Harrison, Hubert H.

Born April 27, 1883, in Concordia, St. Croix, Danish West Indies, Hubert H. Harrison was a brilliant and influential writer, orator, educator, critic, and political activist in Harlem during the early decades of the 20th century. He played unique, signal roles, in what were the largest class radical movement (socialism) and the largest race radical movement (the New Negro/Garvey movement) of his era. Labor and civil rights activist A. Philip Randolph described him as "the father of Harlem radicalism" and historian Joel A. Rogers considered him "the foremost Afro-American intellect of his time" and "one of America's greatest minds." Following his December 17, 1927, death due to complications of an appendectomy, Harrison's important contributions to intellectual and radical thought were much neglected.

In 1900 Harrison moved to New York City where he worked low-paying jobs, attended high school, and became interested in freethought and socialism. His first of many published letters to the editor appeared in the "New York Times" in 1903. During his first decade in New York the autodidactic Harrison read and wrote constantly and was active in Black intellectual circles at St. Benedict's and St. Mark's Lyceums, the White Rose Home, and the Young Men's Christian Association. He also attended functions of the interracial Sunrise Club as well as Single Tax, Socialist, and Freethought-influenced activities. Beginning in 1907, he made his living as a postal clerk. In 1909 Harrison married Irene Louise ("Lin") Horton, and the following year their first of five children was born. Their relationship went through difficulties and they periodically lived in separate residences. In 1910 Harrison wrote two letters critical of Booker T. Washington that were published in the "New York Sun". Subsequent retaliatory efforts by Washington's "Tuskegee Machine" cost Harrison his postal employment and for the rest of his life he and his family were burdened with financial problems.

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