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Published Nov 2019
432 pages
Genre: Biography/Memoir
Publication Information
This long-overdue biography reestablishes William Monroe Trotter's essential place next to Douglass, Du Bois, and King in the pantheon of American civil rights heroes.
William Monroe Trotter (1872– 1934), though still virtually unknown to the wider public, was an unlikely American hero. With the stylistic verve of a newspaperman and the unwavering fearlessness of an emancipator, he galvanized black working- class citizens to wield their political power despite the violent racism of post- Reconstruction America. For more than thirty years, the Harvard-educated Trotter edited and published the Guardian, a weekly Boston newspaper that was read across the nation. Defining himself against the gradualist politics of Booker T. Washington and the elitism of W. E. B. Du Bois, Trotter advocated for a radical vision of black liberation that prefigured leaders such as Marcus Garvey, Malcolm X, and Martin Luther King Jr.
Synthesizing years of archival research, historian Kerri Greenidge renders the drama of turn-of-the-century America and reclaims Trotter as a seminal figure, whose prophetic, yet ultimately tragic, life offers a link between the vision of Frederick Douglass and black radicalism in the modern era. 20 black-and-white illustrations.
"[A] vital, deeply researched biography...Greenidge writes with urgency and clarity while synthesizing a wealth of archival material. Her eye-opening account elegantly traces Trotter's rise and fall and uncovers early 20th-century Boston as 'the center of radical African American politics.'" - Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"An absorbing biography that offers a fresh perspective on African American history." - Kirkus Reviews
"Kerri Greenidge has created the rare book where the actual writing is as exquisite as the stunning research. Black Radical offers a lush layered story and a blueprint for liberation." - Kiese Laymon, author of Heavy: An American Memoir
"William Monroe Trotter was not only present at the creation of the modern civil rights movement, Kerri Greenidge's welcome biography establishes that by his visionary militancy and selfless financial support Trotter merits reconsideration as progenitor of the movement. A major addition to the literature." - David Levering Lewis, Pulitzer prize-winning author of W. E. B. DuBois, Volumes 1 and 2
"In this engagingly written biography, historian Kerri Greenidge has penned a volume that provides a penetrating view of William Monroe Trotter's radical thought and remarkable life...Moreover, this volume provides a detailed and compelling portrait of African American life in Boston; accessible to all readers, Greenidge's new book is a valuable addition to the literature." - Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Alphonse Fletcher University Professor, Harvard University
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Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Kerri K Greenidge teaches in Tufts University's Consortium of Studies in Race, Colonialism, and Diaspora, where she is director of the program in American studies, and where she is also codirector of the African American Trail Project. She lives in Massachusetts.
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