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Jeffrey B. Perry Blog

Bernard White and Jeffrey B. Perry Discuss Hubert Harrison: The Voice of Harlem Radicalism, 1883-1918

CPR Metro Program Director, Bernard White, interviews author and editor Jeffrey B. Perry on Hubert Harrison: The Voice of Harlem Radicalism, 1883-1918 (Columbia University Press).

Harrison's ideas profoundly influenced "New Negro" militants, including A. Philip Randolph and Marcus Garvey, and his synthesis of class and race issues is a key unifying link between the two great trends of the Black Liberation Movement: the labor- and civil-rights-based work of Martin Luther King Jr. and the race and nationalist platform associated with Malcolm X.

Dr. Perry also edited A Hubert Harrison Reader (Wesleyan University Press).




Video by Marlowe Mason, Published on Jun 30, 2013

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Book Discussion on Hubert Harrison With Jeffrey B. Perry, Komozi Woodard, amd Mark Naison C-SPAN Video from January 21, 2009

Jeffrey B. Perry talked about Hubert Harrison: The Voice of Harlem Radicalism, 1883-1918 Columbia University Press). In the book Mr. Perry recounts the life of Hubert Harrison (1883-1927), a public intellectual, activist and founder of the “New Negro Movement” whose ideas combined race and class conscious and influenced Marcus Garvey.  Jeffrey Perry discusses his book with authors Mark Naison and Komozi Woodward.

Jeffrey Perry is the editor of A Hubert Harrison Reader (Wesleyan University Press) and preserved and inventoried the Hubert H. Harrison papers, currently housed at Columbia University’s Rare Book and Manuscript Library.

To see the C-SPAN Video fro January 21, 2009 CLICK HERE!
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Zinn Education Project Posting on Hubert Harrison

The Zinn Education Project and Teaching a People's History offers an excellent posting on Hubert Harrison: The Voice of Harlem Radicalism, 1883-1918 (Columbia University Press) and A Hubert Harrison Reader (Wesleyan University Press) on its website.

To read it CLICK HERE

For additional writings by and about Hubert H. Harrison CLICK HERE

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December 17th is the Anniversary of the Death of Hubert Harrison in 1927 at Age 44

Hubert Harrison (1883-1927) is one of the truly important figures of early 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 “the foremost Afro-American intellect of his time.” Labor and civil rights leader A. Philip Randolph described Harrison as “the father of Harlem Radicalism.” Harrison’s friend and pallbearer, Arthur Schomburg, fully aware of his popularity, eulogized to the thousands attending Harrison’s Harlem funeral that he was also “ahead of his time.”

Born in St. Croix, Danish West Indies, in 1883, to a Bajan mother and a Crucian father, Harrison 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 “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 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, Asia, the Mideast, the Americas, and Europe. 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 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,” that “the cant of ‘Democracy’” was “intended as dust in the eyes of white voters,” and that true democracy and equality for “Negroes” implied “a revolution . . . startling even to think of.”

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; and he served as the editor of the New Negro in 1919 and 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 A. Philip Randolph and the race radical Marcus Garvey. Considered more race conscious than Randolph and more class conscious than Garvey, Harrison is a key ideological link between 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 parents were involved with the Garvey movement, speaking militantly and proudly on street corners in Harlem.)

Harrison was not only a political radical, however. J. A. Rogers described him as an “Intellectual Giant and Free-Lance Educator,” whose contributions were wide-ranging, innovative, and influential. He was an immensely skilled and popular orator and educator who spoke and/or read six languages; a highly praised journalist, critic, and book reviewer (reportedly the first regular Black book reviewer in history); a pioneer Black activist in the freethought and birth control movements; a bibliophile and library builder and popularizer who helped develop the 135th Street Public Library into what became known as the internationally famous Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture; a pioneer Black lecturer for the New York City Board of Education and one of its foremost orators). His biography offers profound insights on race, class, religion, immigration, war, democracy, and social change in America.

For information on vol. 1 of his biography, Hubert Harrison: The Voice of Harlem Radicalism, 1883-1918 (Columbia University Press) CLICK HERE and CLICK HERE

For writings by and about Hubert Harrison CLICK HERE

December 17th is the anniversary of the death of Hubert Harrison in 1927 at age 44. – Please help to spread the word about his important life and work!

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Jeffrey B. Perry on Hubert Harrison and Theodore W. Allen and "The Invention of the White Race" and on the Centrality of Struggle Against White Supremacy October 19, 2013

Jeffrey B. Perry October 19, 2013, talk on "Hubert Harrison" (minutes 0-24) and Theodore W. Allen and "The Invention of the White Race" and on the topic of "The Centrality of Struggle Against White Supremacy" at the Dudley Public Library, Roxbury, MA 02116.



This presentation also includes brief discussion of Ray Richardson, Hubert Harrison's grandson, who was producer of Boston Radio Station WGBH's "Say Brother" TV Show from 1968-1970 and died under suspicious circumstances in January 1971 in Mexico.

For information on the new expanded edition of Theodore W. Allen's "The Invention of the White Race" Volume 1: “Racial Oppression and Social Control” CLICK HERE
For information on the new expanded edition of Theodore W. Allen's "The Invention of the White Race"Volume 2: “The Origin of Racial Oppression in Anglo-America” CLICK HERE
For other writings by and about Theodore W. Allen CLICK HERE

For information about Hubert Harrison CLICK HERE, CLICK HERE, CLICK HERE, and CLICK HERE
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Jeffrey B. Perry on Hubert Harrison and Theodore W. Allen and "The Invention of the White Race" and on the Centrality of Struggle Against White Supremacy October 20, 2013

Jeffrey B. Perry October 20, 2013, talk on Ray Richardson (minutes 0-5), Hubert Harrison (minutes 5-24) and Theodore W. Allen and "The Invention of the White Race" and on the Centrality of Struggle Against White Supremacy (minutes 24 till end) at the Center for Marxist Education, 550 Massachusetts Ave (Central Square), Cambridge, MA 02116. Watch a video of the event HERE!




For information on the new expanded edition of Theodore W. Allen's "The Invention of the White Race" Volume 1: “Racial Oppression and Social Control” CLICK HERE
For information on the new expanded edition of Theodore W. Allen's "The Invention of the White Race"Volume 2: “The Origin of Racial Oppression in Anglo-America” CLICK HERE
For other writings by and about Theodore W. Allen CLICK HERE

For information about Hubert Harrison CLICK HERE, CLICK HERE, CLICK HERE, and
CLICK HERE

"The Radicalization of Ray Richardson: Suspicion Still Surrounds Death of Black Activist ['Say Brother'] TV Producer [and Grandson of Hubert Harrison]" an article by Jeffrey B. Perry and Charles Richardson is available at Black Agenda Report, at Black Commentator, and at Black Star News.
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Presentation on “The Invention of the White Race” at the Brooklyn Public Library (10 Grand Army Plaza) Saturday, December 7, 2013 at 4 PM Please Help to Spread the Word!

I will discuss Theodore W. Allen's “The Invention of the White Race” (Verso Books) especially Volume 2, “The Origin of Racial Oppression in Anglo-America,” in a slide presentation/talk on Saturday, December 7, 2013, at 4 PM, at the Brooklyn Public Library, Dweck Center, 10 Grand Army Plaza, Brooklyn, NY 11238.

Theodore W. Allen was an independent working class scholar, long-time resident of Brooklyn (he lived at Brooklyn Ave. and Dean St.), and an employee of the Brooklyn Public Library.

“The Invention of the White Race” has been described as a “classic” and widely praised by scholars and activists for its seminal contributions to our understanding of race and class and for its extraordinary primary research (much of that primary research was done over a thirty-year period in Virginia archives and at the Brooklyn Public Library).

For the new 2012 edition of “The Invention of the White Race” I prepared new introductions, internal study guides, a biographical sketch, suggested readings, and expanded indexes

The event is free and people are encouraged to attend, to bring friends, and to share this announcement with those who might be interested. People who have heard of Allen’s important work and have not yet had a chance to read it are especially encouraged to attend.

The presentation will be followed by a question and answer period.

For information on the new expanded edition of Volume 1: “Racial Oppression and Social Control” CLICK HERE

For information on the new expanded edition of Volume 2: “The Origin of Racial Oppression in Anglo-America” CLICK HERE

For information on the Brooklyn Public Library Events Calendar CLICK HERE

For other writings by and about Theodore W. Allen CLICK HERE

To join the event on Facebook and to invite others via Facebook CLICK HERE
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Gary Glennell Toms' You Tube Video on “The Radicalization of Ray Richardson” for “The G-Man Interviews”

Gary Glennell Toms has put together a wonderful You Tube Video on “The Radicalization of Ray Richardson” for “The G-Man Interviews.”



Ray Richardson (1946-1971) was a young, radical producer of “Say Brother,” the WGBH Boston, prime time, Black Power TV show. He reportedly died by “drowning” under suspicious circumstances in Mexico in January 1971.

Ray was also the grandson of Hubert Harrison (1883-1927), “The Father of Harlem Radicalism.”

To see the G-Man video CLICK HERE

"The Radicalization of Ray Richardson: Suspicion Still Surrounds Death of Black Activist ['Say Brother'] TV Producer [and Grandson of Hubert Harrison]" an article by Jeffrey B. Perry and Charles Richardson is available at Black Agenda Report, at Black Commentator, and at Black Star News.

It is also featured in a discussion with hose Janice Graham at Our Common Ground entitled “The Killing of Radical Black Media”, October 12, 2013, which can be heard by CLICKING HERE
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