[act-ma] 3/09 Hubert Harrison Voice of Harlem Radicalism on Boston Cable TV
Charlie Welch
cwelch at tecschange.org
Sun Mar 9 11:40:37 PDT 2014
On now 2:30 PM and again at 11 PM tonight
Stan Robinson recorded a similar full version of a talk by Jeff Perry at CME on Feb 16. It available at
https://archive.org/details/JeffPerryCME140216
An edited, 1 hour, version of this talk will be on Boston Cable TV
Boston has two different cable TV systems, Comcast and RCN.
News & Information Channel
Comcast Channel 9/ RCN Channel 15
A talk by Dr. Jerry Perry on
Hubert Harrison Voice of Harlem Radicalism
Original Presentation
Sat. Feb. 15th 2 to 4:30 PM
Dudley Branch Library
65 Warren St. Roxbury.
Introduction by Mimi Jones
*He will also be talking at two other locations on Sun. Feb 16th **
**Community Church of Boston 10 AM **565 Boylston St. Copley Square Boston
http://www.communitychurchofboston.org/home/
Center for Marxist Education **3-5pm
https://www.facebook.com/CenterForMarxistEducation
**550 Mass Ave, 2nd flr, Cambridge. Details at **ACT-MA
<http://act-ma.org/pipermail/act-ma_act-ma.org/2013/007548.html>*
Background information on Harrison— a 2-paragraph version and a
5-paragraph version—follows:
Hubert Harrison, (1883-1927) was an immensely skilled writer, orator,
educator, critic, and political activist who, more than any other
political leader of his era, combined class consciousness and
anti-white-supremacist race consciousness into a coherent political
radicalism. The St. Croix, Virgin Islands-born and Harlem-based Harrison
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 work associated with Malcolm X.
Harrison played unique, signal roles in the largest class radical
movement (socialism) and the largest race radical movement (the New
Negro/Garvey) movement of his era. He was the foremost Black organizer,
agitator, and theoretician of the Socialist Party of New York, the
founder of the "New Negro" movement, the editor of the “Negro World,”
and the principal radical influence on the Garvey movement. A
self-described, “radical internationalist,” he was also a highly praised
journalist and critic (reportedly the first regular Black book
reviewer), a postal labor unionist, a union organizer (with both the
Hotel Workers and the Pullman Porters), an IWW supporter, a speaker at
the 1913 Paterson strike, a freethinker and early proponent of birth
control, a supporter of Black writers and artists, a leading
community-based public intellectual, an adult education lecturer for the
New York City Board of Education, and a bibliophile who helped transform
the 135th Street Public Library into an international center for
research in Black culture (known today as the world-famous Schomburg
Center for Research in Black Culture). His biography offers profound
insights on race, class, religion, immigration, war, democracy, and
social change in America.
www.jeffreybperry.net <http://www.jeffreybperry.net/>
If you can't make this talk, he will be making a similar presentation at
the Community Church of Boston on Sun. Feb. 16th
http://www.communitychurchofboston.org/home/
https://www.facebook.com/events/1448220312074768/?previousaction=join&source=1
------------------------------------------
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.” Rodgers adds that “No one worked
more seriously and indefatigably to enlighten” others and “none of the
Afro-American leaders of his time had a saner and more effective
program.” 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 _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 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
parents were involved with the Garvey movement, 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 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.
PS Of special interest to Boston audiences is the fact that Hubert
Harrison was the grandfather of Ray Richardson, the brilliant young
producer of WGBH's "Say Brother" TV show from 1968-1970. Richardson was
fired by WGBH after airing a special, community-based, program on the
1970 rebellion in New Bedord and then died under suspicious
circumstances in Mexico in January 1971. See
http://www.blackagendareport.com/content/radicalization-ray-richardson-suspicion-still-surrounds-death-black-activist-tv-producer
A book description and an excerpt from the book’s introduction can be
found at--
http://cup.columbia.edu/book/978-0-231-13910-6/hubert-harrison
http://cup.columbia.edu/book/978-0-231-13910-6/hubert-harrison/excerpt
An overview of Harrison’s life is available at BlackPast.org
<http://BlackPast.org> --
http://www.blackpast.org/?q=perspectives/hubert-harrison-voice-early-20th-century-harlem-radicalism
A review from "Inside Higher Ed" entitled "Rediscovering Hubert
Harrison" can be found at--
http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2008/12/10/mclemee
This review provides some background on the author and on the writing of
the biography as does "Do-it-yourself Scholars" in the Princeton Alumni
Weekly at http://paw.princeton.edu/issues/2009/04/22/pages/5110/index.xml
Another piece, in “History News Network,” discusses “The Growing
Interest In Hubert Harrison” and ties Harrison into such things as the
Obama campaign and presidency, the economic crisis, and the war –
http://hnn.us/articles/59716.html
For radio listeners, Jeffrey B. Perry discusses Hubert
Harrison with host Doug Henwood at
http://archive.wbai.org/files/mp3/090129_170001btnews.MP3
Also, Barnes and Noble Review has done a feature review of
the biography available at --
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/bn-review/note.asp?note=21332263&cds2Pid=22471
A Book TV, CSPAN-2 program on Harrison with Jeffrey B. Perry, Komozi
Woodard and Mark Naison can be viewed at
http://www.booktv.org/watch.aspx?ProgramId=FV-10134
A Grit-TV Interview with Laura Flanders can be seen at --
http://lauraflanders.firedoglake.com/2009/07/02/jeffrey-perry-harlems-radical-voice/
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