Summer 2022: The Black Question and the Left
The Black Question: From 1776 to #BLM
PAS Summer 2022 Reading Group
Dates: Thursdays, June 9 â July 28, 2021
Time: 2pm EST
Zoom link: https://bccte.zoom.us/j/92294820600
Meeting ID: 922 9482 0600
Week 1: From the Colonial Era to the Revolution
June 9
- New York Times, âIntroduction to the 1619 Projectâ
- Barbara J. Fields, âSlavery, Race and Ideology in the United States of Americaâ New Left Review 181 (May/June 1990), 95-118.
- Abbé Raynal, Philosophical and Political History of the Settlements and Trade of the Europeans in the East and West Indies (1770) [Extract]
- John Locke, âOf Property,â Chapter 5 of the Second Treatise of Government from Two Treatises of Government: In the Former, The False Principles, and Foundation of Sir Robert Filmer, and His Followers, Are Detected and Overthrown. The Latter Is an Essay Concerning The True Original, Extent, and End of Civil Government (Cambridge University Press, 1960), pp. 285â302.
- Thomas Jefferson's "original Rough draught" of the Declaration of Independence before it was revised by the other members of the Committee of Five and by Congress, in The Papers of Thomas Jefferson Vol. 1, 1760-1776. Ed. Julian P. Boyd (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1950) pp. 243â247.
- âNatural and Inalienable Right to Freedomâ: Slavesâ Petition for Freedom to the Massachusetts Legislature, 17 January 1777, Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society, 5th Series, III (Boston, 1877), pp. 436â37.
Note: Petition to the Legislature on behalf of people in Massachusetts who remained enslaved, signed by Prince Hall (ca. 1735â1807), a free black man, and seven other black Americans. - Decree of the French National Convention of 4 February 1794, Abolishing Slavery in all the Colonies
- Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia (1782) [extract 3pp. Pdf]
+Thomas Jefferson to John Lynch, January 21, 1811, Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/03-03-02-0243. [Original source: The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Retirement Series, vol. 3, 12 August 1810 to 17 June 1811, ed. J. Jefferson Looney. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2006, pp. 318â320.]
+ Thomas Jefferson to John Holmes 4/22/1820, in The American Debate over Slavery, 1760â1865: An Anthology of Sources, ed. Scott J. Hammond, Kevin R. Hardwick, and Howard Lubert (Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing, 2016), 101â102.
+ Thomas Jefferson to Frances Wright, August 7, 1825, The Thomas Jefferson Papers at the Library of Congress, Series 1: General Correspondence. 1651-1827.
+ Thomas Jefferson to Henri Gregoire, February 25, 1809, from The Works of Thomas Jefferson in Twelve Volumes. Federal Edition. Collected and Edited by Paul Leicester.
+ James Vaughn, âThe Legacy of the American Revolution 1: (English) Colonial Americaâ (06/12/20) in PlatypusLegacy of the American Revolution lecture series.
+ James Vaughn, âThe Legacy of the American Revolution 2: The American Revolutionâ (06/19/20) in the PlatypusLegacy of the American Revolution lecture series.
+ James Vaughn, â1776 in world history: The American Revolution as bourgeois revolutionâ in The Platypus Review 62, December 2013âJanuary 2014
+ Chris Cutrone, âThe Jeffersonian Revolutionâ (06/26/2020) for the PlatypusLegacy of the American Revolution lecture series.
+ D.L. Jacobs and Luc Bronder-Giroux, âAn interview with Gerald Horneâ in The Platypus Review 129, September 2020
+ Keith Brooks, âWould slavery have ended sooner if the British had defeated the Colonistsâ bid for independence?â The Platypus Review 109, September 2018.
+ Wood, Revolutionary Characters Ch. 3 âThe trials and tribulations of Thomas Jeffersonâ (2006), pp. 91â118.
+ Peter S. Onuf, ââTo Declare Them a Free and Independant Peopleâ: Race, Slavery, and National Identity in Jefferson's Thoughtâ in Journal of the Early Republic, Vol. 18, No. 1 (Spring, 1998), pp. 1-46.
+ Peter Onuf, The Mind of Thomas Jefferson, esp. pp. 213â270.
+ Richard Ashcraft, Revolutionary Politics & Lockeâs Two Treatises of Government
+ Eric Williams, Capitalism and Slavery (1944)
Films:
- Jefferson in Paris (1995)
- Sally Hemings: An American Scandal (2000)
Note: This is a four-hour miniseries
Week 2: The Slaveholdersâ Rebellion: The American Civil War
June 16
- Frederick Douglasâs What is the Fourth of July for the Negro? Speech Text 1852
- Lincolnâs Cooper Union Address Text 1860
Video: Lincolnâs Cooper Union Address Video 1860 - Wendell Phillipsâs Criticism of Lincoln and the Union War Effort Summer 1862
- Note from Spencer L.: Here's Marx's article quoting Wendell Phillips, which was published in the liberal Viennese paper (which, I believe, is still in operation), Die Presse. There's not much more to the piece than Marx's translation of Phillips's speech into German. Apart from the basic context, he also notes that the speech met with condemnation in the London Times, a paper that Marx treats as a mouthpiece of Palmerstonian bonapartism.
- Lincolnâs Address to Congress text 1862
- Lincolnâs Gettysburg Address Text 1863
Video: Lincolnâs Gettysburg Address Video 1863 - Karl Marx, First International Address on Reelection of Abraham Lincoln (Written by Karl Marx) 1864
+ Lincolnâs Letter on Thomas Jefferson 1859
+ Spencer Leonard, âThe Civil War and Failed Reconstructionâ (7/10/20) in the Platypus Legacy of the American Revolution lecture series, video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=giFmLHRQEks
+ Spencer Leonard, âFor liberty and union: An interview with James McPhersonâ in The Platypus Review 53, February 2013. - Pamela Nogales, âJacksonian Democracyâ (7/3/20) in the Platypus Legacy of the American Revolution lecture series, video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZz0th8Pgzw&t=2724s
- Lincolnâs full 1862 Address to Congress text 1862https://millercenter.org/the-presidency/presidential-speeches/december-1-1862-second-annual-message
- Lincoln, Letter to Horace Greeley (Washington, August 22, 1862)
Films:
- Glory (1989)
- Lincoln (2012)
Week 3: Early Twentieth Century Debates: Separatists, Communists, and Socialists
June 23
- W.E.B. Dubois, âOf Mr. Booker T. Washington and Others,â in The Soul of Black Folk (pp. 33â44)
- Eugene V. Debs, The Negro in the Class Struggle (1903), Originally published in the International Socialist Review 4, no. 5 (November 1903): 257â60.
Eugene V. Debs, The Negro and His Nemesis (1904), Originally published in the International Socialist Review 4, no. 7 (January 1904): 391â97. - Hubert Harrison, âSocialism and the Negroâ (1912) (5pp. pdf)
- Claude McKay, âSocialism and the Negroâ in P. Heideman, Class Struggle and the Color Line: American Socialism and the Race Question 1900â1930 (Chicago: Haymarket, 2018). Originally published in Workersâ Dreadnought, January 31, 1920, 1â2.
- John Reed, âThe Negro Question in Americaâ Speech at the 2nd World Congress of the Communist International, Moscow, July 26, 1920 in Second Congress of the Communist International: Minutes of the Proceedings (London: New Park Publications, 1977)
Note: Please read the PDF version included in the Black-Question-texts folder. The version available at Marxist.org is incomplete. - Cyril Briggs, âThe African Blood Brotherhoodâ Unsigned article published in The Crusader, vol. 2, no. 10 (June 1920), pp, 7, 22. Attributed to magazine editor and ABB founder Cyril V. Briggs.
- Cyril Briggs, âThe Negro Conventionâ published in The Toiler [New York], v. 4, whole no. 190 (Oct. 1, 1921), pp. 13-14.
+ Tim Barker, âBook Review: Jeffrey B. Perry, Hubert Harrison: The Voice of Harlem Radicalism, 1882â1918 (2008)â in The Platypus Review 19 January 2010
+ âReport on the Black Questionâ Session 22 â 25 November 1922 in John Riddell (ed.), Toward the United Front: Proceedings of the Fourth Congress of the Communist International, 1922â (Leiden & Boston: Brill, 2012), pp. 800-811.
Note: Includes speeches by Otto Huiswoud (âBillingsâ), pp. 800â805 and Claude McKay, pp. 807â811, and Draft of the Theses on the Black Question, pp. 805â807.
+ âTheses on the Black Questionâ (1922) [Final Text] in John Riddell (ed.), Toward the United Front (Leiden & Boston: Brill, 2012), pp. 947â951.
+ Trotsky, âA Letter to Comrade McKay,â (13 March 1923) in Trotsky, First Five Years of the Communist International, (Pathfinder Press, 1977) Vol. 2, pp. 476-479.
+ Sunit Singh, "Imperialism and the Left" in Platypus Review 128 (July 2020)
https://platypus1917.org/2020/07/01/imperialism-and-the-left/
+ Letter to Theodore Draper in New York from Cyril Briggs in Los Angeles, March 17, 1958 [Long extract], Document in the Theodore Draper Papers, Hoover Institution Archives, Box 31. http://www.marxisthistory.org/history/usa/groups/abb/1958/0317-briggs-todraper.pdf
Note: First published in English March 13, 1923, International Press Correspondence, Vol. Ill, No. 25, p.197.
Films:
- Rosewood (1997)
- Reds
Week 4: The Old Left and the Black Question
June 30
- Harry Haywood, âThe Negro Problem and the Tasks of the Communist Party of the United Statesâ (1928) in P. Foner and H. Shapiro, American Communism and Black Americans: A Documentary History, 1919-1929 (Philadelphia: Temple University Press 1991), pp. 172â178.
- Max Shachtman, Communism and the Negro (Race and Revolution) (1933)
+ Benjamin Blumberg, âAn Unmet Challenge: Race and the Left in Americaâ in The Platypus Review 19, January 2010
+ J.P. Cannon, âThe Coming of the American Revolutionâ (1946)
https://www.marxists.org/archive/cannon/works/1946/comamrev.htm
+âTheses on the American Revolution, Adopted by the Twelfth National Convention of the SWPâ
(November 1946)
https://www.marxists.org/history/etol/document/swp-us/misc-1/cannon.htm
+ On the United Front by the Spartacists League
https://www.marxists.org/history/etol/document/icl-spartacists/pamphlets/On_the_United_Front.pdf
Week 5: Black Skin, White Masks: Frantz Fanon Before the New Left
July 7
- Frantz Fanon, Black Skin, White Masks (1952) (Introduction & Chs. 5â8 in pdf)
- Frantz Fanon, Wretched of the Earth (1961) Ch 6: Conclusion
- Sunit Singh, âBook Review: Frantz Fanon, Black Skin, White Masksâ The Platypus Review 21, March 2010.
Week 6: The New Left and the Black Question, pt. 1
July 14
- Richard Fraser, âFor the Materialist Conception of the Negro Struggleâ (1955)
- James Robertson and Shirley Stoute, âFor black Trotskyismâ (1963)
- Bayard Rustin, "From protest to politics" (1965)
- Spartacist League, âBlack and red: Class struggle road to Negro freedomâ (1966)
- Harold Cruse, The Crisis of the Negro Intellectual (1967), [selections part 1, 3-10 and 11-63]
+Martin Luther King, "The Other America" (1967) (Video)
+ Richard Fraser, âTwo lectures on the black question in America and revolutionary integrationismâ (1953)
+ Coleman Hughes and Jim Creegan, âBayard Rustin: Black Liberation and Socialismâ The Platypus Review 131, November 2020
Films:
- Brother Outsider: The Life of Bayard Rustin (2003)
- All the Way (2016)
Week 7: The New Left and the Black Question, pt. 2: The Black Power Turn
July 21
- Stockley Carmichael, Black Power Speech (1966) [Audio]
Edited transcription of speech (9 pp.)
Note: Audio silence from 29:02â30:05, but picks up where it left off. - Harold Cruse, The Crisis of the Negro Intellectual (1967) (part 2, 451â475 and 544â565)
- Bayard Rustin, âThe failure of black separatismâ (1970) (9 pp.)
- Bayard Rustin, "The blacks and the unions" (1971) (6 pp.)
- Spartacist League, "Soul power or workers' power: The rise and fall of the League of Revolutionary Black Workers" (1974) (18 pp.)
- Adolph Reed, âBlack particularity reconsideredâ (1979) (23 pp.)
- Adolph Reed, âThe limits of anti-racismâ (2009) (5 pp.)
+ Malcolm X., âAnd I Donât Mean Bananasâ (1964) (16 pp.)
+ Black Panther Party, âTen-Point Programâ (1966)
+ Audrey Crescenti, âThe Black Panther Party and community organizing: An interview with Bobby Sealeï»żâ in The Platypus Review 113, February 2019
+ Sophia Freeman, âThe Black Panther Party, Malcolm X, and the question of revolutionary politics today: An interview with Kathleen Cleaverâ in The Platypus Review 113, February 2019
Films:
- Finally Got the News (1970)
https://vimeo.com/ondemand/finallygotthenews - Newsreel films on the Black Panthers, âOff the Pigâ (Newsreel #19) (1967)
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5U2ApK2nAO8
Week 8: Platypus Hosts the Conversation: From Obama to #BLM
July 28
- âProgress or regress? The future of the Left under Obamaâ (2009)
Panelists: Chris Cutrone, Platypus; Stephen Duncombe, NYU, author of Dream: Re-imagining Progressive Politics in an Age of Fantasy (2007); Pat Korte, new Students for a Democratic Society (SDS); Charles Post, Solidarity; and Paul Street, author of Barack Obama and the Future of American Politics (2008). - âBlack Politics and State Violence,â UC Santa Cruz (03/27/2015) [Video]
Panelists: Boots Riley of the hip-hop group âThe Coup,â Clarence Thomas former Secretary-Treasurer of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, and Nancy Kato from the People of Color caucus of the Freedom Socialist Party. - Police Brutality and the Left (July 11, 2020)
Panelists: Gerald Smith (Oscar Grant Committee), Larry Holmes (Workers World Party), Andrea Pritchett (Berkeley Copwatch), and Conrad Cartmell (DSA, Class Unity Caucus). - "The Fate of the American Revolution," in the Platypus Review 130, October 2020.
https://platypus1917.org/2020/10/01/the-fate-of-the-american-revolution/ - Pamela Nogales, âThe Black Question and the Left: from 1776 to #BLMâ (May 6, 2022)
+âBlack Politics in the Age of Obamaâ (Chicago, 2013)
Panelists: Cedric Johnson, author of Revolutionaries to Race Leaders: Black Power and the Making of African American Politics (2007) and The Neoliberal Deluge (2011); and Mel Rothenberg, veteran of the Sojourner Truth Organization and coauthor of The Myth of Capitalism Reborn (1980).
+ âBlack Politics and State Violenceâ (2015)
School of Visual Arts (03/11/15) [Audio]
Panelists: Ben Blumberg (Platypus), Dread Scott (Artist), Eljeer Hawkins (Socialist Alternative/CWI)
+ Platypus at Left Forum NYC 2010: The American Left and the "black question:" from politics to protest to the post-political (2010) [Audio]
Panelists: Tim Barker, Columbia U.; Benjamin Blumberg, Platypus; PamelaNogales, Platypus; Chris Cutrone, Platypus
+ Platypus Public Panel Series: âBlack Politics and State Violenceâ (2015)
University of Chicago (03/20/15) [Audio]
Panelists: Michael Dawson and Mel Rothenberg
+ Platypus Public Panel: âThe American left and the âBlack Questionâ: From politics to protest to the post-politicalâ (Chicago, 2015)
Panelists: Toby Chow, Southsiders Organized for Unity and Liberation (SOUL) and The Peopleâs Lobby; Brandon Johnson, Chicago Teachers Union (CTU); August Nimtz, author of Lenin's Electoral Strategy from 1907 to the October Revolution of 1917 (2014); and Adolph Reed, Jr., author of Stirrings in the Jug: Black Politics in the Post-Segregation Era (1999).