Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination
Kelley, a history professor and a writer with a progressive political slant, analyzes the black radical tradition within the context of a higher consciousness that imagines how society should and could be and lets that dream dictate action. This pursuit of freedom and equality underlies, if not justifies, the basis of measuring the success of black radical movements. He takes the reader on a survey of black radical movements--Back to Africa, the Garvey movement, associations with communism and Marxism, local protests, Third World consciousness and identification, reparation, and black feminism--finding a common core centered on the dream of freedom. In one section, Kelley connects the black radical tradition with surrealism, focusing on freedom as a concept that initiates in the mind and has a nontraditional manner of self-manifestation. Kelley sees such mindscapes as the counterbalance to what many perceive as the failure of certain movements. However, Kelley's capacity to integrate these imaginative mindscapes into the freedom quest allows the reader to perceive the continuity and ultimate success of these freedom movements.Vernon FordCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved