Land & Liberation: Harry Haywood’s Legacy in the Current Moment

Join Center for Political Education for a discussion of a major work in the Black Communist tradition by worker-intellectual Harry Haywood, Negro Liberation, now in a new edition featuring a foreword by Dr. Rebecca Hall and an introduction by Dr. Charisse Burden-Stelly. This event will feature a conversation with Dr. Hall, Dr. Burden-Stelly and renowned scholar and activist Robin D.G. Kelley.

Books will be available for purchase and signing.

This event is co-sponsored by the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement and Haymarket Books, and will be co-hosted by our friends at La Peña Cultural Center.

About Harry Haywood & Negro Liberation

In 1948, Harry Haywood, a leading member of the Communist Party USA, published Negro Liberation, a pathbreaking book that lays out his argument that the Black Belt South constitutes a distinct nation and an internal colony of U.S. imperialism. Applying a Marxist-Leninist lens to questions of nationalism, colonialism, and land distribution, Haywood lays out the dire stakes of Jim Crow violence and oppression and critiques the emptiness and insufficiency of liberal solutions. Along the way, he makes a powerful case for Black self-determination.

Framed by Rebecca Hall’s moving meditation on her father’s legacy and Charisse Burden-Stelly’s clear-eyed case for how Haywood reveals the contradiction between ruling-class politics and Black liberation today, this new edition of Negro Liberation is a must-read for anyone fighting against oppression.

Speaker Bios

Rebecca Hall, JD PhD is an independent scholar, activist, and educator. Her paternal grandparents were born enslaved and she is the daughter of Harry Haywood. Dr. Hall writes and publishes on the history of race, gender, law, and resistance as well as articles on climate justice and intersectional feminist theory. Her most recent book, Wake: The Hidden History of Women-Led Slave Revolts (Simon & Schuster, 2021) has won multiple awards, and was a finalist for the N.A.A.C.P. Image Awards and the Pen America Open Book Award. Wake has been listed as a Best Book of 2021 by NPR and The Washington Post, Forbes, Ms. Magazine, and has been released in eight languages. (for more on Rebecca, click here.)

Charisse Burden-Stelly is a critical Black Studies scholar of political theory, political economy, intellectual history, and political and historical sociology. She is the author of Black Scare/Red Scare: Theorizing Capitalist Racism in the United States and the co-author, with Dr. Gerald Horne, of W.E.B. Du Bois: A Life in American History. I am also the co-editor, with Dr. Jodi Dean, of Organize, Fight, Win: Black Communist Women’s Political Writings and of Reproducing Domination: On the Caribbean and the Postcolonial State with Dr. Aaron Kamugisha and Dr. Percy Hintzen. Additionally, I guest edited the “Claudia Jones: Foremother of World Revolution” special issue of The Journal of Intersectionality. (for more on Charisse, click here.)

Robin D.G. Kelley is an author, historian, and one of the most distinguished experts on African American studies. He is Professor and Gary B. Nash Endowed Chair in U.S. History at UCLA. He is the author of Hammer and Hoe, Race Rebels, Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination, and Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original, among other titles. His writing has been featured in the Journal of American History, American Historical Review, Black Music Research Journal, African Studies Review, New York Times, The Crisis, The Nation, and Voice Literary Supplement. (for more on Robin, click here.)

FAQs

• Will I be able to purchase a copy of Negro Liberation at the event?
  Yes, a limited number of copies will be available for purchase at the event. Sales will be made on a first come, first serve basis.

• Is the venue wheelchair accessible?
  La Peña is wheelchair accessible and has accessible, gender-neutral bathrooms.

• What are the COVID protocols for this event?
  Masks will be available but not required. Please stay home if you’re sick.

• Do I need a ticket to attend this event?
  Yes, due to limited capacity, we are requiring all attendees to obtain a ticket to attend. While there are paid ticket options, there are also free community tickets. No one will be turned away for lack of funds.