Image Credits: Mike Alewitz, 2014, via Wikimedia Commons
(1965) - The Crisis of Negro Reformism and the Growth of Nationalism - Harry Haywood
In collaboration with Gwendolyn Midlo Hall, Harry Haywood wrote this unpublished manuscript, Towards a Revolutionary Program for Negro Freedom. In this chapter they touch upon the uprise of anti-colonialism movements, stark polarizations of socioeconomic classes, and the dissatisfaction with the empty promises of the “American Dream.” They particularly highlight the steep decline which Black Americans have faced in the Southern agriculture sphere and the gradual breakdown of the performative tokenism which the United States government masked with. There is a call to action as “revolutionary reorientation is the only alternative to despair, passivity, and escapism."
The only way the Negro movement can free itself from the vise which is tightening around it is through independent, revolutionary struggle. This simple fact lies at the root of the crisis of Negro reformism.