"Little Things Are Big": Race and the Politics of Print Community in the Writings of Jesus Colon

Abstract

Over the past twenty-five years, new scholarship on black radicalism has deeply transformed our understanding of the history, tensions, and ideological complexities of black political groups and the cultural and political practices of black activists, artists, and intellectuals in the United States. Black radicalism has become “a quickly shifting object of study,” in the words of Brent Hayes Edwards, as scholars redefine its parameters, reconsider conventional narratives about well-known black radical figures, and add lesser-known figures to the mix (“Introduction” 2). Emerging work, for example, on lesser-known figures such as Claudia Jones and Alice Childress and new studies of more canonical figures such as Richard Wright, Marcus Garvey, C. L. R. James, and Claude McKay have broadened the lines of inquiry on black radicalism. Additionally, scholars have turned their attention more fully to the complex relationship between black nationalism and Left politics, issues of gender and sexuality in black radical movements, and transnational black radicalisms. Groundbreaking studies of the internationalist dimensions of black radicalism by Edwards (Practice), Kate A. Baldwin, Michelle Ann Stephens, William J. Maxwell, and many others have been particularly prominent over the past decade or so.1 Despite this welcomed expansion of the field, however, there remains a blind spot when it comes to the role of Afro-Latina/os in twentieth-century black radicalism in the United States.2