Frank R. Crosswaith was born on July 16, 1892, in La Croix, Virgin Islands, to William Ignatius and Anne Elizabeth Crosswaith. He immigrated to the United States in 1910 and became a socialist labor leader. He settled in New York City, New York, where he … Read MoreFrank R. Crosswaith (1892-1965)
Born on November 5, 1940, Cedric Robinson, one of the nation’s most influential political scientists, on died on June 5, 2016. Robinson was born and raised in a working-class neighborhood of Oakland, California, the son of Clara Whiteside and Frederick Hill. After graduating from Berkeley … Read MoreCedric Robinson (1940-2016)
On November 3, 1979, in Greensboro, North Carolina, a “Death to the Klan” rally and march organized by the Communist Workers Party, which was previously known as the Workers Viewpoint Organization (WVO), was planned to occur in Morningside Home, a predominantly Black housing project. During … Read MoreGreensboro Massacre (1979)
In 1977 Ethiopia and Somalia engaged in a brief territory conflict over the Ogaden region situated between and claimed by both nations. This conflict however held significance greater than most territorial disputes because Ethiopia was backed by the Soviet Union and Somalia was supported by … Read MoreEthiopian-Somali War Over the Ogaden Region (1977–1978)
Coming from the biological term symbiosis, meaning the interdependence of different species, the Symbionese Liberation Army was a radical leftist revolutionary organization that sought to unify all left-wing struggles under one banner. The Berkeley, California-formed group of mostly upper middle class, educated young whites, led … Read MoreThe Symbionese Liberation Army (1973-1975)
Robert Browning Flippin was an important community leader and racial activist in San Francisco beginning in the 1930s through the 1950s. He was also the first African American parole officer at the California State Prison at San Quentin. The son of the black physician George … Read MoreRobert Browning Flippin (1903-1963)
“Image Ownership: Rollin Riggs” D’Army Bailey, founder of the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis Tennessee, was a political and civil rights activist whose career spanned over half a century. Born in Memphis, Tennessee, on November 29, 1941, Bailey was one of three children … Read MoreD’Army Bailey (1941-2015)
Communist Party Leaders: Claudia Jones, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, Pettis Perry & Betty Gannet, ca. 1951 “Image Ownership: Public Domain” U.S. Communist Party leader Pettis Perry was born on January 4, 1897, on a tenant farm near Marion, Alabama. His mother died when he was a … Read MorePettis Perry (1897-1965)
The Black Arts Movement was the name given to a group of politically motivated black poets, artists, dramatists, musicians, and writers who emerged in the wake of the Black Power Movement. The poet Imamu Amiri Baraka is widely considered to be the father of the … Read MoreThe Black Arts Movement (1965-1975)
The Black Belt Republic was a proposed black autonomous state in the American Deep South proposed by African American communists and for a time endorsed by the Soviet Union and the international communist community. The Black Belt itself is a crescent shaped band of predominately … Read MoreBlack Belt Republic (1928-1934)
