Quote:The article on James confirmed he had died violently but did so without citation, a common shortcoming of this community based online encyclopedia. The article on James may in fact have been the blog writer’s source or perhaps the blog writer contributed to the article. In any case, both were reporting that James had died violently under mysterious circumstances. When I stumbled upon that blog, I was already working on a history of the “Vindicationist School” of Black Historians, which in addition to James includes Joseph Ben Jochannan, John G. Jackson, John Henrik Clark, and Cheikh Anta Diop. Previously I had often wondered without follow up what became of James so I decided to do a preliminary investigation into his death.

Quote:The blog writer’s theory seemed plausible, at least on the face of it. At the time of his death, James was on faculty at Arkansas State College in Pine Bluff, an HBCU. It was the mid 1950s, and the Civil Rights movement was gaining momentum. The U.S. Supreme Court had made its historic ruling in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka Kansas the same year that Stolen Legacy was published, and Arkansas was about to take the national stage as the test bed for school desegregation. On the defensive against integration, White southerns were acting with increased hostility towards African Americans, especially in the deep south. A year after Brown and a year before Jackson died, in Money, Mississippi, Roy Bryant and J. W. Milam lynched 14-year old Emmett Till, a cherub-faced African American boy from Chicago visiting the deepest south for what would be his last time. His internationally publicized torture and death followed closely on the heels of the publication of what would be James’ magnum opus.

The deaths of James and Till are not directly connected, but the alleged offense that cost Till his life, supposedly having whistled at the wife of Roy Bryant, cut against the same lily-white “Ubermensch” ideas that James assailed in Stolen Legacy making them akin

chairman post=359058 Wrote:My mommy

ketchim post=359590 Wrote:good grief : too many Guyana greats to choose one !
I rather like Dr.Van Sertima, Dr. Walter Rodney, Dr.Clive Thomas, Dr.Cheddi Jagan
all political and academic stalwarts!
to be continued !