New Books Network Peter D. Blackmer, "Unleashing Black Power: Grassroots Organizing in Harlem and the Advent of the Long, Hot Summers" (UVA Press, 2025)
Oct 21, 2025
In this insightful discussion, Peter Blackmer, an associate professor of Africology and African American Studies, delves into grassroots organizing in Harlem during the transformative 1950s and 60s. He highlights the pivotal role of figures like Malcolm X and Mae Mallory in shaping a local resistance against systemic racism. Blackmer connects Harlem's struggles to global anti-colonial movements, revealing how the city became a training ground for Black radical thought. He also challenges perceptions of Northern liberalism, framing it as a strategy of repression that fueled the fight for Black power.
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Archive Find Became Full-Circle Meeting
- Peter Blackmer found a 1964 audio forum at the Schomburg that jump-started his project and featured Q.R. Hand speaking with Malcolm X and William Reed.
- Years later he interviewed Q.R. Hand in California, creating a full-circle archival-to-oral-history moment.
Black Power's Northern, Grassroots Roots
- Black Power emerged alongside the civil rights movement in the urban North and responded to local, national, and global forces.
- Harlem acted as a critical node shaping Black Power through grassroots organizing and working-class activism.
Harlem As A Radical Training Ground
- Harlem functioned as a diasporic political training ground shaping national and global Black radicalism.
- Understanding leaders like Malcolm X requires centering Harlem's local political and cultural influences.
