new introductions and notes, an expanded index, and a lengthy and detailed internal study guide.
For information on Theodore W. Allen’s “Summary of the Argument of The Invention of the White Race” Part 1 see HERE and for Part 2 see HERE
For additional writings by and about Theodore W. Allen see HERE
For an in-depth treatment of the development of the work of Theodore W. Allen see “The Developing Conjuncture and Some Insights From Hubert Harrison and Theodore W. Allen on the Centrality of the Fight Against White Supremacy” in PDF format at the TOP LEFT at HERE or at “Cultural Logic” at HERE
For a video interview with Theodore W. Allen on “The Invention of the White Race” conducted by New York City schoolteacher Stella Winston and viewed by over 105,000 people see HERE
For information on “Hubert Harrison: The Voice of Harlem Radicalism, 1883-1918” (Columbia University Press, 2008) see HERE
For information on “A Hubert Harrison Reader” (Wesleyan University Press, 2001) see HERE
For information on Hubert H. Harrison, “When Africa Awakes: The ‘Inside Story’ of the Stirrings and Strivings of the New Negro in the Western World,” New Expanded Edition (Diasporic Africa Press, 2015) see HERE
For a video on Hubert Harrison based on a presentation at the Dudley Public Library in Roxbury, Massachusetts – see -- HERE Special thanks to Mimi Jones, Friends of the Dudley Library, Alliance for a Secular and Democratic South Asia, Massachusetts Global Action. Mirna Lascano, Umang Kumar, and Charlie Welch for making the event possible and to Boston Neighborhood News TV's "Around Town" -- Channel: Comcast 9 / RCN 15 -- Justin D. Shannahan, Production Manager, Ted Lewis, cameraman, and Laura Kerivan, copy editor, Nia Grace (Marketing and Promotions Manager), and Scott Mercer for helping to make the video available.
For a recent video on Hubert Harrison done at the St. Croix Landmarks Society, Estate Whim, St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands – see Read More
Hubert Harrison (1883-1927), the “father of Harlem radicalism” and founder of the militant “New Negro Movement,” is a giant of our history. He was extremely important in his day and his significant contributions and influence are attracting increased study and discussion today. On the anniversary of his December 17, 1927, death let us all make a commitment to learn more about the important struggles that he and others waged. Let us also commit to share this knowledge with others.
Harrison was born in St. Croix, Danish West Indies, on April 27, 1883, to a laboring-class Bajan mother and a born-enslaved, plantation-laboring Crucian father. He arrived in New York as a seventeen-year-old orphan in 1900. He made his mark in the United States by struggling against class and racial oppression, by helping to create a remarkably rich and vibrant intellectual life among African Americans and by working for the enlightened development of the lives of those he affectionately referred to as “the common people.” He consistently emphasized the need for working class people to develop class-consciousness; for “Negroes” to develop race consciousness, self-reliance, and self-respect; and for all those he reached to challenge white supremacy and develop an internationalist spirit and modern, scientific, critical, and independent thought as a means toward liberation.
A self-described “radical internationalist,” Harrison was extremely well-versed in history and events in Africa, the Caribbean, Asia, the Mideast, the Americas, and Europe and he wrote voluminously and lectured indoors and out on these topics. More than any other political leader of his era, he combined class-consciousness and anti-white supremacist race consciousness in a coherent political radicalism. He opposed capitalism and imperialism and maintained that white supremacy was central to capitalist rule in the United States. He emphasized that “politically, the Negro is the touchstone of the modern democratic idea”; that “as long as the Color Line exists, all the perfumed protestations of Democracy on the part of the white race” were “downright lying” and “the cant of ‘Democracy’” was “intended as dust in the eyes of white voters”; that true democracy and equality for “Negroes” implied “a revolution . . . startling even to think of,” and that “capitalist imperialism which mercilessly exploits the darker races for its own financial purposes is the enemy which we must combine to fight.”
Working from this theoretical framework, he was active with a wide variety of movements and organizations and played signal roles in the development of what were, up to that time, the largest class radical movement (socialism) and the largest race radical movement (the “New Negro”/Garvey movement) in U.S. history. His ideas on the centrality of the struggle against white supremacy anticipated the profound transformative power of the Civil Rights/Black Liberation struggles of the 1960s and his thoughts on “democracy in America” offer penetrating insights on the limitations and potential of America in the twenty-first century.
Harrison served as the foremost Black organizer, agitator, and theoretician in the Socialist Party of New York during its 1912 heyday; he founded the first organization (the Liberty League) and the first newspaper (The Voice) of the militant, World War I-era “New Negro” movement; edited The New Negro: A Monthly Magazine of a Different Sort (“intended as an organ of the international consciousness of the darker races -- especially of the Negro race”) in 1919; wrote When Africa Awakes: The “Inside Story” of the Stirrings and Strivings of the New Negro in the Western World in 1920; and he served as the editor of the Negro World and principal radical influence on the Garvey movement during its radical high point in 1920.
His views on race and class profoundly influenced a generation of “New Negro” militants including the class radical Randolph and the race radical Garvey. Considered more race conscious than Randolph and more class conscious than Garvey, Harrison is the key link in the ideological unity of the two great trends of the Black Liberation Movement -- the labor and civil rights trend associated with Martin Luther King, Jr., and the race and nationalist trend associated with Malcolm X. (Randolph and Garvey were, respectively, the direct links to King marching on Washington, with Randolph at his side, and to Malcolm (whose father was a Garveyite preacher and whose mother wrote for the Negro World), speaking militantly and proudly on street corners in Harlem.
Harrison was not only a political radical, however. Rogers described him as an “Intellectual Giant and Free-Lance Educator,” whose contributions were wide-ranging, innovative, and influential. He was an immensely skilled self-educated lecturer (for the New York City Board of Education) who spoke and/or read six languages; a highly praised journalist, critic, and book reviewer (who reportedly started "the first regular book-review section known to Negro newspaperdom"); a pioneer Black activist in the freethought and birth control movements; and a bibliophile and library builder and popularizer who was an officer of the committee that helped develop the 135th Street Public Library into what has become known as the internationally famous Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.
Hubert Harrison was truly extraordinary and people are encouraged to learn about and discuss his life and work and to Keep Alive the Struggles and Memory of this Giant of Black History.
Additional Information
For comments from scholars and activists on Hubert Harrison: The Voice of Harlem Radicalism, 1883-1918" (Columbia University Press) see HERE and see HERE
For information on "A Hubert Harrison Reader" (Wesleyan University Press) see HERE
For information on the new, expanded, Diasporic Africa Press edition of Hubert H. Harrison's “When Africa Awakes: The 'Inside Story’ of the Stirrings and Strivings of the New Negro in the Western World” see HERE
For articles, audios, and videos by and about Hubert Harrison see HERE
For a video of a Slide Presentation/Talk on Hubert Harrison at the Dudley Public Library, Roxbury, Mass. filmed by Boston Neighborhood News TV see HERE
For a NEW VIDEO of a Slide Presentation/Talk on HUBERT HARRISON the “Father of Harlem Radicalism” for the St. Croix Landmarks Society see HERE (Note: The slides are very clear.) Read More
Mark the Date! -- Thursday, November 17th at 9 am Hubert Harrison will be discussed in an E. Ethelbert Miller “On The Margin” interview with Harrison’s biographer, Jeffrey B. Perry. This follows by one week Miller’s November 10th “On The Margin” interview with Paul Buhle on C. L. R. James. The programs can be accessed HERE. E. Ethelbert Miller’s website is HERE Read More
“Hubert Harrison and the Founding of the Militant 'New Negro Movement” will be the subject of a slide presentation talk by Dr. Jeffrey B. Perry, on Friday, October 28, 2016, from 2:45pm – 4:00pm at the Third Annual Philosophy and Religion in Africana Traditions Conference, Center for Place, Culture and Politics -- The Graduate Center of The City University of New York -- Rooms C201/C202, 365 Fifth Avenue, b/n 34th &35th streets, New York, New York 10016 -- The conference is free and open to the public. Read More
100,000 VIEWS This Video on Theodore W. Allen’s “The Invention of White Race” Has Just Passed the 100,000-Views Mark.
100,000 VIEWS -- This Video on Theodore W. Allen’s “The Invention of White Race” Has Just Passed the 100,000-Views Mark. It opens with some insights from the life and work of Hubert Harrison.
Please take time to watch the video, to share it with friends, and to call the work of Theodore W. Allen and Hubert Harrison to the attention of others.
Theodore W. Allen’s “Invention of the White Race” has been referred to as a “classic” by historians Nell Painter, Gerald Horne, Wilson J. Moses, and Gregory Meyerson and by social anthropologist Audrey Smedley.
Labor historian Joe Berry says it “is one of the most important books of U.S history ever written.”
Historian Mark Solomon of the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research, Harvard University, says, “The profound insights in ‘The Invention of the White Race’ are essential both to understand the origins and destructiveness of white supremacy and to provide the means to conduct struggle against it. Allen’s study is mandatory reading for everyone concerned with justice, equality and the liberation of all from the binds of white supremacy.”
Long time activist Carl Davidson emphasizes that “You simply can’t understand America and who we are without this [“The Invention of the White Race”] book.”
Special thanks to those who contributed to the book launch event that was the basis of this video on Allen’s “The Invention of the White Race” – including filmmaker Fred Nguyen; Muriel Tillinghast and Sean Ahern of “The Hubert Harrison and Theodore W. Allen Society”; Kazembe Balagun, Max Uhlenbeck, and Liz Mestres of the Brecht Forum; and Jessica Turner of Verso Books.
A second video on “The Invention of White Race,” recently filmed at a “multi-racial” worker organizing conference in Greensboro, NC, has exceptionally clear slides and is also attracting increased attention – see HERE Special thanks to organizer Ben Wilkins, who coordinated the two-day conference, and to Eric Preston (and Fusion Films) for work on the video.
For information on Theodore W. Allen’s “The Invention of the White Race” Volume I: “Racial Oppression and Social Control" (including comments from scholars and activists, Table of Contents, and an overview of the volume) see HERE Note – the new, expanded Verso Books edition of this volume includes new introductions and notes, an expanded index, and a lengthy and detailed internal study guide.
For information on Theodore W. Allen’s “The Invention of the White Race” Volume II: "The Origin of Racial Oppression in Anglo America" (including comments from scholars and activists, Table of Contents, and an overview of the volume) see HERE Note – the new, expanded Verso Books edition of this volume includes new introductions and notes, an expanded index, and a lengthy and detailed internal study guide.
For information on Theodore W. Allen’s “Summary of the Argument of The Invention of the White Race” Part 1 see HERE and for Part 2 see HERE
For additional writings by and about Theodore W. Allen see HERE
For an in-depth treatment of the development of the work of Theodore W. Allen see “The Developing Conjuncture and Some Insights From Hubert Harrison and Theodore W. Allen on the Centrality of the Fight Against White Supremacy” in PDF format at the TOP LEFT at HERE or at “Cultural Logic” at HERE
For a video interview with Theodore W. Allen on “The Invention of the White Race” conducted by New York City schoolteacher Stella Winston and viewed by over 105,000 people see HERE
For information on “Hubert Harrison: The Voice of Harlem Radicalism, 1883-1918” (Columbia University Press, 2008) see HERE
For information on “A Hubert Harrison Reader” (Wesleyan University Press, 2001) see HERE
For information on Hubert H. Harrison, “When Africa Awakes: The ‘Inside Story’ of the Stirrings and Strivings of the New Negro in the Western World,” New Expanded Edition (Diasporic Africa Press, 2015) see HERE
For a video on Hubert Harrison based on a presentation at the Dudley Public Library in Roxbury, Massachusetts – see -- HERE Special thanks to Mimi Jones, Friends of the Dudley Library, Alliance for a Secular and Democratic South Asia, Massachusetts Global Action. Mirna Lascano, Umang Kumar, and Charlie Welch for making the event possible and to Boston Neighborhood News TV's "Around Town" -- Channel: Comcast 9 / RCN 15 -- Justin D. Shannahan, Production Manager, Ted Lewis, cameraman, and Laura Kerivan, copy editor, Nia Grace (Marketing and Promotions Manager), and Scott Mercer for helping to make the video available.
For a recent video on Hubert Harrison done at the St. Croix Landmarks Society, Estate Whim, St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands – see Read More
Hubert Harrison, “The Voice of Harlem Radicalism.” Presentation by Jeffrey B. Perry at the St. Croix Landmarks Society Event “Coming Home to St. Croix,” at Estate Whim, St. Croix, July 19, 2016.
Hubert H. Harrison (1883-1927) is one of the truly important figures of twentieth-century history. A brilliant writer, orator, educator, critic, and political activist, he was described by Joel A. Rogers, in "World's Great Men of Color" as "perhaps the foremost Afro-American intellect of his time." Labor and civil rights leader A. Philip Randolph described Harrison as "the father of Harlem Radicalism." Bibliophile Arthur Schomburg, fully aware of his popularity, eulogized to the thousands attending Harrison’s Harlem funeral that he was also “ahead of his time.” Hubert Harrison has much to offer us today!
Harrison served as the foremost Black organizer, agitator, and theoretician in the Socialist Party of New York during its 1912 heyday; he founded the first organization (the Liberty League) and the first newspaper ("The Voice") of the militant, World War I-era "New Negro" movement; edited "The New Negro: A Monthly Magazine of a Different Sort" ("intended as an organ of the international consciousness of the darker races -- especially of the Negro race") in 1919; wrote "When Africa Awakes: The 'Inside Story' of the Stirrings and Strivings of the New Negro in the Western World" in 1920; and he served as editor of the "Negro World" and principal radical influence on the Garvey movement during its radical high point in 1920.
His views on race and class profoundly influenced a generation of "New Negro" militants and common people including the class radical A. Philip Randolph and the race radical Marcus Garvey. Considered more race conscious than Randolph and more class conscious than Garvey, Harrison is the key link in the ideological unity of the two great trends of the Black Liberation Movement -- the labor and civil rights trend associated with Martin Luther King, Jr., and the race and nationalist trend associated with Malcolm X. (Randolph and Garvey were, respectively, the direct links to King marching on Washington, with Randolph at his side, and to Malcolm (whose father was a Garveyite preacher and whose mother wrote for the "Negro World"), speaking militantly and proudly on street corners in Harlem.
Harrison was also an immensely skilled and popular orator and educator; a highly praised journalist, critic, and book reviewer; a pioneer Black activist in the freethought and birth control movements; and a bibliophile and library builder and popularizer who helped develop the 135th Street Public Library into what is now the internationally famous Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.
Special Thanks to Mrs. Sonia Jacobs Dow, Executive Director, St. Croix Landmarks Society; Naeemah Legair, Communications Intern, St. Croix Landmarks Society; Mary Roebuck, Volunteer, St. Croix Landmarks Society; George F. Tyson, Historian; Douglas Canton, “Reflections,” WSTX 970 AM; David Christian, “Its Your Perspective Talk Show,” WSTX 970 AM; Campbell “Ras Soup” Carter, “Its Your Perspective Talk Show,” WSTX 970 AM; Victor Edney, Jr., Audio System, Recording; Chalana Brown, Photography; and again, a very special thanks to Douglas Canton for Videography, Composition and Editing.
For comments from scholars and activists on "Hubert Harrison: The Voice of Harlem Radicalism, 1883-1918" (Columbia University Press) see -- HERE
For information on "A Hubert Harrison Reader" (Wesleyan University Press) see -- HERE
For information on the new, Diasporic Africa Press expanded edition of Hubert H. Harrison's “When Africa Awakes: The 'Inside Story’ of the Stirrings and Strivings of the New Negro in the Western World” see -- HERE
For a video of a Slide Presentation/Talk on Hubert Harrison see -- HERE
For a video of a Slide Presentation/Talk on Hubert Harrison "The Father of Harlem Radicalism" and Founder of the Militant New Negro Movement see -- HERE
104 years ago (on September 14, 1912) in “Enlightening Wall Street” the New York Times reported that “Hubert Harrison, an eloquent and forceful negro speaker, shattered all records for distance in an address on Socialism in front of the Stock Exchange building yesterday [September 13]” His “voice carried to the furthermost limits of the crowd,” he “was still going strong, at the beginning of the third hour,” and he continued on until “the big gong in the Exchange announced the closing.”
Hubert Harrison (1883-1927) was a brilliant writer, orator, editor and political activist who was described by J. A. Rogers as “perhaps the foremost Afro-American intellect of his time” and by A. Philip Randolph as “the father of Harlem Radicalism.”
Hubert Harrison was the leading Black activist in the Socialist Party around 1912 when he emphasized that politically, the Negro is the touchstone of the modern democratic idea” and when he lectured on socialism as many as 23 times a week (including speaking before 40,000 people in Manhattan’s Union Square).
By 1917 Hubert Harrison was the founder of the militant “New Negro Movement,” a precursor to the Black Power Movement of the 1960s, and he was organizing a massive Harlem rally that protested the white supremacist “pogrom” (his word) on the African American community of East St. Louis, Illinois (12 miles from Ferguson, Missouri).
Hubert Harrison was a major radical influence on both A. Philip Randolph and Marcus Garvey and on a generation of “New Negroes.” (Extending those political lines of descent leads to Martin and Malcolm).
When he died unexpectedly from an appendicitis-related condition in 1927 bibliophile Arthur Schomburg, knowing how popular Harrison was in his day, presciently eulogized that Hubert Harrison “was ahead of his time.”
In the 21st century we have much to learn from Hubert Harrison and the struggles he and others waged!
For comments from scholars and activists on "Hubert Harrison: The Voice of Harlem Radicalism, 1883-1918" (Columbia University Press) see -- HERE
For information on "A Hubert Harrison Reader" (Wesleyan University Press) see -- HERE
For a video of a Slide Presentation/Talk on Hubert Harrison see -- HERE
Enslaved Black Labor As Proletarian "the most thoroughly exploited of the American proletariat, . . ."
A Key to the Study of Class Consciousness in the U.S.
"The ten million Negroes of America form a group that is more essentially proletarian than any other American group . . . and the Negro was . . . [under slavery] the most thoroughly exploited of the American proletariat, . . . the most thoroughly despised."
Hubert Harrison "Socialism and the Negro," International Socialist Review, 1912
"The South, after the [Civil] war, presented the greatest opportunity for a real national labor movement which the nation ever saw or is likely to see for many decades. Yet the [white] labor movement, with but few exceptions, never realized the situation. It never had the intelligence or knowledge, as a whole, to see in black slavery and Reconstruction, the kernel and the meaning of the labor movement in the United States."
W.E.B. Du Bois Black Reconstruction, 1935
"Given this understanding of slavery in Anglo-America as capitalism, and of the slaveholders as capitalists, it follows that the chattel bond-laborers were proletarians. Accordingly, the study of class consciousness as a sense the American workers have of their own class interests, must start with recognition of that fact."
Theodore W. Allen "On Roediger's The Wages of Whiteness,'" 2001
The quotes are from “The Developing Conjuncture and Some Insights From Hubert Harrison and Theodore W. Allen on the Centrality of the Fight Against White Supremacy” available in PDF format at the TOP LEFT Here or at “Cultural Logic” HERE
For a NEW VIDEO of a Slide Presentation/Talk on HUBERT HARRISON the “Father of Harlem Radicalism” HERE (Note: The slides are very clear.)
For a shorter video of a Slide Presentation/Talk on Hubert Harrison see HERE
For “Theodore W. Allen and ‘The Invention of the White Race’” slide presentation/talk by Jeffrey B. Perry at a June 2016 “Multiracial Organizing Conference” against white supremacy in Greensboro, NC see HERE (Slides in this video are very clear).
For a widely viewed video on Theodore W. Allen’s “The Invention of the White Race” see HERE
For information on "A Hubert Harrison Reader" (Wesleyan University Press) see HERE
For information on the new, expanded, Diasporic Africa Press edition of Hubert H. Harrison's “When Africa Awakes: The 'Inside Story’ of the Stirrings and Strivings of the New Negro in the Western World” see HERE
For a shorter video of a Slide Presentation/Talk on Hubert Harrison see HERE
For articles, audios, and videos by and about Hubert Harrison see HERE
Hubert Harrison, The Voice of Harlem Radicalism - Jeffrey B. Perry, St. Croix, 19 July 2016
Hubert Harrison, “The Voice of Harlem Radicalism.” Presentation by Jeffrey B. Perry at the St. Croix Landmarks Society Event “Coming Home to St. Croix,” at Estate Whim, St. Croix, July 19, 2016.
Hubert H. Harrison (1883-1927) is one of the truly important figures of twentieth-century history. A brilliant writer, orator, educator, critic, and political activist, he was described by Joel A. Rogers, in "World's Great Men of Color" as "perhaps the foremost Afro-American intellect of his time." Labor and civil rights leader A. Philip Randolph described Harrison as "the father of Harlem Radicalism." Bibliophile Arthur Schomburg, fully aware of his popularity, eulogized to the thousands attending Harrison’s Harlem funeral that he was also “ahead of his time.” Hubert Harrison has much to offer us today!
Harrison served as the foremost Black organizer, agitator, and theoretician in the Socialist Party of New York during its 1912 heyday; he founded the first organization (the Liberty League) and the first newspaper ("The Voice") of the militant, World War I-era "New Negro" movement; edited "The New Negro: A Monthly Magazine of a Different Sort" ("intended as an organ of the international consciousness of the darker races -- especially of the Negro race") in 1919; wrote "When Africa Awakes: The 'Inside Story' of the Stirrings and Strivings of the New Negro in the Western World" in 1920; and he served as editor of the "Negro World" and principal radical influence on the Garvey movement during its radical high point in 1920.
His views on race and class profoundly influenced a generation of "New Negro" militants and common people including the class radical A. Philip Randolph and the race radical Marcus Garvey. Considered more race conscious than Randolph and more class conscious than Garvey, Harrison is the key link in the ideological unity of the two great trends of the Black Liberation Movement -- the labor and civil rights trend associated with Martin Luther King, Jr., and the race and nationalist trend associated with Malcolm X. (Randolph and Garvey were, respectively, the direct links to King marching on Washington, with Randolph at his side, and to Malcolm (whose father was a Garveyite preacher and whose mother wrote for the Negro World), speaking militantly and proudly on street corners in Harlem.
Harrison was also an immensely skilled and popular orator and educator; a highly praised journalist, critic, and book reviewer; a pioneer Black activist in the freethought and birth control movements; and a bibliophile and library builder and popularizer who helped develop the 135th Street Public Library into what is now the internationally famous Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.
Special Thanks to Mrs. Sonia Jacobs Dow, Executive Director, St. Croix Landmarks Society; Naeemah Legair, Communications Intern, St. Croix Landmarks Society; Mary Roebuck, Volunteer, St. Croix Landmarks Society; George F. Tyson, Historian; Douglas Canton, “Reflections,” WSTX 970 AM; David Christian, “Its Your Perspective Talk Show,” WSTX 970 AM; Campbell “Ras Soup” Carter, “Its Your Perspective Talk Show,” WSTX 970 AM; Victor Edney, Jr., Audio System, Recording; Chalana Brown, Photography; and again, a very special thanks to Douglas Canton for Videography, Composition and Editing.
For comments from scholars and activists on "Hubert Harrison: The Voice of Harlem Radicalism, 1883-1918" (Columbia University Press) CLICK HERE and CLICK HERE
For information on "A Hubert Harrison Reader" (Wesleyan University Press) CLICK HERE
For information on the new, expanded, Diasporic Africa Press edition of Hubert H. Harrison's “When Africa Awakes: The 'Inside Story’ of the Stirrings and Strivings of the New Negro in the Western World” CLICK HERE
For a shorter video of a Slide Presentation/Talk on Hubert Harrison CLICK HERE
For articles, audios, and videos by and about Hubert Harrison CLICK HERE
For more on Harrison and on the work of Theodore W. Allen see "The Developing Conjuncture and Some Insights from Hubert Harrison and Theodore W. Allen on the Centrality of the Fight Against White Supremacy" available at top left HERE (top left) and HERE
For “Hubert Harrison, Theodore W. Allen, and the Centrality of the Struggle Against White Supremacy” by Jeffrey B. Perry CLICK HERE
For those interested in a video on Theodore W. Allen's work, which focuses on "The Invention of the White Race," especially Volume II: "The Origin of Racial Oppression in Anglo-America" CLICK HERE and CLICK HERE Read More
Hubert Harrison spoke on August 25, 1920 at the Universal Negro Improvement Association’s “First International Convention of the Negro Peoples of the World.” He spoke at the Marcus Garvey movement's Liberty Hall on "What Shall We Do To Be Saved?" The "Negro World" article on his talk commented:
“Mr. Harrison is the most scholarly and learned member of the convention no one will deny; for that matter, there is scarcely a man in all the race whose learning is so profound, whose knowledge of economics, religion, sociology, science, art, politics, literature is such as seems inexhaustible. . . . But, best of all, this man of remarkable erudition is daily endeavoring to use his learning and knowledge in helping to solve the problems of his race, a very commendable example to others possessing talents and training of a very high order.”
For a NEW VIDEO of a Slide Presentation/Talk on HUBERT HARRISON the “Father of Harlem Radicalism” Click Here (Note: The slides are very clear.)
For comments from scholars and activists on "Hubert Harrison: The Voice of Harlem Radicalism, 1883-1918" (Columbia University Press) Click Here and Click Here
For information on "A Hubert Harrison Reader" (Wesleyan University Press) Click Here
For information on the new, expanded, Diasporic Africa Press edition of Hubert H. Harrison's “When Africa Awakes: The 'Inside Story’ of the Stirrings and Strivings of the New Negro in the Western World” Click Here
For a shorter video of a Slide Presentation/Talk on Hubert Harrison Click Here
For articles, audios, and videos by and about Hubert Harrison Click Here
Hubert Harrison, “The Voice of Harlem Radicalism.” Presentation at the St. Croix Landmarks Society Event “Coming Home to St. Croix,” at Estate Whim, St. Croix, July 19, 2016. CLICK HERE Just Released!
St. Croix-born, Harlem-based Harrison (1883-1927) is one of the most important radical thinker/activists of twentieth-century America. A brilliant writer, orator, educator, critic, and political activist, he was described by the historian Joel A. Rogers, in “World’s Great Men of Color” as “perhaps the foremost Aframerican intellect of his time” and “one of America’s greatest minds.” Labor and civil rights leader A. Philip Randolph described Harrison as “the father of Harlem Radicalism.” Bibliophile Arthur Schomburg, fully aware of his popularity, eulogized to the thousands attending Harrison’s Harlem funeral that he was also “ahead of his time.” He has much to offer us today!
Special Thanks to Mrs. Sonia Jacobs Dow, Executive Director, St. Croix Landmarks Society; Naeemah Legair, Communications Intern, St. Croix Landmarks Society; Mary Roebuck, Volunteer, St. Croix Landmarks Society; George F. Tyson, Historian; Douglas Canton, “Reflections,” WSTX 970 AM; David Christian, “Its Your Perspective Talk Show,” WSTX 970 AM; Campbell “Ras Soup” Carter, “Its Your Perspective Talk Show,” WSTX 970 AM; Victor Edney, Jr., Audio System, Recording; Chalana Brown, Photography; and again, a very special thanks to Douglas Canton for Videography, Composition and Editing.
For a video interview with Theodore W. Allen on “The Invention of the White Race” conducted by Stella Winston and viewed by over 10,000 people CLICK HERE For comments from scholars and activists on "Hubert Harrison: The Voice of Harlem Radicalism, 1883-1918" (Columbia University Press) CLICK HERE
For information on "A Hubert Harrison Reader" (Wesleyan University Press) CLICK HERE
For information on the new, expanded, Diasporic Africa Press edition of Hubert H. Harrison's “When Africa Awakes: The 'Inside Story’ of the Stirrings and Strivings of the New Negro in the Western World” CLICK HERE
For a video of a Slide Presentation/Talk on Hubert Harrison CLICK HERE
For articles, audios, and videos by and about Hubert Harrison CLICK HERE
This interview by Paul Malachi and Tony Van Der Meer was done for “Community Conversations,” Boston Neighborhood News Television Studio, Roxbury, Massachusetts.
Among those who worked on the video production effort were: DVD/Audio Operator Bradley Lewis. Graphics Operator Tomek Doros; Cameras Chris West, Reggie Brown, Rony Tshiamala; Studio Production Interns Rony Tshiamala and Bradley Lewis; Studio Technician Tomek Doros; and Studio Manager Barbara Barrow-Murray.
The interview discusses aspects of Jeffrey B. Perry's work, which focuses on the role of white supremacy as a retardant to progressive social change and on the centrality of struggle against white supremacy to progressive social change efforts.
Particular attention is paid to the life and work of the anti-white supremacist working class intellectuals and activists Hubert Harrison (“The Father of Harlem Radicalism”) and Theodore W. Allen (pioneer of “white skin privilege" analysis and author of “The Invention of the White Race”).
Harrison (“The Father of Harlem Radicalism”) and Theodore W. Allen (pioneer of “white skin privilege analysis” and author of “The Invention of the White Race”) are two of the twentieth century's most important thinker on race and class.
For comments from scholars and activists on "Hubert Harrison: The Voice of Harlem Radicalism, 1883-1918" (Columbia University Press) CLICK HERE
For information on "A Hubert Harrison Reader" (Wesleyan University Press) CLICK HERE
For information on the new, expanded, Diasporic Africa Press edition of Hubert H. Harrison's “When Africa Awakes: The 'Inside Story’ of the Stirrings and Strivings of the New Negro in the Western World” CLICK HERE
For a video of a Slide Presentation/Talk on Hubert Harrison CLICK HERE
For articles, audios, and videos by and about Hubert Harrison CLICK HERE
For a widely viewed video of a slide presentation/talk on Allen’s “Invention” (2 vols.; Verso Books, new expanded edition, 2012), which opens with some insights from the life and work of Hubert Harrison (“The Father of Harlem Radicalism”), CLICK HERE
For “Theodore W. Allen and ‘The Invention of the White Race’” video of slide presentation/talk by Jeffrey B. Perry at a June 2016 “Multiracial Organizing Conference” against white supremacy in Greensboro, NC CLICK HERE (Slides in this video are very clear).
For information on Theodore W. Allen’s “The Invention of the White Race” Volume II: "The Origin of Racial Oppression in Anglo America" (including comments from scholars and activists, Table of Contents, and an overview of the volume) CLICK HERE Note – the new, expanded Verso Books edition of this volume includes new introductions and notes, an expanded index, and a lengthy and detailed internal study guide.
For information on Theodore W. Allen’s “The Invention of the White Race” Volume I: “Racial Oppression and Social Control" (including comments from scholars and activists, Table of Contents, and an overview of the volume) CLICK HERE Note – the new, expanded Verso Books edition of this volume includes new introductions and notes, an expanded index, and a lengthy and detailed internal study guide.
For information on Theodore W. Allen’s “Summary of the Argument of The Invention of the White Race” Part 1 CLICK HERE and for Part 2 CLICK HERE
For an in-depth treatment of the development of the work of Theodore W. Allen see “The Developing Conjuncture and Some Insights From Hubert Harrison and Theodore W. Allen on the Centrality of the Fight Against White Supremacy” in PDF format at the TOP LEFT CLICK HERE or at “Cultural Logic” CLICK HERE
For additional writings by and about Theodore W. Allen CLICK HERE
95,000 Views – Theodore W. Allen’s “The Invention of White Race” - Presentation by Jeffrey B. Perry. This video of a slide presentation/talk on Allen’s “Invention” (2 vols.; Verso Books, new expanded edition, 2012), which opens with some insights from the life and work of Hubert Harrison (“The Father of Harlem Radicalism”), has just passed the 95,000 -Viewers Mark. See HERE
See also “Theodore W. Allen and ‘The Invention of the White Race’” video of slide presentation/talk by Jeffrey B. Perry at a June 2016 “Multiracial Organizing Conference” against white supremacy in Greensboro, NC HERE (Slides in this video are very clear).
Harrison and Allen are two of the twentieth century’s most important thinkers on "race" and class and they are growing in importance in the 21st century.
You are encouraged to watch the video at your leisure (the use of slides makes it possible to stop for awhile and then pick up where you left off). You are also encouraged to share this video with others – particularly younger activists. As one long-time activist wrote, Allen’s work “will change your life and outlook forever. You simply can't understand America and who we are without this book.”
Theodore W. Allen explained “When the first Africans arrived in Virginia in 1619, there were no ‘white’ people there, nor according to the colonial records, would there be for another sixty years.” Allen based his statement on twenty-plus years of research and examination of 865 county years of pattern-setting Virginia’s colonial records. Allen makes clear that the “white race" did not exist in early colonial Virginia.
He then documents and develops three major themes:
1. The "white race" was invented as a ruling class social control formation in response to labor solidarity as manifested in the latter (civil war) stages of Bacon's Rebellion (1676-77).
2. A system of racial privileges was deliberately instituted by the late-17th/early- 18th-century Anglo-American bourgeoisie in order to define and establish the "white race” and to establish a system of racial oppression.
3. The consequence was not only “ruinous” to the interests of the African Americans, but was also "disastrous" for European-American workers. Their “position vis-á-vis the rich and powerful was not improved, but weakened by the white-skin privilege system.”
Theodore W. Allen (pioneer of class struggle-based “white skin privilege” analysis in the 1960s and author of “The Invention of the White Race” in the 1990s) and Hubert Harrison (“The Father of Harlem Radicalism”) are two of the most important thinkers on issues of "race" and class of the 20th century. They offer a tremendous amount of insights to people struggling today for a more just and radically changed society. Those concerned with issues of "race" and class are strongly urged to become familiar with their work and to share information by and about them with others.
This slide presentation / talk by Jeffrey B. Perry was hosted by the “Hubert Harrison and Theodore W. Allen Society” at the Brecht Forum in Manhattan. Long-time activist Muriel Tillinghast chaired the event and long-time activist Sean Ahern assisted with the slides. Kazembe Balagun helped to arrange the event.
The video was shot by Fred Nguyen and made available Courtesy of Fansmiles Productions.
For information on Theodore W. Allen’s “The Invention of the White Race” Volume II: "The Origin of Racial Oppression in Anglo America" (including comments from scholars and activists, Table of Contents, and an overview of the volume) see HERE Note – the new, expanded Verso Books edition of this volume includes new introductions and notes, an expanded index, and a lengthy and detailed internal study guide.
For information on Theodore W. Allen’s “The Invention of the White Race” Volume I: “Racial Oppression and Social Control" (including comments from scholars and activists, Table of Contents, and an overview of the volume) see HERE Note – the new, expanded Verso Books edition of this volume includes new introductions and notes, an expanded index, and a lengthy and detailed internal study guide.
For information on Theodore W. Allen’s “Summary of the Argument of The Invention of the White Race” Part 1 see HERE
For an in-depth treatment of the development of the work of Theodore W. Allen see “The Developing Conjuncture and Some Insights From Hubert Harrison and Theodore W. Allen on the Centrality of the Fight Against White Supremacy” in PDF format at the TOP LEFT at HERE
For additional writings by and about Theodore W. Allen see HERE
For a video interview with Theodore W. Allen on “The Invention of the White Race” conducted by Stella Winston and viewed by over 104,000 people see HERE
For comments from scholars and activists on "Hubert Harrison: The Voice of Harlem Radicalism, 1883-1918" (Columbia University Press) see HERE and see HERE
For information on "A Hubert Harrison Reader" (Wesleyan University Press) see HERE
For information on the new, expanded, Diasporic Africa Press edition of Hubert H. Harrison's “When Africa Awakes: The 'Inside Story’ of the Stirrings and Strivings of the New Negro in the Western World” see HERE
For a video of a Slide Presentation/Talk on Hubert Harrison see HERE
For articles, audios, and videos by and about Hubert Harrison see HERE
Jeffrey B. Perry discusses St.Croix-born Hubert Harrison, thr "Father of Harlem Radicalism, on "It's Your Perspective" Talk Show with Hosts David Christian and Campbell Ras Soup Carter, Christiansted, St. Croix, July 19, 2016.
Photos from Presentation on Hubert Harrison by Jeffrey B. Perry hosted by the St. Croix Landmarks Society at Estate Whim, St. Croix. July 19, 2016. Contact persons Sonia Jacobs Dow and Naeemah Legair. To view Facebook Album CLICK HERE
