WHAT IS A RADICAL
TRADITION?

And how does JustPast seek to create a new one?

Traditions:

JustPast’s Radical Resistance Tradition

We inherit traditions regardless of whether we realize it or not. In America, the dominant traditions have tended to entail rosey celebrations of the Founding Fathers; acceptance of Jesus Christ as God; and belief in the American dream, the neutrality of science, and the unique greatness of the country. Once we realize the tradtions we’ve been given, we can make a choice to either accept them or resist the status quo and create something new. We at JustPast choose resistance and assume a responsibility to the most vulnerable and disaffected of the world. We believe in a need to fight for and with, as Frantz Fanon said, the wretched of the earth.

1. The Black Radical Tradition

Our Antebellum-
Era Ancestors

Sojourner Truth
Frederick Douglass
Harriet Tubman

Our Progressive-
Era Ancestors

Ida B. Wells
W.E.B. Du Bois
Sterling Brown

Our Civil-Rights-Era Ancestors

Artist-Intellectual
Paul Robeson
Richard Wright
Ralph Ellison
Gwendolyn Brooks
James Baldwin
Lorraine Hansberry
Alvin Ailey
Amiri Baraka

Activist-Political
Ella Baker
Claudia Jones
Grace Lee Boggs
Fannie Lou Hamer
Malcolm X
Frantz Fanon
Martin Luther King Jr
John Lewis

Our (Post)Identity-
Politics-Era Ancestors

Identity Politics
Toni Morrison
Audre Lorde
June Jordan
Alice Walker
Barbara Smith
bell hooks

Post-Identity Politics
Sylvia Wynter
Stuart Hall
Angela Davis
Patricia Hill Collins
Paul Gilroy
Kimberlé Crenshaw
Katherine McKittrick
Charity Hicks
adrienne maree brown

2. The Marxist
Tradition

Foundational Ancestors
Georg Simmel
Max Weber
Antonio Gramsci

The Frankfort School
Walter Benjamin
Max Horkheimer
Herbert Marcuse
Erich Fromm
Theodor Adorno

Cultural, Social,
and Literary
Theorists
Georg Lukács
Raymond Williams
Frederic Jameson
Stanley Aronowitz
Terry Eagleton

Economic Analysts
Paul Sweezy
David Harvey
Erik Olin Wright

3. The Existentialist Tradition

Philosophical Ancestors
Arthur Schopenhauer
Søren Kierkegaard
Friedrich Nietzsche
Hannah Arendt

Literary Ancestors
Fyodor Dostoevsky
Leo Tolstoy
Franz Kafka
Samuel Beckett
Albert Camus

4. The Pragmatist Tradition

Pre-Classical Pragmatists
Thomas Jefferson
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Walt Whitman

Classical Pragmatists
William James
Jane Addams
John Dewey
George Santayana

Post-Classical Pragmatist
Sidney Hook
C. Wright Mills
Sheldon Wolin
Richard Rorty
Benjamin Barber
Richard Bernstein

5. The Indige-Cana/o Tradition

Indigenous Ancestors
Vine Deloria Jr.
Haunani-Kay Trask
Leanne Simpson

Chicana/o Ancestors
Rodolfo Gonzales
Dolores Huerta
Gloria Anzaldúa
Chela Sandoval

Our Antebellum-Era Ancestors

Our discussion of the Black Radical Tradition is organized by period. The first period is the Antebelleum Era. Technically, this period extends from 1619 (when the first enslaved people came to America) to 1865 (the start of the Civil War). During this time, leading figures included David Walker, Nat Turner, John Brown, Denmark Vesey, Lucretia Mott, Charles Sumner, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Susan B. Anthony. These figures belong in our Radical Resistance Tradition. Their courage and sacrifice is exemplary. But we have chosen Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, and Frederick Douglass to pay special homage to from this period. We chose them because their legacy reveals a pattern of being exceptionally inspiring for later generations.

"Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaeca.”

Sojourner Truth(c. 1797 – 1883)

Frederick Douglass(c. 1817 - 1895)

Harriet Tubman(c. 1822 – 1913)

Our Progressive-Era Ancestors

There’s a saying that goes “the North won the war, but the South won the peace.” This saying refers to the fact that, even though the end of the Civil War technically brought an end to slavery, Jim and Jane Crow-Era policies and entrenched White supremacy led to a situation where Black people in America were increasingly subjugated, their social position forcefully ensured at the bottom of a racial hierarchy. The violent oppression Black people faced during this time is probably why it took about two generations before another cohort of famously strong Black figures would emerge. Following America’s Reconstruction and the Gilded Age (1866-1890s) into the the Progressive Era (1900s to 1920s), we see Ida B. Wells, Sterling Brown, and W. E. B. Du Bois surface as powerful figures in the fight against America’s dominating forces and reflection of the Black experience.

Ida B.Wells(1862-1931)

W.E.B. Du Bois(1868 – 1963)

Sterling Brown(1901 - 1989)

Our Civil-Rights-Era Artist-Intellectual Ancestors

Ida B. Wells and W.E.B. Du Bois provided much-needed moral clarity during during the Progressive Era. Unfortunately, from the 1930s to the 1940s, Black excellence was once again stymied as the nation become enthralled by the Great Depression and two world wars. In the 1950s, however, the exceptional power of the Black experience to purify the soul of America was once again brought to the fore. Paul Robeson once said, “Artists are the gatekeepers of truth. We are civilization’s radical voice.” And likewise Harold Cruse believed:

In advanced societies it is not the race politicians or the “rights” leaders who create the new ideas and the new images of life and man. That role belongs to the artists and the intellectuals of each generation. Let the race politicians, if they will, create political, economic or organizational forms of leadership; but it is the artists and the creative minds who will, and must, furnish the all important content.

Thus, America is indebted to the profound artistry and intellect of Alvin Ailey, Richard Wright, Ralph Ellison, Paul Robeson, Gwendolyn Brooks, Lorraine Hansberry, James Baldwin, and Amiri Baraka for significant cultural progress during (and after) the Civil Rights Era.

Our Civil-Rights-Era Activist-Political Ancestors

Paul Robeson’s and Harold Cruse’s claims about the supreme value of artists downplays the massive impact of Black political leaders involved in the struggle for civil rights. Organizations such as the Southern Christian Leadership Council, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, the Black Panther Party, and the Mississipi Freedom Demoractic Party deserve high praise and recognition for the advancements they made toward racial justice. Like the Antebellum Era, the Civil Rights Era produced numerous noteworthy freedom fighters. Some of these include Stokely Carmichael, Assata Shakur, Fred Hampton, Huey Newton, A. Philip Randolph, Bob Moses, Mamie Till, Angela Davis, and Diane Nash. We especially honor the contributions of Ella Baker, Fannie Lou Hamer, Malcolm X, Frantz Fanon, Martin Luther King Jr, and John Lewis.

Our Identity-Politics-Era Ancestors

The Civil Rights Era produced a level of unprecedented political and intellectual leadership in the Black community. But the strides made were ultimately limited. Their impacts were limited insofar as the wealth and opportunity gaps between White and Black people still haven’t changed significatly. Their message was limited in that it was stifled by White supremacist violence and resistance. And their struggle was limited in scope because it’s hierarhcial and essentializing tendencies—with the Black experience being flattened and the unique plights of Black women occluded. Some of these patterns are described, for instance, in Michele Wallace’s Black Macho and the Myth of the Superwoman.

Most perniciously, after the Civil Rights Era, many (especially White) Americans developed an erroneous belief that somehow the country’s racial issues were solved, that America had become post-racial. However, racial dynamics didn’t go away; they evolved evolved. Though it’s not widely stated this way, the 1970s and 1980s can be understood as the age of identity politics, which encompassed an emphasis on the Black feminism and womanism of leading intellectuals like Alice Walker, Toni Morrison, June Jordan, bell hooks, Audre Lorde, and Barbara Smith.

Toni Morrison(1931 – 2019)

Audre Lorde(1934 - 1992)

June Jordan(1936 - 2002)

Alice Walker(1944-)

Barbara Smith(1946 - )

bell hooks(1952 - 2021)

Our Post-Identity-Politics-Era Ancestors

Second Pillar: The Marxist Tradition

Marxism has a long, fragmented history. Its adherents take many forms. We have selected for forms for incorporation into our Radical Resistance Tradition. The first form is refers only to the work of Antonio Gramsci. Gramsci is a pioneering intellectual in Marxism. His creative notions such as organic intellectualism, articulation, hegemony, self-inventory have inspired countless people throughout history. Second, we incorporate Walter Benjamin, Theodor Adorno, Erich Fromm, Max Horkheimer, and Herbert Marcuse from the Frankfort School. Third, we include the cultural and literary theory of Georg Lukács, Stuart Hall, Frederic Jameson, Raymond Williams, and Terry Eagleton. And finally, we have the addition of the economic analysts Paul Sweezy, David Harvey, and Erik Olin Wright.

Our Foundational Ancestors

“Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaeca.”

Georg Simmel(1858 – 1918)

Max Weber(1864 – 1920)

Antonio Gramsci(1891 - 1937)

The Frankfurt School Ancestors

Walter Benjamin(1892 – 1940)

Max Horkheimer(1895 - 1973)

Herbert Marcuse(1898 - 1979)

Erich Fromm(1900 - 1980)

Theodor Adorno(1903 – 1969)

Cultural, Social, and Literary Theorist Ancestors

Georg Lukács(1885 – 1971)

Raymond Williams(1921 – 1988)

Louis Althusser, ‘‘Marx’s Relation to Hegel,” in his Politics and History (Schocken Books, 1972), pp. 181-183. For trenchant criticisms of Althusser, see Stanley Aronowitz, The Crisis in Historical Materialism: Class, Politics, and Culture in Marxist Theory (Praeger Publications, 1981), pp. 68-69, 120-121, 325-327.

Stanley Aronowitz(1933 – 2021)

Frederic Jameson(1934 – )

Terry Eagleton(1943 – )

Economic Analyst Ancestors

Paul Sweezy(1910 – 2004)

David Harvey(1935 – )

Erik Olin Wright(1947 – 2019)

Third Pillar: The Existentialist Tradition

To develop our tradition, which we have chosen to call the Radical Resistance Tradition, we turn first to intellectuals, activists, and artists who lived their lives struggling for collective Black freedom. These ancestors are foremost because the history of Black struggle is arguably the grandest (and culturally richest) example of persevering hope in the face of horrible circumstances. For centuries, Black people in general have fought to counter the dominant and oppressive forces of White supremacy, imperialism, and racial capitalism. Their strruggle gives them unique immediate personal insight into the dynamics of power. Also important to note is that Black women in particular have been at the forefront of advancing effective challenges to patriarchy and essentialism. Indeed, arguably the greatest insights into racial justice have been from Black women thanks to the “double jeopary” of being both Black and a woman.

Philosophical Ancestors

Arthur Schopenhauer(1788 – 1860)

Søren Kierkegaard(1813 – 1855)

Friedrich Nietzsche(1844 - 1900)

Hannah Arendt

———. 1958. The Human Condition. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
———. 1963. On Revolution. New York: Viking Press.
———. 1968. Men in Dark Times. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
———. 1972. Crises of the Republic. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.

(1906 – 1975)

Literary Ancestors

Fyodor Dostoevsky(1821 – 1881)

Leo Tolstoy(1828 – 1910)

Franz Kafka(1883 – 1924)

Samuel Beckett(1906 – 1989)

Albert Camus(1913 - 1960)

Fourth Pillar: The Pragmatist Tradition

Pragmatism, says Cornel West, in its historical evasion of epistemologically centered philosophy, is “a future-oriented instrumentalism that tries to deploy thought as a weapon to enable more effective action.” Or, better still, pragmatism advances “a conception of philosophy as a form of cultural criticism in which the meaning of America is put forward by intellectuals in response to distinct social and cultural crises” (1989, 5). It is this characteristic of pragmatism, namely, of its having as an end knowledge as it relates to action, that clearly dis¬ tinguishes the doctrine from European philosophy, the latter of which was concerned either with knowledge as such or with being as an extrasensory phenomenon.

Pre-Classical Pragmatist Ancestors