(1955) - For the Materialist Conception of the Negro Struggle - Richard S. Fraser

In For the Materialist Conception of the Negro Struggle, Fraser critiques a prominent idea at the time that described the Black population in the U.S. South as a colonized nation, arguing that this framework mischaracterizes the nature of Black oppression in the United States. He contends that viewing the struggle through a national or nation-state lens obscures the specific historical and social realities shaped by slavery, segregation, and the role of Black labour in the U.S. Fraser argues that Black Americans occupy a unique and deeply entrenched position within the U.S. social and economic order: treated as a distinct group subject to systemic discrimination and concentrated in the most exploited sectors of the workforce. He challenges the idea that this condition should be understood through the lens of national independence or territorial separation. Instead, he frames the Black freedom struggle as a fight to dismantle the structures of racial and economic exclusion that have persisted since slavery. Fraser emphasizes that while this struggle must be driven by Black workers themselves, it can only succeed if joined by a broad workers movement committed to systemic change.