He examines the protest-oriented philosophy of Du Bois and the less militant, more accommodating approach of Washington to segregation, political disfranchisement, and lynching. While critical of the Du Bois concept of the “Talented Tenth” of a college educated elite leading the black masses into the Promised Land, Harrison was even more critical of the accommodationist approach of Washington, which he saw as little more than collaborationist.
Harrison, throughout his debates with his Harlem counterparts and the “Tuskegee Machine,” remained true to his core beliefs of socialism, race consciousness, and committed “free thinker” unfettered from the confines of orthodox religious thought.
As Perry so cogently notes, Harrison was “more race conscious than Randolph [a socialist] and more class conscious than Garvey [a nationalist]” and was the “key link in the ideological unity of the two great trends of the Black Liberation Movement – the labor and civil rights trend associated with Martin Luther King, Jr., and the race and nationalist trend associated with Malcolm X.” (p.5)
“While critical of the Du Bois concept of the ‘Talented Tenth,’ Harrison was even more critical of the accommodationist approach of Washington, which he saw as little more than collaborationist.”
Eventually, Harrison will part company with the Socialist Party over their failure to aggressively address the issue of white racism both within the party and nationally as well as their indifference to the recruitment of black workers into the party. As Winston James noted in his excellent study of Caribbean radicalism in twentieth century America, Holding aloft the Banner of Ethiopia, “American socialism did not keep faith with Hubert Harrison, Harrison kept faith with socialism.”
As Winston James noted in his excellent study of Caribbean radicalism in twentieth century America, Holding aloft the Banner of Ethiopia, “American socialism did not keep faith with Hubert Harrison, Harrison kept faith with socialism.”