[Harrison stood at the center of early 20th century
pan-Africanist, socialist and nationalist thought.]
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HUBERT H. HARRISON AND THE RADICAL AFRICAN-AMERICAN TRADITION  
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Gregory N. Heires
September 26, 2021
The New Crossroads [[link removed]]

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_ Harrison stood at the center of early 20th century pan-Africanist,
socialist and nationalist thought. _

Hubert H. Harrison 1918, Hubert H. Harrison Papers, Columbia
University

 

The second volume of the biography of the educator, orator, political
activist and writer Hubert H. Harrison is a significant contribution
to the study of the roots of the Black radical tradition that emerged
in the early 20th century.

Jeffrey B. Perry’s meticulously researched “Hubert Harrison: The
Struggle for Equality, 1918-1927” (Columbia University Press, 2021)
offers a  study of a towering intellectual whose life and work
deserves greater attention.

The first volume, “Hubert Harrison: The Voice of Harlem Radicalism,
1883-1918” (Columbia University Press, 2008), explored Harrison’s
work and eventual disillusionment as the leading Black organizer and
theoretician in the Socialist Party of America from 1912 to 1914. That
volume also focused on his founding of the Liberty League and The
Voice, the first newspaper of the race-conscious and
internationalist New Negro Movement.

The new book, divided into four parts, examines the last nine-and-half
years of Harrison’s life, a period that included his resurrection of
the Harlem-based The Voice and his work as a managing editor,
associate editor and columnist of Marcus Garvey’s Negro World,
soapbox orator, lecturer at the New York Public Library, political
activist and independent writer.

IMPERIALISM AND WHITE SUPREMACY

His extensive writings during these years covered white supremacy,
imperialism, race consciousness, radical internationalism and demands
for social change. During the period examined by the book, the
immigrant from the Virgin Islands often struggled with poverty.

The exhaustive, 988-page second volume is based on countless primary
and secondary sources that include Harrison’s community talks,
scrapbooks and articles, as well as his diary, police and FBI reports,
and newspaper reports. While very compelling, painstakingly researched
and an authoritative and labor of love (Perry preserved and
inventoried the Hubert H. Harrison papers now at Columbia
University’s Rare Book and Manuscript Library and is the editor
of “A Hubert Harrison Reader,” Wesleyan University Press, 2001),
we should nevertheless point out that the book would have benefited
from a skilled editorial haircut of citations from his writings and
other documents to improve its accessibility and readability.

“Hubert Harrison: The Struggle for Equality, 1918-1927” begins
with a discussion of Harrison’s political activities in Harlem,
Washington, D.C. and Virginia and his work at The Voice, the official
organ of the Liberty League, which he had founded in 1917. The Liberty
League and its newspaper campaigned against racial discrimination,
police brutality and government surveillance.

Significantly, Harrison used the pages of The Voice to criticize
W.E.B. Du Bois for his “Close Ranks” editorial in The Crisis. The
editorial called upon Blacks to “_forget our special
grievances_ and close our ranks, shoulder to shoulder with our white
fellow-citizens and the allied nations that are fighting for
democracy” during World War I. 

“It is felt by all his critics, that Du Bois, of all Negroes, knows
best that our ‘special grievances’… consist of lynching,
segregation and disfranchisement, and the Negroes of America can not
preserve either their lives, their manhood or their vote (which is
their political life and liberties) with these things in existence,”
Harrison wrote. “The doctor’s critics feel that America can not
use the Negro people to any good effect unless they have life, liberty
and manhood assured and guaranteed to them. Therefore, instead of the
war for democracy making these things less necessary, it makes them
more so.”

Harrison pointed out that Du Bois wrote the editorial as he applied
for a position in military intelligence, the branch of government that
monitored the Black and radical communities. “The “Close Ranks”
editorial sparked criticism of Du Bois’ leadership in the Black
community, and 20 years later, Du Bois acknowledged it was mistaken,
Perry notes. With his editorial, Harrison thrust himself into the
center of the “Close Ranks” controversy that questioned Du Bois’
leadership and strengthened his position as the spokesperson of the
New Negro Movement. Harrison also criticized Du Bois for his support
of the “Talented Tenth” black leadership, which Harrison regarded
as elitist and believed limited the political power of the black
community by discouraging the development of grassroots leaders.

DISILLUSIONMENT WITH MARCUS GARVEY

The biography’s second part includes a fascinating  and detailed
look at Harrison’s work at the Negro World, the newspaper of Marcus
Garvey’s Universal Negro Improvement Association. Harrison’s
tenure as the principal editor of the newspaper gave him a unique
perch from which to observe the financial corruption that resulted in
Garvey’s disgraced leadership and eventual conviction for mail
fraud.

Harrison began working for the Negro World in January 1920. While
there, Harrison helped broaden Garvey’s political perspective, Perry
shows, and turned the newspaper into the leading race-conscious
publication in the country with wide-ranging articles that covered
international and domestic issues and included literary reviews.

Drawing from personal diary entries, Perry explains how Harrison
become disillusioned with Garvey and finally decided to break with
him. Politically, Harrison believed that Garvey’s Africanist
internationalist agenda was misguided and drained the energy from
Blacks’ struggle for advancement in the United States.

The biography’s third part covers the years 1922-24. During this
period, Harrison worked as a grassroots educator and an independent
writer. He contributed frequently to the Boston Chronicle.

Part 4 covers 1924-27. His work as a public intellectual during this
period include a lecture series on “World Problems of Race.” His
major political activity involved establishing the International
Colored Unity League and its publication The Voice of the Negro.

“FATHER OF HARLEM RADICALISM” 

The historian Joel A. Rogers described Harrison as “perhaps the
foremost Afro-American intellect of his time.” Labor and civil
rights activist A. Philip Randolph referred to him as “the father of
Harlem radicalism.”

Indeed, through his membership in the Socialist Party, involvement in
the Universal Negro Improvement Association, and work as a public
intellectual, writer, popular educator and orator Harrison stood at
the center of early 20th century pan-Africanist, socialist and
nationalist thought.

Yet today he doesn’t enjoy widespread recognition. Perry blames the
lack of recognition in part on a bias against immigrants, academic
elitism, a reaction against his outspokenness and willingness to
confront leftist leaders and black establishment figures like Booker
T. Washington and Du Bois, and his radical positions on race and
class. (Washington used his “Tuskegee Machine” to make Harrison
lose his job at the U.S. Postal Service. Harrison criticized
Washington for his ties to the Republican Party and insistence that
blacks should rely on individual economic achievement rather than
political engagement for advancing.)

Perry argues persuasively argues that Harrison stands at the
intersection between the labor and civil rights movement of Randolph
and Martin Luther King Jr. and the race and the nationalist Black
liberation movement represented by Garvey and Malcolm X.

Together with the first volume of his biography, Perry’s “Hubert
Harrison: The Struggle for Equality, 1918-1927” outlines with great
detail and analysis Harrison’s contributions to the radical
tradition in African-American history. Harrison’s powerful work
demands greater attention and study.

_The New Crossroads Blogger GREGORY N. HEIRES is a former president of
the Metro NY Labor Communications Council._

_THE NEW CROSSROADS focuses on the political economy of the United
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