Bøger af Gerald Horne

Original jelly roll blues -- What did I do to be so black and blue? -- One o'clock jump -- Hothouse -- We speak African! -- Lullabye of birdland -- Haitian fight song -- Kind of blue -- I wish I knew how it would feel to be free -- Song for Che -- The blues and the abstract truth.

The histories of Cuba and the United States are tightly intertwinedand have been for at least two centuries. In Race to Revolution, historian Gerald Horne examines a critical relationship betweenthe two countries by tracing out the typically overlooked interconnectionsamong slavery, Jim Crow, and revolution. Slavery wascentral to the economic and political trajectories of Cuba and theUnited States, both in terms of each nation's internal political andeconomic development and in the interactions between the smallCaribbean island and the Colossus of the North. Horne draws a direct link between the black experiences in twovery different countries and follows that connection throughchanging periods of resistance and revolutionary upheaval. BlackCubans were crucial to Cuba's initial independence, and the relativefreedom they achieved helped bring down Jim Crow in theUnited States, reinforcing radical politics within the black communitiesof both nations. This in turn helped to create the conditionsthat gave rise to the Cuban Revolution which, on New Years' Dayin 1959, shook the United States to its core. Based on extensive research in Havana, Madrid, London, andthroughout the U.S., Race to Revolution delves deep into thehistorical record, bringing to life the experiences of slaves andslave traders, abolitionists and sailors, politicians and poor farmers.It illuminates the complex web of interaction and infl uencethat shaped the lives of many generations as they struggled overquestions of race, property, and political power in both Cuba andthe United States.

There is a fundamental contradiction in U.S. Imperialism: the capital of this empire for decades has had a majority Black population, which-in turn-has created favorable conditions not only for the erosion of the pestilence that is racism but the flourishing of the antidote that is radicalism. In this sweeping history, Gerald Horne traces this phenomenon over a century, in a book which should be understood and studied by all anti-imperialist and progressive forces. This relatively small metropolis also has influenced profoundly its neighbors in Maryland and Virginia, especially in the potent area of labor organizing.

I Dare Say: A Gerald Horne Reader is a timely and essential collection of the many works of Professor Gerald Horne-a historian who has made an indelible impact on the study of US and international history. Horne approaches his study of history as a deeply politically engaged scholar, with an insightful and necessarily partisan stance, critiquing the lasting reverberations of white supremacy and all its bedfellows-imperialism, colonialism, fascism and racism-which continue to wreak havoc in the United States and abroad to this day. Drawing on a career that spans more than four decades, The Gerald Horne Reader will showcase the many highlights of Horne's writings, delving into discussions of the United States and its place on the global stage, the curation of mythology surrounding titans of 20th Century African American history like Malcolm X, and Horne's thoughts on pressing international crises of the 21st Century including the war in Afghanistan during the early 2000s, and the war in Ukraine which erupted in February 2022. As we continue to observe the chaos of our current times, I Dare Say: A Gerald Horne Reader foregrounds a firmly rooted, consistent analysis of what has come to pass-and provides illuminating insight that better informs where we may be headed, and outlines what needs to be done to stem the tide of growing fascism across the Western world.

Based upon exhaustive research in court records, memoirs, the files of the New York State Athletic Commissions and related bodies from Nevada to New Jersey - not to mention the gangster venues from garish Las Vegas to venal South Philadelphia, this pioneering work tells the untold story of the grimy intersection of racism and racketeering in boxing. Revealing previously unrecorded stories of punchers from Jack Johnson to Joe Louis to Sugar Ray Robinson to Muhammad Ali, Horne also details a fascinating story of the waxing and waning of anti-Semitism. Toxic masculinity and other offshoots (including homophobia) are a major theme of this book and the author does not neglect women boxers--and wrestlers too---whose skills were honed in day-to-day battles with the pestilence that is male supremacy. An intriguing chapter concerns--ironically--the mob's chief executive in boxing in the 1950s, when profits piled up because of television broadcasts: Truman Gibson, a Negro, became the "fall guy", however, when a scapegoat was needed to take the blame for the fixed fights, the murderous attacks on those who refused to cooperate and the broken lives of what amounted to desperate workers eager to make a buck to support their starving families. This book traces the story of Black dominance in the sport, from fighting enslavers in Africa, through the brutal "battle royals" of slavery when enslaved men were placed in a ring blindfolded and forced to fight until one man was left standing, while, at the same time, it exposes the gross exploitation of fighters and the gargantuan profits garnered by the likes of Don King, Bob Arum--and a former Atlantic City casino poseur named Donald J. Trump.

"One lesson from Texas history is that repression was so severe because resistance was so daunting-a lesson to keep in mind as this century unfolds"--

Black Liberation/Red Scare is a study of an African American Communist leader, Ben Davis, Jr. (1904-64). Though it examines the numerous grassroots campaigns that he was involved in, it is first and foremost a study of the man and secondarily a study of the Communist party from the 1930s to the 1960s. By examining the public life of an important party leader, Gerald Horne uniquely approaches the story of how and why the party rose and fell. Ben Davis, Jr., was the son of a prominent Atlanta publisher and businessman who was also the top African American leader of the Republican party until the onset of the Great Depression. Davis was trained for the black elite at Morehouse, Amherst, and Harvard Law School. After graduating from Harvard, he joined the Communist party, where he remained as one of its most visible leaders for thirty years. In 1943, after being endorsed by his predecessor, Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., he was elected to the New York City Council from Harlem and subsequently reelected by a larger margin in 1945. Davis received support from such community figures as NAACP leader Roy Wilkins, boxer Joe Louis, and musician Duke Ellington. While on the council Davis fought for rent control and progressive taxation and struggled against transit fare hikes and police brutality. With the onset of the Red Scare and the Cold War, Davis-like the Communist party itselfwas marginalized. The Cold War made it difficult for the U.S. to compete with Moscow forthe hearts and minds of African Americans while they were subjected to third-classcitizenship at home. Yet in return for civil rights concessions, African American organizationssuch as the NAACP were forced to distance themselves from figures such as Ben Davis. In1949 he was ousted unceremoniously (and perhaps illegally from the City Council. He wasput on trial, jailed in 1951, and not released until 1956, when the civil rights movement wasgathering momentum. His friendship with the King family, based upon family ties in Atlanta,was the ostensible cause for the FBI surveillance of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.COINTEL-PRO, the counterintelligence program of the FBI, which was aimed initially atthe CPUSA, made sure to keep a close eye on Davis as well. But when the civil rightsmovement reached full strength in the 1960s Davis''s controversial appearances at collegecampuses helped to set the stage for a new era of activism at universities.Davis died in 1964. According to Horne, the time has now come when he, along with his good friend Paul Robeson and W. E. B. DuBois, should be regarded as a premier leader of African- Americans and the U.S. Left during the twentieth century.

Here, Gerald Horne argues forcefully that, in order to understand the arrival of colonists from the British Isles in the early seventeenth century, one must first understand the "long sixteenth century"-from 1492 until the arrival of settlers in Virginia in 1607.

Provides a fresh perspective on twentieth-century struggles for racial justice.

Based upon exhaustive research in all presidential libraries from Hoover to Clinton, the voluminous archives of the African National Congress [ANC] at Fort Hare University in South Africa, along with allied archives of the NAACP, the Ford and Rockefeller fortunes, etc., this is the most comprehensive account to date of the entangled histories of apartheid and Jim Crow that culminated in 1994 with the election of Nelson Mandela as president in Pretoria.The author traces in detail the close ties between e.g. Mandela, Robeson, and Du Bois--among others--and how their working in tandem with the socialist camp (particularly the Soviet Union and Cuba) was the deciding factor (along with the struggles of Africans and their allies on both sides of the Atlantic) in compelling the reluctant retreat of the comrades-in-arms: apartheid and Jim Crow. However, weeks after the collapse of the Berlin Wall the apartheid regime chose to free Mandela and to legalize the ANC and its close ally, the South African Communist Party--while anticommunism, a major ideological weapon of the ruling class in Washington and Pretoria alike, surged--putting the Mandela government in a weakened position in the prelude to the nation's first democratic elections in 1994 and thereafter.Also detailed in these riveting pages are the allied struggles in Namibia, Angola, Zimbabwe, Congo, Tanzania, Zambia and Mozambique, along with the massive solidarity movement in the U.S.--particularly among unions and students--that contributed mightily to victory.This is a story well worth studying as we continue to combat anticommunism--and struggle for socialism.

The surprising alliance between Japan and pro-Tokyo African Americans during World War II In November 1942 in East St. Louis, Illinois a group of African Americans engaged in military drills were eagerly awaiting a Japanese invasion of the U.S.- an invasion that they planned to join. Since the rise of Japan as a superpower less than a century earlier, African Americans across class and ideological lines had saluted the Asian nation, not least because they thought its very existence undermined the pervasive notion of "white supremacy." The list of supporters included Booker T. Washington, Marcus Garvey, and particularly W.E.B. Du Bois. Facing the Rising Sun tells the story of the widespread pro-Tokyo sentiment among African Americans during World War II, arguing that the solidarity between the two groups was significantly corrosive to the U.S. war effort. Gerald Horne demonstrates that Black Nationalists of various stripes were the vanguard of this trend-including followers of Garvey and the precursor of the Nation of Islam. Indeed, many of them called themselves "Asiatic", not African. Following World War II, Japanese-influenced "Afro-Asian" solidarity did not die, but rather foreshadowed Dr. Martin Luther King''s tie to Gandhi''s India and Black Nationalists'' post-1970s fascination with Maoist China and Ho''s Vietnam. Based upon exhaustive research, including the trial transcripts of the pro-Tokyo African Americans who were tried during the war, congressional archives and records of the Negro press, this book also provides essential background for what many analysts consider the coming "Asian Century." An insightful glimpse into the Black Nationalists'' struggle for global leverage and new allies, Facing the Rising Sun provides a complex, holistic perspective on a painful period in African American history, and a unique glimpse into the meaning of "the enemy of my enemy is my friend."

Powerful labour movements played a critical role in shaping modern Hawaii. Based on exhaustive archival research in Hawaii, California, Washington, and elsewhere, Gerald Horne's gripping story of Hawaii workers' struggle to unionize reads like a suspense novel as it details for the first time how radicalism and racism helped shape Hawaii in the twentieth century.

';A taut narrative in elegant prose... Horne has unearthed a vitally important and mostly forgotten aspect of Hollywood and labor history.' Publishers Weekly As World War II wound down in 1945 and the cold war heated up, the skilled trades that made up the Conference of Studio Unions (CSU) began a tumultuous strike at the major Hollywood studios. This turmoil escalated further when the studios retaliated by locking out CSU in 1946. This labor unrest unleashed a fury of Red-baiting that allowed studio moguls to crush the union and seize control of the production process, with far-reaching consequences. This engrossing book probes the motives and actions of all the players to reveal the full story of the CSU strike and the resulting lockout of 1946. Gerald Horne draws extensively on primary materials and oral histories to document how limited a ';threat' the Communist party actually posed in Hollywood, even as studio moguls successfully used the Red scare to undermine union clout, prevent film stars from supporting labor, and prove the moguls' own patriotism. Horne also discloses that, unnoticed amid the turmoil, organized crime entrenched itself in management and labor, gaining considerable control over both the ';product' and the profits of Hollywood. This research demonstrates that the CSU strike and lockout were a pivotal moment in Hollywood history, with consequences for everything from production values, to the kinds of stories told in films, to permanent shifts in the centers of power.

The successful 1776 revolt against British rule in North America has been hailed almost universally as a great step forward for humanity. The author show that in the prelude to 1776, the abolition of slavery seemed all but inevitable in London, delighting Africans as much as it outraged slaveholders, and sparking the colonial revolt.

Before he attained notoriety as Dean of the Hollywood Ten-the blacklisted screenwriters and directors persecuted because of their varying ties to the Communist Party-John Howard Lawson had become one of the most brilliant, successful, and intellectual screenwriters on the Hollywood scene in the 1930s and 1940s, with several hits to his credit including Blockade, Sahara, and Action in the North Atlantic. After his infamous, almost violent, 1947 hearing before the House Un-American Activities Committee, Lawson spent time in prison and his lucrative career was effectively over. Studded with anecdotes and based on previously untapped archives, this first biography of Lawson brings alive his era and features many of his prominent friends and associates, including John Dos Passos, Theodore Dreiser, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Charles Chaplin, Gene Kelly, Edmund Wilson, Ernest Hemingway, Humphrey Bogart, Dalton Trumbo, Ring Lardner, Jr., and many others. Lawson's life becomes a prism through which we gain a clearer perspective on the evolution and machinations of McCarthyism and anti-Semitism in the United States, on the influence of the left on Hollywood, and on a fascinating man whose radicalism served as a foil for launching the political careers of two Presidents: Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan. In vivid, marvelously detailed prose, Final Victim of the Blacklist restores this major figure to his rightful place in history as it recounts one of the most captivating episodes in twentieth century cinema and politics.

A comprehensive account of America's involvement in the war against Zimbabwe, which occurred after Smith's Rhodesian government made a unilateral declaration of independence and broke with Britain in 1965. Smith received tacit support from the US (American mercenaries fought with Rhodesia).

This biography of W.E.B. Du Bois gives full measure to his entire life, including his controversial final decades.

Reveals a novel thesis concerning slave resistence and the roots of abolitionism

Reveals the experiences of black sailors and their contribution to the struggle for labour and civil rights, the history of the Communist Party and its black members, and the significant dimensions of Jamaican labour and political radicalism.

Blends biography, social history, and critical race theory to illuminate the fascinating life of Lawrence Dennis, a complex and enigmatic man

During its heyday in the 19th century, the African slave trade was fueled by the close relationship of the US and Brazil. This work tells the story of how US nationals participated in this odious commerce by creating diplomatic, social, and political ties with Brazil, which has the largest population of African origin outside of Africa itself.

The Mexican Revolution impacted both Mexican and African Americans. Drawing on archives on both sides of the border, a host of cutting-edge studies and oral histories, Horne chronicles the political currents which created and then undermined the Mexican border as a relative safe haven for African Americans.