Kelley - Race rebels: culture, politics, and the Black working class

Culture, Politics, and the Black Working Class

ROBIN D. G. KELLEY

THE FREE PRESS
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RACE REBELS

THE FREE PRESS
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Copyright 1994, 1996 by Robin D. G. Kelley

All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.

THE FREE PRESS and colophon are trademarks of Simon & Schuster Inc.

First Free Press Paperback Edition 1996

Manufactured in the United States of America 10 9

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Kelley, Robin D. G.

Race rebels : culture, politics, and the Black working class/Robin D. G. Kelley

p. cm.

1. Afro-AmericansHistory1877-1964 2. Afro-AmericansHistory1964- 3. Afro-AmericansPolitics and government 4. Working classUnited StatesHistory20th century 5. RadicalismUnited StatesHistory20th century I. Title

E185.61.K356 1994

973.0496073dc20 94-27097

CIP

eISBN-13: 978-1-439-10504-7

ISBN-13: 978-0-684-82639-4

www.SimonandSchuster.com

The Free Press and the author gratefully acknowledge permission to reprint excerpts from the following poems, song lyrics, or book chapters.

A New Song by Langston Hughes, The Liberator, October 15, 1932. Copyright 1932. Reprinted by permission of Harold Ober Associates Inc. All rights reserved.

The Ballad of Ethiopia by Langston Hughes, Baltimore Afro-American, September 28, 1935. Copyright 1935. Reprinted by permission of Harold Ober Associates Inc. All rights reserved.

Letter from Spain: Addressed to Alabama by Langston Hughes, Volunteer for Liberty 1, no. 23 (November 15, 1937). Copyright 1937. Reprinted by permission of Harold Ober Associates Inc. All rights reserved.

The Lame and the Whore, reprinted by permission of the publishers from Get Your Ass in the Water and Swim Like Me: Narrative Poetry from Black Oral Tradition by Bruce Jackson, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass. Copyright 1974 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College.

Malcolm XAn Autobiography by Larry Neal, in For Malcolm: Poems on the Life and Death of Malcolm X, edited by Dudley Randall and Margaret C. Burroughs (Detroit, Mich.: Broadside Press, 1967), 10. Used by permission of Broadside Press.

Romance Without Finance by Lloyd Tiny Grimes. Copyright 1944, renewed 1972, Mills Music, Inc. Used by permission of CPP/Belwin, Inc., P. O. Box 4340, Miami, FL 33014. All rights reserved.

Amerikkkas Most Wanted by Ice Cube and Eric Sadler. Copyright 1990 WB Music Corp., Gangsta Boogie Music, Warner Tamerlane Publishing Corp., Your Mothers Music. All rights on behalf of Gangsta Boogie Music administered by Warner Chapell Music (ASCAP). All rights on behalf of Your Mothers Music administered by Warner Tamerlane Publishing Corp. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

The Nigga Ya Love to Hate by Ice Cube and Eric Sadler. Copyright 1990 WB Music Corp., Gangsta Boogie Music, Warner Tamerlane Publishing Corp., Your Mothers Music. All rights on behalf of Gangsta Boogie Music administered by Warner Chapell Music (ASCAP). All rights on behalf of Your Mothers Music administered by Warner Tamerlane Publishing Corp. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Its a Mans World by Ice Cube, Yo Yo, and Sir Jinx. Copyright 1990 Gangsta Boogie Music. All rights on behalf of Gangsta Boogie Music administered by Warner Chapell Music (ASCAP). Used by permission. All rights reserved.

You Cant Fade Me by Ice Cube and Eric Sadler. Copyright 1990 WB Music Corp., Gangsta Boogie Music, Warner Tamerlane Publishing Corp., Your Mothers Music. All rights on behalf of Gangsta Boogie Music administered by Warner Chapell Music (ASCAP). All rights on behalf of Your Mothers Music administered by Warner Tamerlane Publishing Corp. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Endangered Species (Tales from the Darkside) by Ice Cube and Eric Sadler. Copyright 1990 WB Music Corp., Gangsta Boogie Music, Warner Tamerlane Publishing Corp., Your Mothers Music. All rights on behalf of Gangsta Boogie Music administered by Warner Chapell Music (ASCAP). All rights on behalf of Your Mothers Music administered by Warner Tamerlane Publishing Corp. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

The Product by Ice Cube. Copyright 1990 Gangsta Boogie Music. All rights on behalf of Gangsta Boogie Music administered by Warner Chapell Music (ASCAP). Used by permission. All rights reserved.

How I Could Just Kill a Man. Copyright 1993 BMG Songs, Inc. (ASCAP), Cypress Phunky Music, MCA Music Publishing, Budget Music, and Powerforce Music. All rights for Powerforce Music and Budget Music administered by Careers-BMG Music Publishing, Inc. (BMI). All rights for Cypress Phunky Music administered by BMG Songs, Inc. (ASCAP). Used by permission. All rights reserved.

One Less Bitch by T. Curry, L. Patterson, and A. Young. Copyright 1991 Ruthless Attack Musik (ASCAP)/Sony Songs Inc. (BMI). Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Dress Code by William Calhoun. Copyright 1991 337 Music, Base Pipe Music, Urban Music. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Fuck My Daddy by William Calhoun. Copyright 1991 337 Music, Base Pipe Music. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

If You Dont Work, U Dont Eat by William Calhoun. Copyright 1991 337 Music, Base Pipe Music. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Straight Up Nigga by Ice T (Tracy Marrow). Copyright 1991 Rhyme Syndicate Music (ASCAP). Used by permission. All rights reserved.

The Tower by Ice T (Tracy Marrow). Copyright 1991 Rhyme Syndicate Music (ASCAP). Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Portions of chapters 1, 2, and 3 previously appeared in Robin D. G. Kelley, We Are Not What We Seem: Re-thinking Black Working-Class Opposition in the Jim Crow South, Journal of American History 80, no. 1 (June 1993): 75-112. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Portions of chapter 4 previously appeared in Robin D. G. Kelley, The Black Poor and the Politics of Opposition in a New South City, 1929-1970, in The Underclass Debate: Views from History, edited by Michael Katz (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993), 293-333. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Portions of chapters 5 and 6 appeared in Robin D. G. Kelley, Introduction, African-Americans and the Spanish Civil War: This Aint Ethiopia, But Itll Do, edited by Danny Duncan Collum (New York: G. K. Hall, 1992), 5-57. Used by permission of G. K. Hall Publishers and the Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives. Founded in 1979, the Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives mission is to preserve historical materials relevant to the Spanish Civil War and to encourage broader public and scholarly understanding of the issues raised by that conflict. The archive is located at Brandeis University, P.O. Box L11, Waltham, Mass., 02254.

Chapter 7 previously appeared in a slightly revised form in Robin D. G. Kelley, The Riddle of the Zoot: Malcolm Little and Black Cultural Politics During World War II, in Joe Wood, ed., Malcolm X: In Our Own Image. Copyright Joe Wood. Reprinted with permission of St. Martins Press, Incorporated.

To my two best friends, DIEDRA AND ELLEZA, who taught me more about resistance than I ever cared to know.