The Black Radical Tradition Can Guide Our Struggles Against Oppression
Historian Robin D. G. Kelley has uncovered a tradition of African American radicalism that was — and is — a crucial part of the American left’s history. He talks to Jacobin about the need to connect struggles against racism and class oppression.
Black Panther Party members demonstrating outside the New York County Criminal Court, April 11, 1969. (David Fenton / Getty Images)
Historian Robin D. G. Kelley recently published a new edition of his book Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination. The book explores a vast terrain of African American radicalism, from the followers of Marcus Garvey to the Communists who challenged racial oppression and the neglected stories of the civil rights movement.
Daniel Denvir interviewed Kelley for the Jacobin Radio podcast the Dig in January of this year. You can listen to the conversation here. The transcript has been edited for length and clarity.
Daniel Denvir
What was the context in which you first published the book in 2002, and how did things differ by the time of its republication twenty years later?
Robin D. G. Kelley
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