Description
Book SynopsisStruggle on Their Minds shows how the American political tradition have been continually challenged—and strengthened—by antiracist resistance, creating a rich legacy of African American thought. Alex Zamalin focuses on five activists across two centuries who fought to foreground slavery and racial injustice in American political discourse.
Trade ReviewFred Moten memorably wrote that the "history of blackness is testament to the fact that objects can and do resist." Alex Zamalin reaffirms this assertion through exquisite examination of narratives of resistance-not merely protest-by David Walker, Frederick Douglass, Ida B. Wells, Huey Newton, and Angela Davis. Zamalin's deft treatise demonstrates how Afro-modern political thought refashions our fundamental understandings of resistance and the attendant ideals of democracy and freedom. -- Neil Roberts, author of Freedom as Marronage, Williams College Struggle on Their Minds places Alex Zamalin at the forefront of scholars concerned with the political thought of African American activists. I can think of no reading more timely than this rich account of the centrality of black resistance to U.S. democracy and democratic citizenship. -- Nick Bromell, University of Massachusetts, Amherst In intellectually compelling and valuable ways, this book presents significant (but relatively neglected) figures in the canon of African American political theorizing and relates them both to broad idioms of American political thought and to our contemporary political conjuncture. -- George Shulman, Professor of Political Science at the Gallatin School of Individualized Study at New York University
Table of ContentsList of Illustrations Acknowledgments Introduction: The Political Thought of African American Resistance 1. David Walker, Frederick Douglass, and the Abolitionist Democratic Vision 2. Ida B. Wells, the Antilynching Movement, and the Politics of Seeing 3. Huey Newton, the Black Panthers, and the Decolonization of America 4. Angela Davis, Prison Abolition, and the End of the American Carceral State Conclusion: The Future of Resistance Notes Bibliography Index
