At a time when the emancipation of oppressed and working-class people remain goals of progressives everywhere, Heideman's book provides us a map to a past that can help us get free."-Bill V. Class struggle and anti-racism are two sides of the same coin in this powerful collection. "Paul Heideman's book reconstructs for us the long flowering of anti-racist thought and organizing on the American Left and the central role played by Black Socialists in advancing a theory and practice of human liberation. Contextual material from the editor places each contribution in its historical and political setting, making this volume ideal for both scholars and activists. Collecting, for the first time, source materials from a diverse array of writers and organizers, this reader provides a new perspective on the complex history of revolutionary debates about fighting anti-Black racism. As another socialist revival takes shape today, this book lays the groundwork for a more nuanced history of the movement in the United States.Īs Black oppression moves again to the forefront of American public life, the history of radical approaches to combating racism has acquired renewed relevance. Jake Altman brings this overlooked moment in the history of the American left into focus, highlighting the leadership of women, the development of the Highlander Folk School and Soviet House, and the shift from revolutionary rhetoric to pragmatic reform by the close of the decade. Radicalized by the contradiction of crushing poverty and unimaginable wealth that existed side by side during the Great Depression, socialists built institutions, organized the unemployed, extended aid to the labor movement, developed local political movements, and built networks that would remain active in the struggle against injustice throughout the twentieth century. Less well-known is the socialist revival of the 1930s. The early years of the twentieth century are often thought of as socialism's first heyday in the United States, when the Socialist Party won elections across the country and Eugene Debs ran for president from a prison cell, winning more than 900,000 votes.
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