[Marxism] 8/13:Waiting Till the Midnight Hour

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*Brecht Forum*
*451 West Street (between Bank and Bethune)*
*212-242-4201*
*A,C,E, 1 2,3 to 14th Street*
*www.brechtforum.org*
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*Book Party/Release*
*Waitin till the Midnight Hour*
*7:30 PM*
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*Waiting 'Til the Midnight Hour* re-imagines the Black Power Movement,
beginning a decade before Stokely Carmichael's defiant call for "Black
Power!" in the stifling heat of Mississippi in the late spring of
1966. Along the way readers are introduced to a cast of historical
characters—both iconic and obscure—that are international in scope. These
include William Worthy, the globe trotting foreign correspondent, Dan Watts,
the maverick publisher and activist, Albert Cleage, the radical clergyman
from Detroit, and James Baldwin, the novelist whose essays came to distill
the very essence of American racial life in the waning days of the New
Frontier. Malcolm X was the common denominator that united black radicals
from far-flung corners of the nation and, over time, the world.  Covering
the years 1955-1975, *Waiting Till the Midnight Hour* is a sweeping
reinterpretation of the Black Power Movement. On virtually every single
page, the narrative uncovers buried intimacies of a tumultuous era.

We follow Malcolm X from urban street corners to Ghanaian Universities and
back. Malcolm's relationship with local activists introduces us to a world
where black militants waged political war in urban settings far from the
national spotlight. A detailed narrative of the Meredith March uncovers
historically obscured connections between Martin Luther King and Stokely
Carmichael, while its aftermath reveals a federal intelligence bureaucracy
intent on neutralizing the Black Power Movement's most charismatic
spokesman. We witness massive race riots in 1967 juxtaposed against Stokely
Carmichael's remarkable international speaking tour.

We experience domestic and international shockwaves of 1968 through the
buildup to Huey P. Newton's murder trial and the Black Panther Party's
short-lived alliance with SNCC. We witness Black Power's high point during
the early 1970s, through parallel narratives that focus on Black Panther
co-founder Huey P. Newton and black nationalist poet turned activist, Amiri
Baraka.  Along the way the Black Power Movement is placed in its
appropriately rich and historic context: The struggles to redefine black
identity through art and culture; Political movements for self-defense and
community control; Pan-Africanist impulses that connected domestic freedom
to African decolonization movements; and tactical alliances between black
nationalists and elected officials.



Peniel E. Joseph is quickly gaining a reputation as one of the leading young
scholars of African American history.  Although Joseph's formal expertise
includes the Black Radial Tradition, Pan-Africanism, Black Social Movements,
and African American feminism, he is currently embarking on a re-evaluation
of the Black Power Movement. Professor Joseph teaches in the Department of
Africana Studies at SUNY. Joseph is one of the leading innovators behind a
growing subfield known as "Black Power Studies."  This new scholarship,
which connects grassroots activism to national struggles for black
self-determination and international African independence movements, is
actively rewriting postwar African American history. On this score, Joseph
has published over a dozen articles and book chapters related to Black Power
(and black radicalism in general) since earning his doctorate in American
history at Temple University in 2000 and has been a prolific book reviewer,
essayist, and commentator on issues related to African American social,
political, intellectual, and cultural history.
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