Acknowledgments

A book project is never the work of a singular individual alone. I have been blessed to know and benefit from the knowledge, expertise, and company of many amazing people.

First and foremost are my partner, Kyngelle, and our son, Caiden: thank you for your love and patience and for immensely supporting my work; my incredible mother, Marie L. Hines Tinson; LaShawnda, Jennifer, Leslye, Ted, Jade, Resean, Hunter, Dominic, Rene Monroe and family; BJ, Terrance, Sly, Bruce, Karl, G, Dre, Steve, Itch, Tina, and Aaron—Tinsons, Hines, Normans, Russells, and Williams wherever we be. I hope you all are proud of this athlete-turned-scholar. Special thanks go to Vilaire Charlot; Kevin, Fabienne, and Ayanna Maxwell; Nitza Martinez and family; and Gil and Kim Traverso. To my first schoolteachers, Mrs. Thompson, Mrs. Lacefield (RIP), and Mrs. Hunter, thank you for planting the seed of love for learning. Your unwavering support has lifted me up for years.

Thanks go to the Liberator family whom I met through this work: Carlos E. Russell, Pete Beveridge, C. E. Wilson, Ossie Sykes, Richard Gibson, and the family of Dan Watts; and also Askia Touré, and Calvin Hicks; special appreciation goes to the Liberator crew who passed away before the completion of this book: Clayton Riley and Charlie Russell. This would not have become a book without you all and the work you did and continue to do.

Thanks go to my mentors, Ernest Allen, John Bracey, and Bill Strickland, whose names opened many doors with many of the activists I interviewed for this book and who have been a reservoir of knowledge and materials since the beginning; also, huge thanks and praise go to Esther Terry, James Smethurst, Ekwueme Michael Thelwell, Dayo Gore, Steve Tracy, Manisha Sinha, Nancy R. Mirabal, the great Wade W. Nobles, Nelson Stevens, Maddie and Roberto Marquez, Amilcar and Dee Shabazz, Agustín Lao-Montes, Joye Bowman and John Higginson, Charles E. Jones, Akinyele Umoja, Susan Tracy, and Sabine Broeck (University of Bremen, Germany). Thanks also go to the College of Ethnic Studies at San Francisco State University, the Africana Studies department at California State University Dominguez Hills, and the W. E. B. Du Bois Department of Afro-American Studies at University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Many thanks go out to The Black Scholar, the Journal of African American History, the National Council for Black Studies, the Association for the Study of African American Life and History, and the TRGGR Media Collective.

Many thanks to the staff at UNC Press, especially my editor, Brandon Proia. Thanks also to Jad Adkins, Michelle Witkowski, and Jen Burton. You all have been professional and in my corner throughout the process. Thank you to the anonymous readers of earlier drafts of this book. Your critical feedback made this a much better book.

The staffs at the following libraries and library collections were of great help to this work: the John Henrik Clarke and Larry Neal Papers at the Schomburg Center, and especially archivist Stephen Fullwood; the W. E. B. Du Bois Library at University of Massachusetts Amherst; the Robert W. Woodruff Library at Atlanta University Center; Amherst College Special Collections; Harold Cruse Papers and George Breitman Papers at NYU’s Tamiment Library; Joellen El Bashir at the Moorland-Spingarn Research Library at Howard University; Patrice M. Kane at the Fordham University Archives and Special Collections; and Peter Higgins at WGBH Boston archives.

The colleagues and dear friends who have inspired my work and kept the path lit are many: Carlos Rec McBride, Jonathan Fenderson, K. C. Nat Turner, Anthony Ratcliff, Viveca Greene, Wilson Valentín-Escobar, kara lynch, Amy Jordan, Korina Jocson, Sujani Reddy, and Jennifer Guglielmo (who deserves a special shout out for providing incredible advice, energy, and feedback at critical stages of this project), Ousmane Power-Greene, Dana Finkelstein, Omar Dahi, Suheir Hammad, Micaela J. Díaz-Sánchez, Allia Matta, McKinley Melton, Tanisha Ford, Whitney Battle-Baptiste, Trevor Baptiste, Johanna Fernandez (NYC), Noura Erakat, Aracelis Girmay, Djola Branner, Daniel Kojo and Anna Schrade, Branwen Okpako, Sonya Donaldson, Hiba Bou Akar, Rachel Amma Engmann, Jutta Sperling, Roosbelinda Cárdenas, John Murillo, Sara Lennox, Bob Rakoff, Marlene Fried, Frank Holmquist, Eva Rueschmann, Jonathan Lash, Lynn Pasquerella, Hassan Johnson, Thabiti Asukile, Orisanmi Burton, Cedric Gilmore, Morris Jones, Mary Bombardier, Karina Fernandez, Evelin Aquino, Charles Payne, Tricia Loveland, Shelly Perdomo, Carla Wojczuk, Connie Wun, Deroy Gordon and Zahra Caldwell, Davarian Baldwin, Jakobi Williams, Mike Funk, Vanessa Lynch, Jorge “Pop Master” Fabel and UZN, Theresa “Mama Kuji” Cooper Gordon, sister-in-struggle Jacquelyn Smith-Crooks, Ingrid “Mama Ing” Askew, Judyie Al-Bilali, Andrea Battle, Sebastian Weier (Germany), Jamal Watson, David Goldberg, David Lucander, Shawn Alexander, Russell Rickford, Sam Roberts, Christina Greer, Saulo Colon, Sean Arce, Jelisa Difo, Keita Grace, Revan Schendler, Chyrell George, Jean Sepanski, and Carol Boudreau.

I have also drawn great inspiration from the radical intellectual work of Sonia Sanchez, Robin D. G. Kelley, Mumia Abu-Jamal, Russell “Maroon” Shoatz, Jalil Muntaquim, David Gilbert, Ashanti Omowali Alston, Bobby Dellelo, Don Perry, Lawrence Jackson, Vijay Prashad, J. Kēhaulani Kauanui, Betsy Casañas, Tina Reynolds, Frank Wilderson, Ruthie Gilmore, and Fred Ho (RIP).

My past and current students have been my lifeline in the academy, especially Aurelis Troncoso, Gabby Nzinga Garcia, Langston Sanchez, Sackona Fitts, Dykee Gorrell, Toni Stone, Kwasi Tre Brooks, Kamika Bennett, Lyla Bugara, Andrew Stachiw, Brittany Williams, Elzbieta Putrycz, Brenda Herrero-Moreno, Elydah Joyce, Maddy Miller, the entire Decolonize Media Collective, and Students Against Mass Incarceration (Hampshire College chapter). Last, I cannot forget all my basketball comrades at the Holyoke YMCA, especially Charles Winston—thanks for keeping me fit, competitive, and getting my mind off work!

As Kendrick put it, “We gon’ be alright!”