Hubert Harrison

From Philosopedia

Harrison, Hubert Henry (27 April 1883 - 17 December 1927)

A noted African American intellect in his time, Harrison was born in Saint Croix, the Virgin Islands. He wrote for The Call, The Truth Seeker, The Modern Quarterly, The Nation, The New Republic, and other publications.

An adjunct professor of comparative religion at the Modern School (later located at Stelton, New Jersey), he found much in Marx, Buckle, Spencer, Nietzsche, Schopenhauer, Lenin, Bertrand Russell, Dewey, and others to support his own ideas.

As founder of the Liberty League and its newspaper, The Voice, Harrison soon learned that his views on religion and birth control were opposed by Catholics and Protestants alike. He greatly influenced Marcus Garvey as well as the Messenger Group headed by A. Philip Randolph and Chandler Owen.

In 1917 he was one of the organizers of the Liberty Party, which nominated James W. H. Eason as U. S. President.

J. A. Rogers reports that once H. L. Mencken asked to meet Harrison, after which Harrison

• was the center of the most serious discussion of the evening; for Theodore Dreiser, Heywood Broun, Ludwig Lewisohn, Charles Hansen Towne came over for the pleasure of talking with the distinguished Negro.

Harrison, one of the intellectuals of the Harlem Renaissance, was editor of The Masses for four years and a member of the controversial International Workers of the World (the “Wobblies”).

If he had to go to a Heaven that operated under the Jim Crow system, Harrison reasoned, he would prefer to go to the place ruled over by the only spiritual creature ever depicted as non-white: Satan. Harrison died in New York City. {J. A. Rogers, AAH}