Jeffrey B. Perry

“ . . . the ‘white race’ must be understood, not simply as a social construct, but as a ruling class social control formation.”
--Theodore W. Allen--
--“Summary of the Argument of The Invention of the White Race,” 1998--

“…The plantation bourgeoisie established a system of social control by the institutionalization of the ‘white’ race whereby the mass of poor whites was alienated from the black proletariat and enlisted as enforcers of bourgeois power.”

--Theodore W. Allen--
-- "Class Struggle and the Origin of Racial Slavery: The Invention of the White Race," 1975 --

From Jeffrey B. Perry, “The Developing Conjuncture and Some Insights From Hubert Harrison and Theodore W. Allen On the Centrality of the Fight Against White Supremacy” (120 pp., forthcoming online by August 23, 2011, at http://clogic.eserver.org/2010/Perry.pdf )] Read More 

“ . . . the record indicates that laboring-class European-Americans in the continental plantation colonies showed little interest in ‘white identity’ before the institution of the system of ‘race’ privileges at the end of the seventeenth century.”

--Theodore W. Allen--
--"The Invention of the White Race," Vol. 1, 1994--

“Back there, before Jim Crow, before the invention of the . . . white man, and the words or concepts to describe them, the Colonial population consisted largely of a great mass of . . . [European American and African American] bondsmen, who occupied roughly the same economic category and were treated with equal contempt by the lords of the plantation and legislatures. Curiously unconcerned about their color, these people worked together and relaxed together. They had essentially the same interests, the same aspirations, and the same grievances. They conspired together and waged a common struggle against their common enemy – the big planter apparatus and a social system that legalized terror against . . . bondsmen. No one says and no one believes it was a Garden of Eden in Colonial America. But, the available evidence . . . suggests that there were widening bonds of solidarity . . . And the same evidence indicates that it proved very difficult indeed to teach white people to worship their skin.”

Lerone Bennett Jr.
The Shaping of Black America, Chapter 3, “The Road Not Taken,” 1975 Read More 

“In the latter half of the seventeenth century, [in] Virginia and Maryland, the tobacco colonies . . . Afro-American and European-American proletarians made common cause in this struggle to an extent never duplicated in the three hundred years since.”
Theodore W. Allen
"Class Struggle and the Origin of Racial Slavery: The Invention of the White Race," 1975

[From Jeffrey B. Perry, “The Developing Conjuncture and Some Insights From Hubert Harrison and Theodore W. Allen On the Centrality of the Fight Against White Supremacy” (120 pp., forthcoming online)] Read More 

“When the first Africans arrived in Virginia in 1619, there were no ‘white’ people there; nor, according to the colonial records, would there be for another sixty years.
--Theodore W. Allen--
--"The Invention of the White Race," Vol. 1, 1994--

(This statement is based on the fact that, after twenty-plus years of meticulous research and examination of 885 county-years of pattern-setting Virginia’s colonial records, Allen found “no instance of the official use of the word ‘white’ as a token of social status” prior to 1691.")

[From Jeffrey B. Perry, “The Developing Conjuncture and Some Insights From Hubert Harrison and Theodore W. Allen On the Centrality of the Fight Against White Supremacy” (forthcoming)] Read More 

“The King James version of the Bible . . . does not contain the word ‘race’ in our modern sense . . . as late as 1611 our modern idea of race had not yet arisen.”
-- Hubert Harrison, “World Problems of Race,” 1926

[From “The Developing Conjuncture and Some Insights From Hubert Harrison and Theodore W. Allen On the Centrality of the Fight Against White Supremacy” (forthcoming)] Read More 

"A free thinking race conscious and class-conscious black working class socialist, Hubert Harrison (1883–1927) exerted profound influence among leading intellectual activists in the civil rights, New Negro, Black Nationalist, labor, and socialist movements mainly in Harlem, New York City. Harrison was a dynamic speaker, prolific writer, labor and community organizer, bibliophile, street corner orator, educator, newspaper publisher, advocate of women’s rights, and propagandist. From the late 1900s into the 1920s, he captured the attention of, and in some cases interacted with, numerous prominent individuals including Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. Du Bois, Eugene Debs, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, “Big Bill” Haywood, Chandler Owen, Cyril V. Briggs, Marcus Garvey, and Henry Miller. He earned the sobriquet “Father of Harlem Radicalism” from labor leader and socialist Asa Philip Randolph, and he received praise from Joel A. Rogers who wrote that Harrison was “the foremost Afro-American intellect of his time” and that “none of the Afro-American leaders of his time had a saner and more effective program.” Harrison ranked high among black intellectuals, grappling to understand the workings of racism and building movements to end white supremacy within both the largest class radical movement (the Socialist Party) and, later, the largest race radical New Negro movement (the Universal Negro Improvement Association).

Harrison is the central subject in the first book of a meticulously documented and critically detailed two volume biography by independent scholar and post office labor union activist, now retired, Jeffrey B. Perry, . . . . Perry is well-positioned to write the biography because he preserved and inventoried the Hubert. H. Harrison Papers at Columbia University, and he edited "A Hubert Harrison Reader" (Wesleyan University Press, 2001). He can be proud to have authored the first definitive biography of Harrison and an established point of reference for interested laypersons and scholars for decades to come. . . ." -- Charles L. Lumpkins, Pennsylvania State University, in "Socialism and Democracy," March 2011 Read More 

Discussion of Theodore W. Allen's "The Invention of the White Race" Vol 2 "The Origin of Racial Oppression in Anglo-America," Brecht Forum, 451 West St. (btwn Bank and Bethune), NYC, Thurs, June 9, 7:30 pm. Public transport: C,A or E to 14th St. and 8th Ave; #1,2,or 3 to 14th and 7th Ave (exit at 12th St.)

Discussion of Theodore W. Allen's "The Invention of the White Race" Vol 1 "Racial Oppression and Social Control" Brecht Forum, 451 West St. (btwn Bank and Bethune), NYC, Thurs, June 2. Public transport: C,A or E to 14th St. and 8th Ave; #1,2,or 3 to 14th and 7th Ave (exit at 12th St.; 14A Bus to Abington Square.

Brecht Forum Lecture Series -- The Continuous Study of Race and Class in America, Tuesday May 31st, 7:30- 9:30 PM -- “White Supremacy and Bloomberg Autocracy on the NYC Public Schools”
Panelists -- Jitu Weusi, Mark Torres, Ernestine Augustus, Sam Anderson, Sean Ahern; Muriel Tillinghast, Chair
Part of the Course “Hubert Harrison, Theodore W. Allen, and the Continuing Centrality of the Struggle Against White Supremacy” -- Lecturer: Jeffrey B. Perry, biographer, historian.

Topics:

> From community control to mayoral dictatorship

> School closings and charter takeovers in Black and Latino communities.

> How students of color have fared under mayoral control

>The disappearing of Black and Latino educators in NYC 2002-present.
Each panelist will give a 10 minute presentation. Open discussion to follow. Please join us.
Brecht Forum, 451 West Street between Bank & Bethune Streets (near the West Side Drive), NYC 10014, (212) 242-4201.
Public transportation: C,A or E to 14th Street and 8Th Avenue; #1,2,or 3 to 14th and 7th Ave (exit at 12th street end of platform); 14A Bus to Abington Square (last stop). Read More 

Personal Statement by Jeffrey B. Perry for "History News Network"-- brief comments mention Independent Historians, Hubert Harrison, and Theodore W. Allen. See http://hnn.us/node/139221 or CLICK HERE

Members of the Parks Recreation & Transportation Committee of Community Board 10, in Harlem voted unanimously on May 11, 2011, to Co-Name 134th St. between Lenox Avenue/Malcolm X Blvd. and Adam Clayton Powell Jr., Blvd. as Hubert Harrison Place.
Hubert Harrison, “The Father of Harlem Radicalism,” pioneering soapbox orator, founder of the Liberty League (1917), and editor of "The Voice: A Newspaper for the New Negro" (1917-1918), the "New Negro" (1919), and the "Negro World" (1920), lived on that block and often spoke at 134h and Lenox, which was known as “Liberty’s Corner.” Read More 

Suggested Readings for “Hubert Harrison, Theodore W. Allen & the Continuing Centrality of the Struggle Against White Supremacy" See http://brechtforum.org/readings-harrison-allen or CLICK HERE

"Jeffrey Perry's biography, the finest I've ever read, tears away the curtain of obscurity that has kept several generations of Americans from learning about-and learning from-the scholar-poet-essayist-orator-journalist-civil rights pioneer-trade union activist and champion of socialism Hubert Harrison. See http://peoplesworld.org/biography-of-hubert-harrison-one-of-america-s-greatest-minds/ or CLICK HERE

Book Talk by Jeffrey B. Perry on "Hubert Harrison: The Voice of Harlem Radicalism, 1883-1918," Sunday, April 24, 2011, 3 PM, Studio Museum in Harlem, 144 W. 125th St., NYC. CLICK HERE

Suggested Readings for “Hubert Harrison, Theodore W. Allen & the Continuing Centrality of the Struggle Against White Supremacy" See http://brechtforum.org/readings-harrison-allen

Class -- "Hubert Harrison, Theodore W. Allen & the Continuing Centrality of the Struggle Against White Supremacy." Brecht Forum, Thursdays, 7:30 PM, May-June 2011. See http://brechtforum.org/civicrm/event/info?id=11873&reset=1
451 West St. (between Bank and Bethune Sts.), New York, NY, 10014.

Three Upcoming Hubert Harrison Events – Please help spread the word!

April 10, 2011, Sunday, 2 PM
Afrikan Poetry Theater 176-03 Jamaica Ave. Jamaica, Queens, New York.

April 12, 2011, Tuesday, 12 noon to 1 PM
“Pan Africa Show” with Dr. Emeka Nwadiora of Temple University, radio station WURD, 900 AM, Philadelphia, PA.

April 24, 2011, Sunday, 3 PM
The Studio Museum of Harlem, 144 West. 125th St., New York, NY, 10025. The program is in honor of Hubert Harrison's April 27, 1883 birthday.

Ilva Harrison, Hubert Harrison’s granddaughter, will be at the two New York activities.

The last two programs are in honor of Hubert Harrison's April 27, 1883 birthday.
 Read More 

This wonderful tribute to Hubert Harrison was done by Pablo Ferrer. The video, in Spanish, was finalized in Puerto Rico. Daniel Rodriguez Torres assisted with the English language subtitles. Hubert Harrison was a self-defined "radical internationalist." In that spirit, and in the spirit of Pablo and Daniel, please share this video widely. The video was produced by Pablo Zulu and Africana Sights and Sounds from the Soul. Read More