We Will Return In The Whirlwind: Black Radical Organizations 1960-1975

by Muhammad Ahmad, Maxwell Stanford Jr.

Dr. Muhammad Ahmad was national field chairman of the Revolutionary Action Movement (RAM) during the mid-60s and founder of the African People s Party in the 1970s. He has worked closely with Malcolm X, Jesse Gray, Amiri Baraka, Stokely Carmichael, James and Grace Lee Boggs, James Forman, Robert and Mabel Williams, and Queen Mother Audley Moore, among others, in founding and carrying out various Black liberation projects and organizations. Who better, then, to pen a major assessment of some of the most important Black radical organizations of the 60s? Here is a study of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), the Black Panther Party (BPP), the Revolutionary Action Movement (RAM), and the League of Revolutionary Black Workers (LRBW), that only he could have done.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Race

340 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2007

Reviews

["No Malarkey" Zachary · Rating 5 out of 5]

Exceptionally insightful and unsentimental history and analysis of the trajectory of black radicalism during the long sixties. Ahmad's firsthand experiences in SNCC and RAM, coupled with an intimate knowledge of the political and theoretical stakes and key actors across the movement, make this a desperately needed (critical) companion to the standard academic histories of the groups he discusses. Especially striking is just how intertwined black nationalist and communist tendencies were throughout this period. The relationship between Malcolm X and RAM by 1964-65--potentially laying the groundwork for a more disciplined, even more far-reaching model of what the Panthers would later aspire to--offers a fascinating and tragic road not taken in advancing a mass black socialist movement. (Now would truly be the perfect time to give this book a good, thorough, professional edit--my God, does it need it--and get it back in the hands of young organizers.

[Alex · Rating 3 out of 5]

Amazing topic from an author who was there. Unfortunately, the poor editing gets in the way and makes a complex history confusing.

[Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great book - and was the best seller by far at the Next Left Notes table at the 2008 Left Forum.

[MJ]

This was really inspirational. My teacher wrote it. It was like a window into his world. It contains so many details about how a movement evolves and grows organically.