Alabama tries to ban the NAACP in 1956. Freedom Summer under the gun in 1964. Cigarette health warning in 1965. Protesters killed in DC in 1932. "Fight for 15" in 2013. Federal health insurance for some in 1965. Black Power in 1966.
As more of Robinson’s books come back into print, the reviewer argues that reading them with his seminal work Black Marxism can enrich our understanding of racial capitalism and offer additional tools for fighting our present political impasse.
This book is an important addition to U.S. left wing movement history. This brief author interview appears on the blog of the African American Intellectual History Society (AAIHS). James and Grace Lee Boggs were independent Marxist revolutionaries who worked in Detroit beginning in the 1940s, were among the earliest theorists of 1960s Black Power, and were influential in the revolutionary movement in Detroit as well as nationally and internationally.
500 peopled attended the weekend Jackson Rising conference earlier this month, conceived of by Chokwe Lumumba. Making use of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party to run as an independent in the Democratic primary, he defeated the incumbent and forced a runoff. Given that Jackson is an 80% Black city, he then won overwhelmingly. So when he died suddenly and his supporters in a state of shock, the opposition moved quickly to counterattack.
"We ask that the FBI be directed to publicly produce documentation to support these claims, and that until and unless this is done, its officials be directed to withdraw these assertions. The FBI’s accompanying actions should also be immediately withdrawn for the following additional reasons."
The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, which occurred fifty years ago this August 28, remains one of the most successful mobilizations ever created by the American Left. Organized by a coalition of trade unionists, civil rights activists, and feminists—most of them African American and nearly all of them socialists—the protest drew nearly a quarter-million people to the nation’s capital. Yet the Left has not claimed the March as its legacy.
A documentary delving into Davis' story, Free Angela and All Political Prisoners, recently opened in select theaters nationwide. The activist helps us remember that blacks are part of American history's fabric, says the director.
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