Black Agenda Report
Black Agenda Report
News, commentary and analysis from the black left.

  • Home
  • Africa
  • African America
  • Education
  • Environment
  • International
  • Media and Culture
  • Political Economy
  • Radio
  • US Politics
  • War and Empire
  • omnibus

Revisiting Black Nationalism and the National Question
Ken Morgan
24 Jan 2018
Revisiting Black Nationalism and the National Question
Revisiting Black Nationalism and the National Question

“Economic disparities, police brutality, inequalities et al. go together with capitalism.”

I was privileged to learn from and work with Harry Haywood. Most if not all readers of the Black Agenda Report know his legacy and history in the black struggle. If not, please do check him out.

He viewed blacks as an oppressed nation in the Black Belt South and an oppressed minority in the North. The black struggle demanded its independence for true liberation. Haywood said that the merits of black nationalism required “an independent course for the movement; to shake off the dead hand of liberalism, paternalism, gradualism, and dependency.” It needed a revolutionary program consistent with sentiments of the black masses. Haywood's view necessitated that the black independent struggle for self-determination is necessary to connect with the revolutionary working-class movement to bring about U.S. socialism -- and to end black oppression.

Haywood said that it was not enough to just talk about whether you desire integration or separation. Both maintain their issues.

Black nationalism isolated and detached does not bring about black liberation. Turning money over to the black community that originates and stays in the black community is a pipe dream if you understand imperialism. Developing black businesses as a way forward is yet another empty basket.

“Different groupings and formations today have adopted pieces of Haywood’s worldview.”

Black community organizing with only the aim of making things better is temporary at best. The movement to end police brutality is an example.

Malcolm X got it right. Economic disparities, police brutality, inequalities et al. go together with capitalism. Malcolm still did not say what must replace it. He was moving on that track.

On the integration end, there continues to be a trend that wrongly places the black petty bourgeois at the helm. Dissing Trump and voting for Bernie Sanders draws us no closer to black liberation. How many of us think that we will obtain true equality through these methods?

We in the black left still grapple with trying to put black liberation on a proper course using black nationalism. Different groupings and formations today have adopted pieces of Haywood’s worldview. I suggest that we thoroughly examine Haywood’s premise, and emulate it according to today’s current environment.

Yes, building black anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist, and anti-racist formations put us in the right direction. Getting together to do joint work around common goals remains essential, but is limited.

It looks like we have to help to build or re-build the revolutionary working class movement. That is, if Harry Haywood’s view is followed. As the most oppressed and the vanguard of the working class movement, we learned our lessons. Why not apply them?

Dr. Morgan can be reached at [email protected].

#Black Liberation Movement

Do you need and appreciate Black Agenda Report articles. Please click on the DONATE icon, and help us out, if you can.


Related Stories

The Unknown History of Black Uprisings
Keeanga-Yamahia Taylor
The Unknown History of Black Uprisings
01 July 2021
Historian Elizabeth Hinton’s book reveals that, in the late sixties and early seventies, there were hundreds of local rebellions against white viol
Rock-A-Bye Baby: The Anesthetizing Effects of Political Concessions
 joshua briond
Rock-A-Bye Baby: The Anesthetizing Effects of Political Concessions
01 July 2021
The response to Black rebellion are all distinct types of “reforms” to politically sedate Black surplus populations and sustain white settler-capit
BAR Book Forum: Cisco Bradley’s “Universal Tonality”
Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
BAR Book Forum: Cisco Bradley’s “Universal Tonality”
16 June 2021
Jazzman William Parker’s work is a bold art of resistance to capitalism, colonialism, racism, and the runaway train that is our present-day America
“New Bones” Abolitionism, Communism, and Captive Maternals
Joy James
“New Bones” Abolitionism, Communism, and Captive Maternals
09 June 2021
Joy James uses poet Lucille Clifton's image of “new bones” to reflect on a series of revolutionary anniversaries in 2021 and the nature of politica
The authors set out to reconstruct King’s critical theory of racial capitalism.
Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
BAR Book Forum: Jared A. Loggins and Andrew J. Douglas’ “Prophet of Discontent”
06 May 2021
The authors set out to reconstruct King’s critical theory of racial capitalism.
Reaching Beyond “Black Faces in High Places”: An Interview With Joy James
George Yancy
Reaching Beyond “Black Faces in High Places”: An Interview With Joy James
03 February 2021
White supremacist culture is a permanent site of predatory consumption, extraction and violation.
Return to the Source: Democracy is Dead
Editors, The Black Agenda Review
Return to the Source: Democracy is Dead
20 January 2021
By what stretch of the imagination can the US be a democracy when ordinary citizens have virtually no influence over what their government does? 
Caste Does Not Explain Race
Charisse Burden-Stelly, PhD
Caste Does Not Explain Race
06 January 2021
The celebration of Isabel Wilkerson’s Caste reflects the continued priority of elite preferences over the needs and struggles of ordinary
Freddie Gray and Why the Wealth of Sports Franchises Matter
Gustavus Griffin
Freddie Gray and Why the Wealth of Sports Franchises Matter
06 January 2021
A significant portion of sports franchise wealth can be traced directly to the oppression and displacement of Black and Brown bodies.
Racial Capitalism, Black Liberation, and South Africa
Editors, The Black Agenda Review
Racial Capitalism, Black Liberation, and South Africa
16 December 2020
The phrase racial capitalism first emerged in the context of the anti-Apartheid and southern African liberation struggles in the 1970s.

More Stories


  • Tamara Gausi
    ITUC-Africa General Secretary, Akhator Joel Odigie: “It is time for Africans to chart and determine our progress on our terms”
    28 May 2025
    As workers across Africa face growing challenges, the leadership of the African Regional Organisation of the International Trade Union Confederation remains crucial in the fight for labor rights and…
  • Chris Hedges
    Trump’s Useful Idiots
    28 May 2025
    A bankrupt liberal class signed on to the Zionist witch hunt against supposed antisemites, refused to condemn Israel for its genocide and in the process gave weapons to its executioners.
  • Brett Wilkins
    Video Shows Girl Trying to Escape Inferno as Gaza Family 'Burned Alive' in Israeli Massacre
    28 May 2025
    The story of Ward Al-Sheikh Khalil is a horrifying reminder of the human cost of Israel’s war on Gaza. As thousands of Palestinian children face death, the world must confront the devastating toll of…
  • Socialist Workers' Movement of the Dominican Republic
    Fighting Apartheid in the Dominican Republic is Essential!
    28 May 2025
    Fighting apartheid in the Dominican Republic is essential to achieving redress for people of African descent in that country.
  • Justin Fenton , Ben Conarck , Pamela Wood
    Forensic Failures: 36 Police-Custody Deaths Should Have Been Ruled a Homicide, Audit Finds
    28 May 2025
    Independent audit finds patterns of racial, pro-police bias in Maryland’s chief medical examiner’s office.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us