Published in 1967, as the early triumphs of the Civil Rights movement yielded to increasing frustration and violence, The Crisis of the Negro Intellectual electrified a generation of activists and intellectuals. The product of a lifetime of struggle and reflection, Cruse's book is a singular amalgam of cultural history, passionate disputation, and deeply considered analysis of the relationship between American blacks and American society. Reviewing black intellectual life from the Harlem Renaissance through the 1960s, Cruse discusses the legacy (and offers memorably acid-edged portraits) of figures such as Paul Robeson, Lorraine Hansberry, and James Baldwin, arguing that their work was marked by a failure to understand the specifically American character of racism in the United States. This supplies the background to Cruse's controversial critique of both integrationism and black nationalism and to his claim that black Americans will only assume a just place within American life when they develop their own distinctive centers of cultural and economic influence. For Cruse's most important accomplishment may well be his rejection of the clichés of the melting pot in favor of a vision of Americanness as an arena of necessary and vital contention, an open and ongoing struggle.

A collection of essays looking back at the influence of The Crisis of the Negro Intellectual, first published 35 years ago.

Thirty-five years after its initial publication, Harold Cruse's "The Crisis of the Negro Intellectual," remains a foundational work in Afro-American Studies and American Cultural Studies. Published during a highly contentious moment in Afro-American political life, "The Crisis of the Negro Intellectual" was one of the very few texts that treated Afro-American intellectuals as intellectually significant. The essays contained in Harold Cruse's "The Crisis of the Negro Intellectual Reconsidered" are collectively a testimony to the continuing significance of this polemical call to arms for black intellectuals. Each scholar featured in this book has chosen to discuss specific arguments made by Cruse. While some have utilized Cruse's arguments to launch broader discussions of various issues pertaining to Afro-American intellectuals, and others have contributed discussions on intellectual issues completely ignored by Cruse, all hope to pay homage to a thinker worthy of continual reconsideration.

A collection of essays looking back at the influence of The Crisis of the Negro Intellectual, first published 35 years ago.

This book aims to expand what scholars know and who is included in this discussion about black studies, which aids in the democratization of American higher education and the deconstruction of traditional disciplines of high education, to facilitate a sense of social justice. By challenging traditional disciplines, black studies reveals not only the political role of American universities but also the political aspects of the disciplines that constitute their core. While black studies is post-modern in its deconstruction of positivism and universalism, it does not support a radical rejection of all attempts to determine truth. Evolving from a form of black cultural nationalism, it challenges the perceived white cultural nationalist norm and has become a critical multiculturalism that is more global and less gendered. Henry argues for the inclusion of black studies beyond the curriculum of colleges and universities.

A gripping narrative that brings to life a legendary moment in American history: the birth, life, and death of the Black Power movement With the rallying cry of "Black Power!" in 1966, a group of black activists, including Stokely Carmichael and Huey P. Newton, turned their backs on Martin Luther King's pacifism and, building on Malcolm X's legacy, pioneered a radical new approach to the fight for equality. Waiting 'Til the Midnight Hour is a history of the Black Power movement, that storied group of men and women who would become American icons of the struggle for racial equality. Peniel E. Joseph traces the history of the men and women of the movement—many of them famous or infamous, others forgotten. Waiting 'Til the Midnight Hour begins in Harlem in the 1950s, where, despite the Cold War's hostile climate, black writers, artists, and activists built a new urban militancy that was the movement's earliest incarnation. In a series of character-driven chapters, we witness the rise of Black Power groups such as the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and the Black Panthers, and with them, on both coasts of the country, a fundamental change in the way Americans understood the unfinished business of racial equality and integration. Drawing on original archival research and more than sixty original oral histories, this narrative history vividly invokes the way in which Black Power redefined black identity and culture and in the process redrew the landscape of American race relations.

James Boggs (1919-1993) and Grace Lee Boggs (1915-2015) were two largely unsung but critically important figures in the black freedom struggle. Born and raised in Alabama, James Boggs came to Detroit during the Great Migration, becoming an automobile worker and a union activist. Grace Lee was a Chinese American scholar who studied Hegel, worked with Caribbean political theorist C. L. R. James, and moved to Detroit to work toward a new American revolution. As husband and wife, the couple was influential in the early stages of what would become the Black Power movement, laying the intellectual foundation for racial and urban struggles during one of the most active social movement periods in recent U.S. history. Stephen Ward details both the personal and the political dimensions of the Boggses' lives, highlighting the vital contributions these two figures made to black activist thinking. At once a dual biography of two crucial figures and a vivid portrait of Detroit as a center of activism, Ward's book restores the Boggses, and the intellectual strain of black radicalism they shaped, to their rightful place in postwar American history.

The Black Power Movement remains an enigma. Often misunderstood and ill-defined, this radical movement is now beginning to receive sustained and serious scholarly attention. Peniel Joseph has collected the freshest and most impressive list of contributors around to write original essays on the Black Power Movement. Taken together they provide a critical and much needed historical overview of the Black Power era. Offering important examples of undocumented histories of black liberation, this volume offers both powerful and poignant examples of 'Black Power Studies' scholarship.

Covering the history and contributions of black women intellectuals from the late 19th century to the present, this book highlights individuals who are often overlooked in the study of the American intellectual tradition. This edited volume of essays on black women intellectuals in modern U.S. history illuminates the relevance of these women in the development of U.S. society and culture. The collection traces the development of black women's voices from the late 19th century to the present day. Covering both well-known and lesser-known individuals, Bury My Heart in a Free Land gives voice to the passion and clarity of thought of black women intellectuals on various arenas in American life—from the social sciences, history, and literature to politics, education, religion, and art. The essays address a broad range of outstanding black women that include preachers, abolitionists, writers, civil rights activists, and artists. A section entitled "Black Women Intellectuals in the New Negro Era" highlights black women intellectuals such as Jessie Redmon Fauset and Elizabeth Catlett and offers new insights on black women who have been significantly overlooked in American intellectual history.

This work marks the recent passing of the 100th Anniversary of Du Bois' classic of African American literature. More than fifty events and celebrations were held in cities and universities around the country. It poignantly explores the relationship of Du Bois, the man, to his writings. It is written by expert team of authors including the prominent Manning Marable. "The Souls of W. E. B. Du Bois" explores the relationship of W. E. B. Du Bois' seminal book, "The Souls of Black Folk", to other works in his scholarly portfolio and to his larger project concerning race, racial identity, and the social objectives of scholarly engagement. Prominent authors consider why the classic book remains so relevant today.