Content area
Full text
Historian Winston James is a scholar of the first rank who has produced a superb study of an important, but ignored, chapter of US history. His study of early twentieth century Caribbean radicalism pulls together much of the existing research in the field, breaks new research ground, displays class awareness and an internationalist spirit, and asks probing questions. It also sheds important light on white supremacy, black radicalism, and class struggle in America.
James came to his subject in the course of writing a biography of the Jamaican-born poet/activist Claude McKay. In 1918, after only six years in the US, McKay described his American experience in memorable words:
It was the first time I had ever come face to face with such manifest, implacable hatred of my race, and my feelings were indescribable ... I had heard of prejudice in America but never dreamed of it being so intensely bitter.
McKay's experience, explains James, reflects the fact that the prejudice he encountered in the Caribbean was mainly rooted in class, while the prejudice he encountered in the United States was primarily related to "race."
James uses examples from the lives of radicals like McKay to describe and explain the disproportionate Caribbean involvement in movements that challenged the status quo on the basis of social class and/or race between 1900 and 1930. That story essentially starts with St. Croix-born Hubert Harrison (1883-1927), the brilliant intellectual/activist known as "the Father of Harlem Radicalism." James' discussion continues with Marcus Garvey (Jamaica), the founder of the largest mass movement among black people in the United States and the world; Cyril Briggs (Nevis), head of the African Blood Brotherhood who was later a leading activist with the Communist Party; Jesus Colon (Puerto Rico), a dedicated long-time Communist Party member and Puerto Rican community activist; and Arturo Schomburg (Puerto Rico), bibliophile and collector of books on Africa and the African diaspora. In the treatment of these radicals, as well as in an informed discussion of Cuban cigar workers in Florida, James convincingly demonstrates that Caribbeans played a disproportionate role in building and sustaining radical, trade union, and progressive organizations.
In developing this story and describing the experiences of the 150,000 black Caribbean migrants who came to America between 1899 and...