Tony Kushner’s Angels in America features Roy M. Cohn, a fictionalized version of a real right-wing lawyer who stood center stage in the American politics of the Cold War. Roy Cohn was, in life as in the play, a complex figure full of contradictions. A precocious and arrogant young man, he graduated from Columbia Law […]
Read more "Untangling Roy Cohn"Uncle Tom’s Children is a collection of short stories written by Richard Wright and published in 1938. Wright was born in Mississippi during the first decade of the 20th century, and as a result, lived to experience the immense racial injustices that Africans Americans still faced even after the passing of the 13th,14th , and […]
Read more "Mann vs. Nature"“It behooves each of us to learn more of Communist infiltration and the direction of Communist movements. Only through information and knowledge can we combat this alien menace to Constitutional government.”[1] The “alien menace” spoken of in this quote is the famous Highlander Folk School of Monteagle, Tennessee. The Highlander Folk School was founded in […]
Read more "Highland Folk School"The Legislative Black Caucus of South Carolina is not calling for a worldwide class revolution, or even organizing a demonstration of thousands to demand bread. These lawmakers are, however, hitting white elites where it hurts by urging black football recruits to reconsider attending the University of South Carolina (USC). The caucus is responding to the university’s board […]
Read more "Keeping them on the fields"Trying to locate a museum exhibit or online resource that addressed the issues raised in the reading for this week proved difficult. Unfortunately, it seems as if the story of African American interest in Communism during the 1920s and 30s has not had the broad appeal of the Civil Rights movement, Black radicalism, or the […]
Read more "Race and Place"What is freedom when you cannot do anything? The theme that I recognized throughout this week’s readings was the intolerable claustrophobic environment that restricted any sort of political movement in the black community. The southern white population offered no end to the continuous harassment and restricted living conditions of African Americans, yet wondered in shock […]
Read more "Seeing Red."Of course people who are struggling financially want to find a solution to their problems. Listen to this rosy picture that literary critic Edmund Wilson paints and see what you think: “…unemployment has been wiped out, a gigantic reconstruction of industry to extend a … planned economy has been undertaken, and a cultural revolution of […]
Read more "Looking For a Way Out of Hard Times? Try Communism!"
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