Arturo Schomburg once described his friend and fellow bibliophile Hubert Harrison as a man who was ahead of his time. Ahead of his time and largely relegated to the margins of history. Until now. Jeffrey Perry has written the first volume of a biography of the radical activist, orator, and public figure, Hubert Harrison: The Voice of Harlem Radicalism, 1883-1918. Perry says that Harrison’s iconoclasm, race, and working class roots all meant that he wasn’t given the serious scholarly attention he deserves. He also died young, in his mid forties, and was overshadowed by other prominent black intellectuals like Booker T. Washington and W. E. B. Du Bois. 

No Comments   Spotlight