Black Intellectuals and Black Society

This book presents the trailblazing political scientist Martin L. Kilsons essays on leading Black intellectuals of the twentieth century. Kilson examines the ideas and careers of several key thinkers, placing their intellectual odysseys in the context of the dynamics that shaped the Black intelligentsia more broadly. He argues that the trajectory of twentieth-century Black intellectuals was determined by the interplay between formal ideas and Black egalitarian struggle. Beginning with the tension between W. E. B. Du Boiss civil rights activism and Booker T. Washingtons accommodationism, Kilson explores the formation and evolution of Black intellectuals and activists across generations. Chapters consider Horace Mann Bonds career in higher education, political scientist John Aubrey Daviss transition from civil rights activist to federal policy technocrat, Ralph Bunches writings on European colonial rule in Africa, Harold Cruses classic polemic The Crisis of the Negro Intellectual, E. Franklin Fraziers analysis of the Black bourgeoisie, Adelaide M. Cromwells studies of the challenges facing elite Black women, and Ishmael Reed and Cornel Wests advocacy as public intellectuals amid a conservative turn. Offering timely and engaging insights into the lives and work of pivotal Black intellectuals and activists, this book sheds new light on the abiding questions and debates in Black political thought.