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Although James is associated in the popular imagination with Trotskyism, when he met with Trotsky during the latter's exile in Mexico before his 1940 assassination, the defrocked Soviet leader was unimpressed, dismissing James as a "freelance bohemian." James served as a spark plug in the creation of a print organ for Williams's new party, the People's National Movement - one that rather rapidly attained a circulation of 12,000 and, as James put it, "the confidence of a large majority of the population." BOOKS & the ARTS CYRIL LIONEL ROBERT JAMES WAS A MAN OF PARADOX. [Extracted from the article]

BOOKS & the ARTS BY THE TIME HIS MAGNUM OPUS, BLACK RECONSTRUCTION, was published in 1935, W.E.B. Du Bois was already a rara avis - a prominent Black activist-intellectual in the midst of Jim Crow. The defeat of Reconstruction and the twisted achievements of the "counterrevolution of 1876" directed the country away from "Abolition Democracy", Du Bois observed. That Du Bois didn't marks a missed opportunity: He could have performed an immense service if he had looked at Reconstruction through the lens of settler colonialism, as opposed to grouping the republic with the French Revolution or (perish the thought) the transformative Haitian Revolution. [Extracted from the article]

BOOKS & the ARTS BEFORE HE BECAME A CELEBRATED AUTHOR AND THE FOUNDing father and first prime minister of Trinidad and Tobago, Eric Eustace Williams was an adroit footballer. But his subsequent career as a politician also came as a surprise: Despite his own radical commitments as a historian, as a politician Williams broke in significant ways from many of his anti-colonial peers. Williams's second thesis hasn't stirred as much controversy, but it also exerted an enormous influence on the scholarship to come: He insisted that slavery fueled British industrial development, and therefore that slavery was the foundation not only of British capitalism but of capitalism as a whole. Even so, the failings of Williams the politico should not be used to vitiate the insights of Williams the scholar. [Extracted from the article]

Although with Brown v. Board of Education the Warren Court appeared to settle the question of segregated educational facilities, the possibility and impact of 'separate but equal' schools remains a [...]

The article examines the role of enslavement, white supremacy, racism, and capitalism in the global dominance of the U.S. from the 18th century to the present century. It provides a background of slavery from the 16th to 19th centuries wherein roughly 13 million Africans were snatched from their homelands. It also tackles the recent resurgence of black Marxist thought and theories of racial capitalism.

Several letters to the editor are presented in response to articles in previous issues including "The Atlantic Century?," in the February 8, 1999 issue, "A GOP Tax Cut: No Sure Winner," in the February 8, 1999 issue, and "Social Security: Go Refigure," by Aaron Bernstein, in the February 8, 1999 issue.

The article offers information on the role of slave trade and slavery in the rebellion of Africans against British rule and the foundation of the U.S. It mentions that presiding magistrate Lord Mansfield in a London, England courtroom abolished slavery on June 22, 1772. It notes that African-Americans come from the resistance to enslavement and the thrust for self-determination.

The article focuses on African-American lawyer William L. Patterson and the globalization of the struggle of African-American for freedom. It says that Patterson has appealed to all the countries under the United Nations to end the Jim Crow caste system in the U.S. It adds his association with U.S. Negro Channing Tobias, the leader of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

Ann Douglas, Terrible Honesty: Mongrel Manhattan in the 1920s (New York: Farrar Straus Giroux, 1995), 606 pp.Cheryl Greenberg, Or Does It Explode? Black Harlem in the Great Depression (New York: Oxford University Press, 1991), 317 pp.Nathan Irvin Huggins, ed., Voices from the Harlem Renaissance (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995), 438 pp.James Weldon Johnson, Black Manhattan (New York: Da Capo, 1991), 280 pp.

A reprint of the article "Reading Harlem," by Gerald Horne, which appeared in the January 1999 issue of "SOULS" is presented. It discusses a place called Harlem which is a section of New York City founded by adventurers from the Netherlands in the 17th century. It mentions that the development of Harlem as an urban and self-assertive community caused the emergence of the Harlem Renaissance movement which is the outbreak of artistic creativity.

Presents letters to the editor. Views on African-American leadership; Information on U.S. politics; Comments on corporate media's anti-feminist standards in the U.S.

Presents letters to the editor commenting on political-related articles published in the periodical 'The Nation.' Thoughts on the Progressive view of Israel.