This cluster approaches Black Marxism not as a supplement to traditional Marxism but rather as its own tradition of theory and practice, with its own history, contributions, and struggles. We draw from the classics of Aimé and Suzanne Césaire, W.E.B. Du Bois, Frantz Fanon, Claudia Jones, and Walter Rodney, as well as from more recent works by Simone Browne, Angela Davis, Robin D.G. Kelley, and Keeanga-Yamhatta Taylor. To study Black Marxism, we argue, is to study the revolutionary events of history that form the basis of what Cedric Robinson calls the Black radical tradition, even and perhaps especially those events that predate Marx’s writings, like the Haitian Revolution. To pursue such a study is also to grapple with the present state of things, the persistently intensified policing and surveillance of Black life and sociality.
A Research Lab at the University of Michigan
