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Hubert Harrison: Forbidden Genius of Black Radicalism
430 pages, Hardcover
Published June 17, 2025
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November 1, 2025
I was drawn to this book, clearly NOT in the mainstream of book publishing, due to an interview with the author on my favorite podcast, BAD FAITH (episode #499). He spoke then, as he does in the introduction to this book, that this is not a biography as much as it is an intellectual history. As such, it is not a chronology of significant life events as much as a chronology of significant ideas successively embraced by the subject. These ideas build upon one another so that the reader can gain a better understanding of what it takes to engage as a Black radical at the turn of the previous century, when one’s blackness alone was enough to earn you a target (public lynching being a popular community event of the time). Harrison’s politics were altogether so far ahead of the curve as to be unfathomable by his radical white peers of the time, let alone those whites whose only care was what kind of meat shall we bring to the picnic/BBQ at the site of the local lynching, and should we invite the cousins?
The important take away here is that radical ideas are often born of personal experience and perhaps only mildly informed by reading theoretical work. Which is not to say that reading theoretical work is not useful, but if these ideas are not directly applied to one's life, then they are no more than intellectual memes signifying position but not actually moving the needle in any meaningful way. In this respect the structuring of this book is useful in that we can trace one's intellectual development from one idea to another, and perhaps find some inspiration with regards to our own intellectual development.
Of special interest to me was the section on Harrison’s 1917 lectures on “Sex and Sex Problems”. These lectures (six in total) centered on topics such as marriage versus free love, (admittedly a little ahead of its time), as well as birth control, a topic we have yet to come to terms with in the present day US. On this latter topic Harrison was undeniably influenced by Margaret Sanger as both Sanger and Harrison were organizers in the same branch of the Socialist Party at that time. But Sanger would eventually seek more mainstream funding from wealthy donors for her activities and drift toward a eugenics kind of positioning. Harrison, on the other hand, is credited with beginning to shift discourse in the Black community regarding sexual reproduction, suggesting that it was paramount that Black people take command of their procreative choices by using contraceptive devices and/or considering abortion. Both of these were illegal at the time. By not asserting your right to plan families of your choosing, you were subject to the whims of those white doctors who sometimes performed sterilization procedures upon Black women, post childbirth, without their consent - a variety of forced eugenics, if you will. This is an example of how the direct experience of living under white rule informed the purely theoretical.
If asserting the right to an abortion put Harrison at odds with the conservative Black churches, his position on free love was even more alienating. Harrison believed that the imposition of sex role norms amounted to just another way for the patriarchy to assert control over women. Leaders of the Black churches viewed this position, quite legitimately, as a threat to their authority. But Harrison stuck to his guns on this issue at a time when it was quite unfashionable to say this out loud. One hundred years later it may be slightly more fashionable to utter such sentiments out loud, but nevertheless we still struggle with the reality of right wing politicians who believe that a woman's place is in the home taking care of children she is forced to bear.
This is why books such as this one are so important. At times it may feel as if all we are doing is reinventing the wheel, but at other times it remains important to gather inspiration from those brave voices which preceded us. It is important that we are not made to feel isolated and alone as we are constantly bombarded by fascist memes. We stand upon the shoulders of those courageous people who came before. If at times our demands appear utopian to the uninitiated, we should remind ourselves that many of our most celebrated accomplishments, as a people, evolved from a time when such thoughts were once considered impossible, too idealistic, or perhaps even ridiculous. Yet in our country we did away with formal and institutional slavery, we provided women the right to vote in elections, we ended formal childhood labor and imposed restrictions on the length of the work day and work week. All these concepts were once considered too radical for serious discussion, but good and productive ideas often stem from courageous radical thought. We shut off that faucet at our own peril.
The important take away here is that radical ideas are often born of personal experience and perhaps only mildly informed by reading theoretical work. Which is not to say that reading theoretical work is not useful, but if these ideas are not directly applied to one's life, then they are no more than intellectual memes signifying position but not actually moving the needle in any meaningful way. In this respect the structuring of this book is useful in that we can trace one's intellectual development from one idea to another, and perhaps find some inspiration with regards to our own intellectual development.
Of special interest to me was the section on Harrison’s 1917 lectures on “Sex and Sex Problems”. These lectures (six in total) centered on topics such as marriage versus free love, (admittedly a little ahead of its time), as well as birth control, a topic we have yet to come to terms with in the present day US. On this latter topic Harrison was undeniably influenced by Margaret Sanger as both Sanger and Harrison were organizers in the same branch of the Socialist Party at that time. But Sanger would eventually seek more mainstream funding from wealthy donors for her activities and drift toward a eugenics kind of positioning. Harrison, on the other hand, is credited with beginning to shift discourse in the Black community regarding sexual reproduction, suggesting that it was paramount that Black people take command of their procreative choices by using contraceptive devices and/or considering abortion. Both of these were illegal at the time. By not asserting your right to plan families of your choosing, you were subject to the whims of those white doctors who sometimes performed sterilization procedures upon Black women, post childbirth, without their consent - a variety of forced eugenics, if you will. This is an example of how the direct experience of living under white rule informed the purely theoretical.
If asserting the right to an abortion put Harrison at odds with the conservative Black churches, his position on free love was even more alienating. Harrison believed that the imposition of sex role norms amounted to just another way for the patriarchy to assert control over women. Leaders of the Black churches viewed this position, quite legitimately, as a threat to their authority. But Harrison stuck to his guns on this issue at a time when it was quite unfashionable to say this out loud. One hundred years later it may be slightly more fashionable to utter such sentiments out loud, but nevertheless we still struggle with the reality of right wing politicians who believe that a woman's place is in the home taking care of children she is forced to bear.
This is why books such as this one are so important. At times it may feel as if all we are doing is reinventing the wheel, but at other times it remains important to gather inspiration from those brave voices which preceded us. It is important that we are not made to feel isolated and alone as we are constantly bombarded by fascist memes. We stand upon the shoulders of those courageous people who came before. If at times our demands appear utopian to the uninitiated, we should remind ourselves that many of our most celebrated accomplishments, as a people, evolved from a time when such thoughts were once considered impossible, too idealistic, or perhaps even ridiculous. Yet in our country we did away with formal and institutional slavery, we provided women the right to vote in elections, we ended formal childhood labor and imposed restrictions on the length of the work day and work week. All these concepts were once considered too radical for serious discussion, but good and productive ideas often stem from courageous radical thought. We shut off that faucet at our own peril.
Displaying 1 of 1 review