Hubert Harrison: A “Black Socrates” Whose Voice For Change Rang In Harlem
Second in a series highlighting notable Virgin Islanders during Black History Month
Hubert Harrison, April, 1883 - December, 1927
By Winston Nugent
He was called “The Voice of Harlem Radicalism.” He was born in Estate Concordia, St. Croix during Danish occupation of the now U.S. Virgin Islands.
When his mother and father died, he traveled to New York, an orphan at the age of 17 years old. He found odd jobs such as a bellhop and as an elevator operator. He was an intelligent and ambitious young man and so he decided to attend night school where he studied sociology, science, psychology, literature and drama.
As a result of confrontations with racial oppression, he gravitated to and joined the socialist party where he met African-Americans and Caribbean-Americans such as A. Phillip Randolph, Marcus Garvey, Claude McKay, Cyril Briggs, and Chandler Owen. These social activists and writer of the Harlem Renaissance admired his intellect, the nicknamed, The Black Socrates.”
Winston Nugent
He was described by some of his peers as the “father of Harlem radicalism.” And the Jamaican-American author, journalist and historian, Joel Augustus Rogers described him as, “the foremost Afro-American intellect of his time.” He was an active voice in Virgin Islands causes after the March 1917 U.S. purchase of the Virgin Islands and subsequent abuses under U.S. Naval occupation.
Bio Scan:
. In 1919 he founded “The Liberty League and “The Voice,” the first organization and the first newspaper of race-relations regarding the “New Negro Movement.”
. In 1920 he was Editor-in-Chief of the “Negro World,” the newspaper of Marcus Gravey’s Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA).
. In 1924 he founded “The Internal Colored Unity League (ICUL) which urged black people to develop, “race consciousness” as a defensive measure to be aware of their racial oppression and use that awareness to unite.
. In 1925 he co-founded “The New York Public Liberary Negro Collection” which is now the world famous “Schomburg Center for Research on Black Culture.”
. In 1927 he edited and published “Embryo of the Voice of the Negro” and “The Voice of the Negro.”
. He was considered to be a brilliant West Indian-American writer, philanthropists, social scientist, orator, educator, critic and radical political activist.
Next Week: Terrence Alphonso Todman
This is a very good story, i will print it for my kids, Thanks