Judas to the Garveyite Cause: A Review of Jeffrey Perry's Hubert Harrison: The Struggle for Equality, 1918–1927

Abstract

Abstract:In his second volume biography of Hubert Harrison's life entitled Hubert Harrison: The Struggle for Equality, 1917–1928, Jeffrey Perry accomplishes what his Introduction states it would do, which is to detail "the extraordinary last nine and one-half years of Harrison's life, which [was] lived at the edge of poverty in a United States shaped by capitalism, imperialism, and white supremacy". However, there are aspects of Harrison's life in this biography that are unable to clearly describe Harrison's work as both a US government informer and his work as an editor for the Negro World newspaper that promoted the principles of self-reliance and nationhood for members of the organization that Marcus Garvey co-founded, the UNIA (Universal Negro Improvement Association). These principles are at odds with those of the US government which, since 1919 was undermining the work of the UNIA.