Standard black political history erases its radical alternatives

Evidence

No wonder the popular story of black politics in the twentieth century begins with the founding of the NAACP; makes a brief mention of the Harlem Renaissance; documents court cases that end with the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision; and finally culminates with the civil rights movement, Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech in 1963, and Obama’s election. It’s as if nothing happened in the 1930s and 1940s of significance; as if the radical elements of the 1960s and 1970s did not matter at all. — Eddie S. Glaude Jr., Democracy in Black, 407

Categorization

• XREF: Sets up the reader’s core question about whether the Obama-era ‘trap’ follows from this erasure of radical alternatives.