2,005 words

Despite his profound status as the most significant black leader of the twentieth century, embarrassingly little is known about Garvey outside of academia. But as anthropologist Joel Augustus Rogers notes in his homage to this iconoclastic figure, Garvey inspired a spirit of hope in people of African descent that the most virulent form of racism could never quench: (more…)

Black Star Gate in Accra, Ghana.

2,112 words

In one of my recent items, I contrasted the biased Afrocentric narrative, which is hip now and popular with many schoolteachers these days, with a rather frosty counter-narrative informed by visitor reports from tribal regions. The latter is biased too, which I did acknowledge even if a bit flippantly, as it put a pretty harsh spin on things. That ignited an intense debate about how far traveler reports to tribal regions could be trusted (more…)

Sen. Theodore G. Bilbo

3,477 words

Part One

The sedition trials of Gordon and others began in 1943. What communications there were with the Japanese prior to Pearl Harbor reflected an interest among blacks for Japan as a rising “colored” nation. The defeat of Russia in 1905 had been observed by restive colored races, and then the fratricide of World War I. (more…)

1,080 words

In 1923, when Marcus Garvey, the first significant black separatist leader of the 20th century, invoked the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10: 30-37), he didn’t mean to say that he had been rescued by an altruistic stranger. No, he had just been convicted on federal charges of mail fraud in soliciting investments in his ambitious Black Star shipping line and was facing heavy penalties. (more…)

2,299 words

There have been calls for the white American ethnostate for a very long time. Its last advocate who made some degree of progress was Earnest Sevier Cox (1880–1966). Cox was born and raised in Tennessee. His family seems to have been somewhat wealthy, and he was supported with financial gifts from his sister at key times. Cox’s early life was unfocused and filled with projects that he began but never finished. (more…)

Harold Cruse in 1968

4,523 words

In 1967 Harold Cruse, the self-taught son of a railway porter, published The Crisis of the Negro Intellectual: A Historical Analysis of the Failure of Black Leadership, which caused a national stir. A Harlem activist specializing in the performing arts, Cruse criticized black intellectuals, “integrationism,” and Jewish influence over the black movement from the 1920s on.

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