African American Nationalist Literature of the 1960s: Pens of Fire

214 Pages·1997·19.612 MB·English

by  Sandra Hollin Flowers

G a r l a n d St u d ie s in
A M E R I C A N
POPULAR
H IS T O R Y AND
C U L T U R E
edited, by
JEROME NADELHAFT
U n iv e r s it y of M a in e
A GARLAND SERIES
Oh, for a pen of living fire,
A tongue of flame, an arm of steel!
To rouse the people’s slumbering ire.
And teach the tyrant’s hearts to feel.
James M. Whitfield
19th century African American poet
AFRICAN AMERICAN
NATIONALIST
LITERATURE
OF THE 1960s
Pen s o f Fir e
SANDRA HOLLIN FLOWERS
First published 1996 by Garland Publishing, Inc.
Published 2019 by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
52 Vanderbilt A venue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
Copyright© 1996 by Sandra Hollin Flowers
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or
other means, now known or hereafter invented, including
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system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Notice:
Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered
trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation
without intent to infringe.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Flowers, Sandra Hollin, 1946-
African American nationalist literature of the 1960s : pens of
fire / Sandra Hollin Flowers.
p. cm. - (Garland studies in American popular history
and culture )
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-8153-2474-X (alk. paper)
1. American literature-Afro-American authors-History and
criticism. 2. Politics and literature-United States-History-20th
century. 3. American literature-20th century-History and
criticism. 4. Afro-Americans-Politics and government. 5. Black
nationalism in literature. 6. Afro-Americans in literature. 7. Race
awareness in literature. I. Title. II. Series.
PS153.N5F56 1996
810.9'896073-dc20
96-5278
ISBN 13: 978-0-8153-2474-4 (hbk)
Dedication
In memory of the first nationalist I ever knew
my father,
James Theodore Hollin Sr.
1917-1965

Contents
INTRODUCTION.................................................................................ix
Visions of Nationalism ..................................................................x
Nationalism: From the Inside out
or from the Outside In............................................................xi
Nationalism and Tradition...................................................xiv
Focus and Approach of the Current Study............................ xvii
Selection of Works.......................................................................xx
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS.................................................................xxv
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS....................................................... xxvii
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS.........................................................xxix
1 THE MANY SHADES OF BLACK NATIONALISM ................. 3
Confronting Ambiguity................................................................ 3
The Central Ambiguity: Where Is “Home”? ..................... 6
Profusion and Confusion: The Problem of Categorization ... 9
Ideology and the Political Climate........................................... 13
Concentration of African Americans in Urban Areas .. 14
The Presence of a Politicized Arts Community ............. 15
Inadvertent Government Complicity................................ 17
Nationalism and the Black Church.................................. 21
Posthumous Interpretations of Malcolm X ..................... 24
Out of One, Many...................................................................... 26
2 CULTURAL AND REVOLUTIONARY NATIONALISM:
THE DOMINANT VARIANTS..................................................... 31
Ideology Held in Common....................................................... 38
The Afro-centric Nature of the Ideology.......................... 39
The Mythic Foundation, Standard Themes,
and the New Self-image .............. 39
Methods of Achieving an Envisioned Outcome............. 40
The Personification of the Philosophy ............................ 41
The Insistent Nature of the Rhetoric................................ 42
Cultural Nationalism.................................................................. 42
Ideals of Cultural Nationalism ....................... 43
Agencies of Cultural Nationalism.................................... 45
Social Theories of Cultural Nationalism.......................... 49
Revolutionary Nationalism....................................................... 52
Ideals of Revolutionary Nationalism................................ 54
Agencies of Revolutionary Nationalism.......................... 55
Social Theories of Revolutionary Nationalism............... 56
An Attempt at Reconciliation................................................... 58
vii
CREATIVITY AND POLITICS.................................... . 65
The Conjunction of Individual and Group Vision . 67
Literary Expression and Political Philosophy ... . 69
Artistic Technique................................................... . 71
NATIONALIST POETRY............................................. . 77
Redefining Blackness
and Rejecting White Judgments of Worth........... . 80
Capitalism and the Black Middle Class................ . 82
Police and the Black Community ......................... . 83
Hypocrisy and the American Ideal ...................... . 85
.
Integrity of the Nationalist Movement.................. 86
Importance of Sanchez as Nationalist Poet......... . 92
NATIONALIST THEATER........................................... . 95
Ways of Describing Black Theater ....................... . 95
Distinctions Between Nationalist
and Mainstream Black Theater ............................. . 96
The Quest for Artistic Control............................... 100
The Evolution of Form.................................... 100
Control of Material Resources............................... 104
Origins and Major Influences ............................... 105
Amiri Baraka ................................................... 105
EdBullins.......................................................... 106
Illustrative Works and Themes ............................. 108
Madheart (A Morality Play)........................... 108
Junkies are Full ofShhh................................... 111
We Own the Night............................................. 112
We Righteous Bombers.................................... 116
Black Terror...................................................... 116
Death List.......................................................... 122
The Passing of an Era ............................................. 124
NATIONALIST FICTION............................................. 131
The Bluest Eye.......................................................... 132
The Spook Who Sat by the Door ........................... 136
“A Revolutionary Tale” .......................................... 141
Fiction’s Place in Nationalism............................... 144
CONCLUSION................................................................. 147
REFERENCES................................................................. 157
INDEX .............................................................................. 171
Vlll
Introduction
Throughout [this study] I have tried to be objective,
but I do not claim to be detached.
—C. Wright Mills
From the mid-1960s to early 1970s, nationalist sentiment occupied
a prominent position in African American political thought. For convenience
and to better locate the reader historically, this study refers to this
phenomenon as “the nationalism of the 1960s/’ though the period under
review is 1963 to 1972. These years appear to represent a demarcation of
sorts. In 1963, as the effectiveness of civil rights organizations and leaders
began to wane, militant black activists came to the fore and turned the tide
toward black nationalism. Throughout the period and for several years later,
nationalist ideology could still be found in African American journals,
though its audience had begun to dwindle.
By 1972, the activist period of nationalism had suffered, albeit in a
much more dramatic way, the same fate as had the civil rights campaign.
The most visible nationalist organizations (the Black Panthers, the newly
militant CORE and SNCC, the Nation of Islam, the Republic of New Africa)
had been discredited, disbanded, or driven underground by local and federal
agencies. By the same token, the competition for successor to Malcolm X
was largely over because the contenders were imprisoned, in exile, or
otherwise unavailable.
During that ten-year period, however, nationalism exerted such a
pervasive influence that it affected even those black people who did not
consider themselves nationalists. As Gayraud Wilmore wrote,
It was not that all Black people in America became...
advocates of Black nationalism. All black people have never
been the advocates of anything except the respect, freedom to
live and to prosper accorded other segments of American
society. But despite the white-controlled public polls which
ix