Black Caribbean Immigrants In US Black History

News Americas, NEW YORK, NY, Mon. Feb. 13, 2023: Today we spotlight on another black Caribbean immigrant who was a West Indian American writer, orator, educator, critic, race and class-conscious political activist, and radical internationalist based in Harlem, New York.

Hubert H. Harrison

Hubert Henry Harrison was a West Indian American writer, orator, educator, critic, race and class-conscious political activist, and radical internationalist based in Harlem, New York.

Hubert Henry Harrison was a West Indian American writer, orator, educator, critic, race and class-conscious political activist, and radical internationalist based in Harlem, New York. He was described by activist A. Philip Randolph as “the father of Harlem radicalism” and by the historian Joel Augustus Rogers as “the foremost Afro-American intellect of his time.” John G. Jackson of American Atheists described him as “The Black Socrates”.

An immigrant from St. Croix at the age of 17, Harrison played significant roles in the largest radical class and race movements in the United States. In 1912–14, he was the leading Black organizer in the Socialist Party of America. In 1917 he founded the Liberty League and The Voice, the first organization and the first newspaper of the race-conscious “New Negro” movement. From his Liberty League and Voice came the core leadership of individuals and race-conscious program of the Garvey movement.

Harrison was a seminal and influential thinker who encouraged the development of class consciousness among workers, black pride, agnostic atheism, secular humanism, social progressivism, and freethought. He was also a self-described “radical internationalist” and contributed significantly to the Caribbean radical tradition. Harrison profoundly influenced a generation of “New Negro” militants, including A. Philip Randolph, Chandler Owen, Marcus Garvey, Richard Benjamin Moore, W. A. Domingo, Williana Burroughs, and Cyril Briggs.

He died on December 17, 1927.