Black Prophetic Fire

by Cornel West

  Wiley, Anthony Terrance. “Angelic Troublemakers: Religion and Anarchism in Henry David Thoreau, Dorothy Day, and Bayard Rustin.” PhD dissertation, Princeton University, 2011.

  Wilkerson, Isabel. The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration. New York: Random House, 2010.

  Williams, Raymond. The Long Revolution. London: Chatto, 1961.

  Williams, Robert F. Negroes With Guns. New York: Marzani and Munsell, 1962.

  Willie, Charles V. “Walter R. Chivers—An Advocate of Situation Sociology.” Phylon 43, no. 3 (1982): 242–48.

  Wolin, Sheldon S. “Fugitive Democracy.” Constellations 1, no. 1 (1994): 11–25.

  Wortham, Robert. “Du Bois and the Sociology of Religion: Rediscovering a Founding Figure.” Sociological Inquiry 75, no. 4 (2005): 433–52.

  ———. “W. E. B. Du Bois, the Black Church, and the Sociological Study of Religion.” Sociological Spectrum 29, no. 2 (2009): 144–72.

  Wortham, Robert, ed. W. E. B. Du Bois and the Sociological Imagination: A Reader, 1897–1914. Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 2009.

  Wright, Richard. Black Power: A Record of Reactions in a Land of Pathos. New York: Harper, 1954.

  X, Malcolm. The Autobiography of Malcolm X. With the assistance of Alex Haley. New York: Ballantine Books, 1992.

  ———. By Any Means Necessary: Speeches, Interviews, and a Letter by Malcolm X. Edited by George Breitman. New York: Pathfinder, 1970.

  ———. Malcolm X Speaks: Selected Speeches and Statements. Edited by George Breitman. New York: Pathfinder, 1990.

  Yancy, George, ed. Cornel West: A Critical Reader. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2001.

  Zinn, Howard. Howard Zinn on Race. New York: Seven Stories Press, 2011.

  Zuckerman, Phil, ed. The Social Theory of W. E. B. Du Bois. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2004.

  INDEX

  Please note that page numbers are not accurate for the e-book edition.

  Abu-Jamal, Mumia, 122, 201n19, 204–5n26, 210n44, 212n51

  Addams, Jane, 151, 219n33

  Africa, Pam, 204n26

  Africa, Ramona, 204n26

  African American Pioneers of Sociology (Saint-Arnaud), 177n8

  African American Religious Thought (West and Glaude), 212n53

  The African American Theatrical Body (Colbert), 180n23

  African Jazz-Arts Society and Studios (AJASS), 206n30

  Afro-American League, 213n4, 220n37

  Against Epistemic Apartheid (Rabaka), 177n8

  Al-Amin, Jamil Abdullah. See Brown, H. Rap

  Alexander, Michelle, 67, 154

  Alexander II, assassination of, 213n2

  Alger, Horatio, 17, 18

  Ali (Brother), 136

  Alinsky, Saul, 100, 195n15

  Allen, Gay, 27

  American Anti-Slavery Society, 214–15n12

  American Evasion of Philosophy (West), 171–72n27, 174n41, 181n28

  American Slavery As It Is (Weld and Grimké), 147, 214n12

  Amos, 117, 179n19

  Arac, Jonathan, 28

  Arie, India, 136

  Aristotle, 25, 182n34

  Armstrong, Louis, 50, 78, 107

  Arnold, Matthew, 61

  Assange, Julian, 4

  Assing, Ottilie, 19, 169n17, 208n36

  Aurelius, 182n34

  Austin, Junius Caesar, Sr., 156

  The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man (Johnson), 30, 174n47

  Avakian, Bob, 136, 212n51

  Badu, Erykah, 136

  Bailey, Nellie, 136, 212n50

  Baker, Ella, 2, 3, 34, 89–108, 154, 194n10; and “age of Occupy,” 89, 91, 92–93, 95; as agnostic, 127; and anarchism, 92; background of, 93; Black prophetic witness of, 137; and charismatic (“messianic”) leadership model, 91, 93, 94, 102, 104–5; charismatic personality of, 106–7, 197n22; and collectivism, 201n19; and cooperative movement, 193–94n5; and council Communist tradition, 92; critique of King, 93–94, 104; critique of patriarchal leadership models, 91, 94–95, 98; and “democratic existentialism,” 95–96, 102; and democratic form of leadership, 90–91, 96–97, 99, 100, 102, 106; on “democratic time” vs. “market time,” 99–100, 107, 130; ethos of service, 91–92, 94, 96–97, 102, 104–5, 107; FBI surveillance of, 196n17; as freedom fighter, 90; and Fundi (documentary), 106–7, 108, 197n24; and gender issues, 94, 98; grassroots organizing of, 89, 91, 99, 103, 105; historical neglect of, 89–90, 106; influence on Stokely Carmichael, 194n9; legacy of, 91, 92, 102, 105, 106, 197n23; and love-ethic, 107; as “organic intellectual,” 95; organizing style of, vs. that of King, 101-4; organizing style of, as threat to oligarchy, 101; pacifism of, 127; on Puerto Rican independence, 108, 197–98n27; radicalism of, 102–3, 108, 197n26; on socialism, 197n25; and Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), 97, 98, 188n19; and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), 97, 98, 99, 103; view of organizations, 97; and young people, 97–98

  Baker, General Gordon, Jr., 122, 203–4n25

  Baldwin, James, 7–8, 127, 135, 211n49; on religion, 208–9n38

  Ball, Thomas, 168n4

  Balzac, Honoré de, 57, 182n34

  Baraka, Amiri (Le Roi Jones), 86, 119, 131, 135, 202n20, 204n27, 206n30, 206n32, 211n48, 220–21n41

  Barber, William, 81, 191n37, 197n23

  Barnett, Ferdinand, 149, 151, 158, 213n6, 221n42, 222n48

  Beckett, Samuel, 57, 84, 85

  Beethoven, Ludwig van, 179n19

  Belafonte, Harry, 136

  Benjamin, Walter, 45, 178n12

  Bercovitch, Sacvan, 72

  Berry, Mary Frances, 100

  Bethune, Mary McLeod, 158–59, 223n50

  Biggie. See Smalls, Biggie

  Black Agenda Report, 136, 212n50

  Black Arts Movement (BAM), 206n30

  Black Bolshevik (Haywood), 132–33, 210–11n45

  The Black Flame (Du Bois), 41

  Black Folk (Du Bois), 176n7

  Black Liberation Army (BLA), 205n27

  Blackmon, Douglas A., 36

  Black Panther Party, 116, 119, 122, 128, 148, 188–89n24, 190n30, 201–2n19, 204n26, 205n27, 205n28, 215–16n19; and West, 73. See also New Black Panther Party

  Black Power (Carmichael and Hamilton), 187n14

  Black Reconstruction (Du Bois), 56, 181n28, 210–11n45

  “Black Strivings in a Twilight Civilization” (West), 42, 56, 181–82n30, 182n32

  Blassingame, John, 100

  Blum, Edward, 58–59

  Boundary 2 (journal), 28

  Bourdieu, Pierre, 7, 85, 192n44

  Bové, Paul, 28

  Boyd, Herb, 131

  Brath, Elombe, 122, 206n30

  Briones, Matthew, 136

  Broch, Hermann, 58

  Brown, H. Rap (Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin), 122, 206n30

  Brown, James, 49, 50, 78, 115

  Brown, John, 14, 60, 116, 190n36

  Brown, Wren Troy, 136

  Buddha, 60

  Buell, Lawrence, 27, 173n36

  Bullins, Ed, 205n27

  Bunche, Ralph, 36

  Burns, Robert, 22, 170n18, 170n19, 207–8n36

  Byron, George Gordon (Lord), 22, 25, 170n19, 175n49, 207–8n36

  Caesar, Shirley, 107

  Campos, Pedro Albizu, 108, 197n27

  Candide (Voltaire), 24, 171n25

  Cannon, Katie Geneva, 136

  Carby, Hazel, 154

  Carlyle, Thomas, 26, 61, 173n32

  Carmichael, Stokely (Kwame Ture), 69, 77, 94, 122, 187n14, 194n9, 203n24, 205n28, 205n30

  Carson, Johnny, 128

  Carter, Jimmy, 198n27

  Chekhov, Anton, 56, 57, 84, 102, 103, 179n19, 195–96n19

  Chivers, Walter, 69, 186n13

  Chomsky, Noam, 84

  Cicero, 25

  Clarke, John Henrik, 51

  Clausewitz, Carl von, 103, 196n20

  Clay, Henry, 16, 18, 31

  Cleaver, Eldridge, 130

  Clinton, Bill, 87

  Clinton, George, 49, 50, 51, 78,
129

  Cobbett, William, 26, 147, 172n28

  Cockrel, Ken, 122, 203–4n25

  Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, 25

  Coles, Romand, 91, 99, 193n3

  Collins, Bootsy, 49, 51, 78

  Collins, John, 30, 174n45

  Coltrane, John, 20, 21, 127, 179n19

  Coltrane, Ravi, 136

  Cone, James Hal, 117, 120, 136, 200n14, 203n22

  Cortés, Ernesto, 100, 195n15

  Covey, Edward, 35, 170n19

  Cowper, William, 25

  Crusade for Justice (Wells), 148, 152, 213n3, 217n27

  “The Damnation of Women” (Du Bois), 54

  Darkwater (Du Bois), 54, 179n20, 179–80n21

  Darrow, Clarence, 126, 208n37

  Darwin, Charles, 59

  Daughtry, Herbert, 80, 190n36

  Davis, Angela, 13, 77, 94, 154, 167–68n2, 190n31, 211n47, 218n29

  Dawkins, Richard, 59

  Day, Dorothy, 92, 194n7

  Deacons for Defense, 116, 148

  Dead Prez, 136

  The Death of Virgil (Broch), 58

  Debs, Eugene, 76, 159, 189n28

  December 12 movement, 122, 206n29

  Mos Def, 136

  Democracy Matters (West), 50, 179n19, 189n28

  Dewey, John, 42, 68

  Diderot, Denis, 24, 171n25

  Digga, Rah, 136

  Dislocating Race and Nation (Levine), 29–30

  Dix, Carl, 136, 212n51

  Dixon, Bruce, 136, 212n50

  Dorsey, Thomas A., 156

  Dostoyevsky, Fyodor, 56

  Douglass, Anna, 17, 19

  Douglass, Frederick, 11–38, 71; and Abolitionist movement, 2, 18, 26, 30; as activist, 35, 37–38; on African Americans’ identification with America, 22–23; as agnostic, 21, 126–27, 169–70n17; and annexation of Santo Domingo, 29–30; and Byron’s influence, 22, 170n18, 170n19, 175n49; and Carlyle, 26; and Chicago World’s Fair, 156, 220n36, 222n46; and Christianity, 20–22; education of, 19–20; Emancipation as end of, greatest influence, 12–13; and Emerson, 173n34, 173n36; and Enlightenment era, 21–22; fight against slave breaker, 35; and William Lloyd Garrison, 18; and grassroots organizing, 91; and Rutherford B. Hayes, 14, 168n5; and Patrick Henry, 175n50; and humanism, 21–22; and imperialism, 29–31; influence on American culture, 12, 37; and Robert Ingersoll, 207–8n36; as intellectual, 25–26; Jim Crow silence of, 14, 37; leadership of, 95; and Lincoln, 11, 31; on Lincoln, 14; on Lincoln statue, 168n4; against lynching, 168n3; as marshal of the District of Columbia, 14, 168n5; on master-slave relationship, 17; and Melville, 27–28, 173n38; as member of an elite, 15–16, 36; as minister to Haiti, 15, 32; as narcissist, 96; as orator, 12–13, 16, 37; as “organic intellectual,” 26; origin of name, 19; and Wendell Phillips, 18; as product of his time, 12; relevance today, 31; as “representative” American, 15–16, 27; as Republican, 13–15, 168n5; and Ruskin, 172n30; self-confidence of, 96; and “self-made man” myth, 16–19; and Wells, 156, 220n36, 222n46; and wives, 13, 16, 17, 19; as women’s-rights supporter, 13, 15. See also individual works

  Dream Defenders, 197n23

  Du Bois, Shirley Graham, 54, 180–81n25, 220–21n41

  Du Bois, W. E. B., 2, 23, 38, 41–63, 71, 73, 78, 84, 141, 148, 154, 158; academic neglect of, 177n8, 177–78n9; as activist, 42, 50, 52–53; on African Americans’ “special role,” 46, 47; as agnostic, 58–59; and American exceptionalism, 181–82n30; and “American Gibbon,” 54, 55; “American optimism” of, 56–57, 181–82n30; bourgeois values of, 78; and Communism, 62; and The Crisis, 53; as cultural elitist, 48, 51, 53; and John Dewey, 42; domestication of, 43; Douglass’s impact on, 12, 37; and ethos of service, 54; and Founding Forty, 216n21, 218n30, 222n47; and grassroots organizing, 91; humanism of, 61; influenced by German culture, 57, 61; as intellectual, 41–42, 44, 176n6; internationalism of, 61–62, 220–21n41; on Jim Crow, 51; leadership of, 95; legacy of, 42, 46, 54–55, 61; on lynching, 214n7; and Marxism, 45, 47, 54, 56, 176n7, 181n28, 183n41; and metaphor of cave, 55–56, 181n26; and modernism, 56–58; as narcissist, 96; and neglect of Russian literary tradition, 56–57; on “Negro art,” 178n11; on “Negro cooperative movement,” 179n15; and “new church” concept, 60; as New Englander, 49, 179n18; as “organic intellectual,” 42; as pioneer of historical revisionism, 210–11n45; as pioneer of sociology, 177n8; political naïveté of, 45–46, 53, 178n13, 180n24; political transformation of, 132, 144, 145, 176n7, 178–79n14; and popular culture, 47–50, 52–53, 58; on racial caste system, 55–56, 181n26; radicalism of, 43–44, 50, 51, 54–56; and rejection of America, 56, 182n31; and religion, 58–60, 126, 179n17; self-confidence of, 96; and the Soviet Union, 183n41; in the South, 179n17, 179n18, 214n7; and spirituality, 59–60; and “Talented Tenth,” 50–51, 53–54, 180n24; and theatrical presentations, 52–53, 180n23; on US empire, 42–45, 49; and Booker T. Washington, 43–44, 141; and Wells, 216n22, 218n30, 222n47; on Richard Wright, 182–83n37; and Malcolm X, 46–47. See also individual works

  Dumas, Alexandre, 182n34

  Dunbar, Paul Laurence, 115

  Dusk of Dawn (Du Bois), 12, 37, 43, 55–56, 176n6, 178n13, 178n14, 179n15, 179n17, 179n18, 180n23, 181n26, 193–94n5, 214n7

  Duster, Alfreda, 216–17n24

  Ebony Repertory Theatre, 136

  Edelman, Marian Wright, 83, 192n42

  E-40, 136

  Eliot, George (Marian Evans), 21

  Eliot, T. S., 58

  Ellington, Duke, 73, 78

  Ellison, Ralph, 58, 179n19

  Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 26–27, 173n34, 173n36

  English Traits (Emerson), 27

  The Essence of Christianity (Feuerbach), 169n16, 169n17

  Fanon, Frantz, 33, 57, 97, 171n23, 190n30, 206n30

  Fard, Wallace D., 198–99n6

  Farrakhan, Louis, 116, 200n13

  Faulkner, William, 114

  Feuerbach, Ludwig, 21, 169n16, 169–70n17

  Fiasco, Lupe, 136

  The Fire Next Time (Baldwin), 7–8, 209n38

  Forbes, James, Jr., 94

  Ford, Glen, 136, 212n50

  Fortune, T. Thomas, 142, 158, 213n4, 214n11

  Foucault, Michel, 177n8

  Franklin, Aretha, 51, 107, 130

  Franklin, C. L., 50

  Franklin, John Hope, 62, 73

  Frazier, E. Franklin, 82

  The French Revolution (Carlyle), 26

  Freud, Sigmund, 56, 178–79n14

  The Future of the Race (Gates and West), 56

  Gaines, Kevin, 150

  Gandhi, Mohandas, 72, 186n12

  Garrison, William Lloyd, 18, 37, 143, 169n9

  Garvey, Marcus, 113, 116, 129, 131–32, 156, 157, 181–82n30, 198n4, 198–99n6, 222n48

  Garvey, Marcus, Sr., 116

  Garvin, Victoria, 154, 220–21n41

  Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., 5

  Gibbon, Edward, 42, 54–55, 176n5

  Giddings, Paula, 213n6, 216n23, 221–22n43, 222n47

  The Gift of Black Folk (Du Bois), 47

  Glaude, Eddie, 136, 212n53

  Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von, 57

  Gore, Dayo, 220–21n41

  Gorter, Herman, 92, 194n8

  Gramsci, Antonio, 6–7, 95, 124, 171–72n27; and concept of “organic intellectual,” 6, 9, 25, 26, 66, 95, 123–24, 157, 171–72n27

  Grant, Joanne, 99, 197n24

  Grant, Ulysses, 29

  Grayson, John, 22, 171n20

  Greenwald, Glenn, 136, 212n52

  Griffin, Farah Jasmine, 136

  Griffin, Julia, 19

  Grimké, Angelina, 147, 214–15n12

  Grimké, Sarah, 214–15n12

  Guevara, Che, 190n30, 211n49

  Haig, Alexander, 144

  Hamer, Fannie Lou, 34, 75, 102–3, 154, 189n25, 192n47, 194n9, 206–7n33

  Hamilton, Charles V., 187n14

  Hamm, Lawrence, 136, 212n52

  Hampton, Fred, 74, 188–89n24

  Hanchard, Michael, 136

  Harding, Vincent, 81, 189n27

&
nbsp; Harper, Philip, 197n23

  Harris, Leonard, 136

  Harris, Trudier, 217n26

  Hathaway, Donny, 73

  Hayes, Rutherford B., 14, 168n5, 174n43

  Haynes, Frederick Douglas, III, 81, 191n37

  Haywood, Harry, 132–33, 210–11n45

  Hazlitt, William, 26, 61, 172n29, 172–73n31

  Hedges, Chris, 136, 212n52

  Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich, 169n16

  Heidegger, Martin, 86

  Henry, Patrick, 35, 175n50, 210n39

  On Heroes and Hero Worship (Carlyle), 26

  Heschel, Abraham Joshua, 66–67, 184–85n8

  Higginbotham, Evelyn, 150

  Himes, Carl Wendell, Jr., 189n27

  His Day Is Marching On (Du Bois), 180–81n25

  History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (Gibbon), 176n5

  Hitchens, Christopher, 59

  Hobbes, Thomas, 98

  Hobson, John A., 56, 181n29

  Holiday, Billie, 49, 78, 130

  hooks, bell, 152

  Hoover, J. Edgar, 205n28

  Horne, Gerald, 136, 180–81n25

  Hose, Sam, 45, 144, 145, 214n7

  Howard, M. William, Jr., 81, 191n37

  Huggins, Ericka, vii, 119, 201n18, 201n19

  Hutton, Bobby, 74, 188–89n24

  Ice Cube. See Jackson, O’Shea

  Immortal Technique, 136

  Ingersoll, Robert Green, 126, 207–8n36

  Isaiah, 25

  Jackson, Javon, 136

  Jackson, Jesse, 94

  Jackson, Mahalia, 156

  Jackson, O’Shea, 78

  Jakes, T. D. (Thomas Dexter), 79–80, 190n34

  James, William, 5, 42

  Jefferson, Thomas, 72

  Jesus Christ, 60, 116, 117, 200n14, 208–9n38

  Johnson, James Weldon, 30, 174n47

  Johnson, Lyndon, 75

  Jones, Clarence B., 72, 202–3n21

  Jones, Le Roi. See Baraka, Amiri

  Jordan, Michael, 82

  Joyce, James, 58

  Kafka, Franz, 57, 58

  Kant, Immanuel, 24, 171n25

  Karenga, Maulana, 135, 211n48

  Kazantzakis, Nikos, 60, 183n41

  Kelley, Robin D. G., 136

  Kennedy, Robert F., 187n15