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Negro Liberation
Published in 1948, Negro Liberation is Harry Haywood's principal theoretical work concerning the Afro-American National Question in the United States. This study prods deep into the socioeconomic conditions of the Black Belt South. Haywood's work reveals, through a precise materialist analysis, that the Black Belt is a distinct nation, oppressed under the boot of U.S. imperialism and white supremacy. Negro Liberation considers the national question inside the U.S. using Marxism-Leninism as a theoretical and practical basis. It attempts to reconsider the post-Civil War plantation system, the sharecropping industry, and the problem of land distribution as persistent semifeudal socioeconomic relations in the region. Haywood goes on to demand that a national-democratic revolution is needed to fully liberate African Americans who continue to bear the brunt of social, political, and economic oppression under Jim Crowism and "lynch mob democracy."
This book is notable for its historical impact on Marxism, the International Communist Movement, and the African American Liberation Movement, then and now.
This book is notable for its historical impact on Marxism, the International Communist Movement, and the African American Liberation Movement, then and now.
245 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1948
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About the author
Harry Haywood
19 books39 followersFrom Wikipedia:
Harry Haywood (February 6, 1898 - January 1985) was born in South Omaha, Nebraska to former slaves, Harriet and Haywood Hall. He was the youngest of three children. Named after his father at birth, Haywood Hall, "Harry Haywood" is a pseudonym adopted in 1925. Radicalized by the Chicago Race Riot of 1919, he was a leading African American member of both the Communist Party of the United States (CPUSA) and the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU). He is best known for his significant theoretical contributions to the Marxist national question and as a founder of the Maoist New Communist Movement.
Harry Haywood began his revolutionary career by joining the African Blood Brotherhood in 1922 followed by the Young Communist League in 1923. Shortly thereafter, in 1925 he joined the Communist Party, USA. After joining the CPUSA Haywood went to Moscow to study, first to the Communist University of the Toilers of the East in 1925, then to the International Lenin School in 1927. He stayed until 1930 as a delegate to the Communist International (Comintern). There he worked on commissions dealing with the question of African Americans in the United States as well as the development of the "Native Republic Thesis" for the South African Communist Party. Haywood worked to draft the "Comintern Resolutions on the Negro Question" of 1928 and 1930, which put forward the line that African Americans in the Black Belt of the United States made up an oppressed nation, with the right to self-determination up to and including secession. He would continue to fight for this line throughout his life.
In the CPUSA, Haywood served on the Central Committee from 1927 to 1938 and on the Politburo from 1931 until 1938. He also participated in the major factional struggles internal to the CPUSA against Jay Lovestone and Earl Browder, regularly siding with William Z. Foster.
Following the death of Stalin in 1953 and Nikita Krushchev's rise to power, the CPUSA accompanied Moscow in Krushchev's policy of destalinization and "peaceful coexistence". Long an admirer of Mao Zedong, Harry Haywood was one of the pioneers of the anti-revisionist movement born out of the growing Sino-Soviet split. He was driven out of the CPUSA in the late 1950s along with many others who took firm anti-revisionist or pro-Stalin positions.
After being isolated and driven from the ranks of the CPUSA, Harry Haywood became one of the initiators of the New Communist Movement, the goal of which was to found a new vanguard Communist Party on an anti-revisionist basis, believing the CPUSA to have deviated irrevocably from Marxism-Leninism. He was one of the founders of the Provisional Organizing Committee for a Communist Party (POC), formed in New York in August, 1958 by eighty-three mostly Black and Puerto Rican delegates from the CPUSA. According to Haywood, the POC rapidly degenerated into an isolated, dogmatic, ultraleft sect, completely removed from any political practice.
He went from there to work in one of the newly formed Maoist groups of the New Communist Movement, the Communist Party (Marxist-Leninist). In the CP(M-L) Haywood served on the Central Committee and published, along with his other major works, his 700 page, critical autobiography, Black Bolshevik. This book became, because of its breadth and scope, an important document and through it and his other writings Haywood was able to provide ideological leadership to the New Communist Movement
Harry Haywood (February 6, 1898 - January 1985) was born in South Omaha, Nebraska to former slaves, Harriet and Haywood Hall. He was the youngest of three children. Named after his father at birth, Haywood Hall, "Harry Haywood" is a pseudonym adopted in 1925. Radicalized by the Chicago Race Riot of 1919, he was a leading African American member of both the Communist Party of the United States (CPUSA) and the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU). He is best known for his significant theoretical contributions to the Marxist national question and as a founder of the Maoist New Communist Movement.
Harry Haywood began his revolutionary career by joining the African Blood Brotherhood in 1922 followed by the Young Communist League in 1923. Shortly thereafter, in 1925 he joined the Communist Party, USA. After joining the CPUSA Haywood went to Moscow to study, first to the Communist University of the Toilers of the East in 1925, then to the International Lenin School in 1927. He stayed until 1930 as a delegate to the Communist International (Comintern). There he worked on commissions dealing with the question of African Americans in the United States as well as the development of the "Native Republic Thesis" for the South African Communist Party. Haywood worked to draft the "Comintern Resolutions on the Negro Question" of 1928 and 1930, which put forward the line that African Americans in the Black Belt of the United States made up an oppressed nation, with the right to self-determination up to and including secession. He would continue to fight for this line throughout his life.
In the CPUSA, Haywood served on the Central Committee from 1927 to 1938 and on the Politburo from 1931 until 1938. He also participated in the major factional struggles internal to the CPUSA against Jay Lovestone and Earl Browder, regularly siding with William Z. Foster.
Following the death of Stalin in 1953 and Nikita Krushchev's rise to power, the CPUSA accompanied Moscow in Krushchev's policy of destalinization and "peaceful coexistence". Long an admirer of Mao Zedong, Harry Haywood was one of the pioneers of the anti-revisionist movement born out of the growing Sino-Soviet split. He was driven out of the CPUSA in the late 1950s along with many others who took firm anti-revisionist or pro-Stalin positions.
After being isolated and driven from the ranks of the CPUSA, Harry Haywood became one of the initiators of the New Communist Movement, the goal of which was to found a new vanguard Communist Party on an anti-revisionist basis, believing the CPUSA to have deviated irrevocably from Marxism-Leninism. He was one of the founders of the Provisional Organizing Committee for a Communist Party (POC), formed in New York in August, 1958 by eighty-three mostly Black and Puerto Rican delegates from the CPUSA. According to Haywood, the POC rapidly degenerated into an isolated, dogmatic, ultraleft sect, completely removed from any political practice.
He went from there to work in one of the newly formed Maoist groups of the New Communist Movement, the Communist Party (Marxist-Leninist). In the CP(M-L) Haywood served on the Central Committee and published, along with his other major works, his 700 page, critical autobiography, Black Bolshevik. This book became, because of its breadth and scope, an important document and through it and his other writings Haywood was able to provide ideological leadership to the New Communist Movement
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
Want to read
August 17, 2025I didn’t even know this was coming out until just now. I’m so excited!! This book being out of print has meant only those who manage to find a vintage copy have been able to read it so I’m so happy haymarket books is gonna be publishing a new edition w/ an intro by Dr. CBS.
April 22, 2008
A detailed account of the national question in the Black Belt South, this book goes through and systematically answers the question "why should the Black Belt South be considered its own nation?". Especially important to read if you cannot get your hands on the whole thing is Chapter 8 - The Negro Nation. If you are at all interested in issues of self-determination for African-Americans in the United States, then Haywood (and specifically this book, which is his main theoretical work) is a must-read.
March 30, 2021
The most eminent work of Haywood’s, it delves into the Black Belt thesis and lays out the foundations for the view of Black Americans as an oppressed nation within the US, using the parameters set by the Communist International.
Statistic-heavy, it does a great job explaining the South’s nature as an internal colony of the United States and how the rules of imperialism apply to it, owing to its history as a failed bourgeois-democratic revolution following the Civil War.
Essential read.
Statistic-heavy, it does a great job explaining the South’s nature as an internal colony of the United States and how the rules of imperialism apply to it, owing to its history as a failed bourgeois-democratic revolution following the Civil War.
Essential read.
February 16, 2018
Lol write your thesis, Imani LMAO
March 16, 2023
Written in 1948 It shows an interesting perspective on the south from the eyes of a black communist whole Jim crow was still in full swing. Haywood rightfully villifies the hatred and discrimination of black people in the south and makes his case for why the people of the black belt have a right of self determination to form a completely separate nation from the United States. Great read cover to cover. Only complaint is the use of the R word as a descriptor, but it was written in the 40s so what can you do.
October 27, 2020
In theory I love what this is saying about racial terrorism as economic super-exploitation. But it wasn't that interesting of a read.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews