Why Revolutionary Movements Fail

In 1967, Marshall Lee, a young Black revolutionary living in Philadelphia, credits Harold Cruse's book The Crisis of the Negro Intellectual for shaping his understanding of revolutionary movements. The book, which critiqued truisms of radical movements, helped give shape to the Black revolutionary movement in the late 1960s and through the 1970s.

However, by the 2010s and early 2020s, young Black radicals were again discussing the intersection of class and race, criticizing the politics of respectability, and questioning whether white liberals would ever concede power. Yet, few were referring to Cruse, whose polarizing qualities had led to his obscurity.

Born in Petersburg, Virginia in 1916, Cruse's mother worked as a domestic servant and his father worked in a factory. Petersburg, a bastion of Black institutions before the Civil War, significantly influenced Cruse's worldview. He later credited the Harlem Renaissance for further enthralling him with the characters and ideas of the era. Cruse's experiences during World War II, including time in Algeria and Italy, shaped his views on activism and integration.

Cruse's commitment to justice was mixed with a curiosity that defied doctrinaire thinking, leading him to challenge norms that defined American conversations about race. He was critical of integration and gravitated towards a circle of Black writers and artists who prioritized building a stronger sense of Black identity. His critique of the Harlem Writers Club, which he felt was too "cliquish and remote," was a testament to his willingness to challenge the status quo, even at the risk of being labeled a "radical deviation."

The Crisis of the Negro Intellectual, Cruse's most influential work, argued that the U.S. imagines itself as a nation of individuals but is really a collection of social, ethnic, and religious groups. Integration into white society would always mean subordination, while a more militant defense of sectarian orthodoxies would further alienate Black activists from the broader community.

Cruse proposed a solution: Black Americans as a group to seek cultural, political, and economic self-determination, emphasizing the importance of building internally self-governing communities that could prioritize Black identity, culture, and economics.