Amiri Baraka and the Congress of African People: History and Memory (Contemporary Black History)

This important look at CAP combines historical research and analysis with the author's first-hand experience with the organization, providing the first historical narrative of a consequential player in the Black Power Movement. The Congress of African People (CAP) was an important Black Power organization formed in 1970 and led by the activist poet Amiri Baraka. It made significant contributions to the Black Liberation Movement throughout the 70s as a leading organization in the National Black Political Convention, the National Black Assembly, African Liberation Day, the African Liberation Support Committee and the Black Women's United Front. CAP also became active in the new communist movement as the Revolutionary Communist League (MLM). This first-hand narrative of CAP is a part of a movement to document and analyze Black Power in the African American Freedom Movement from the 1950s through the 1970s "The Congress of African People (CAP) was an important Black Power organization formed in 1970 and led by the activist poet Amiri Baraka. It made significant contributions to the Black Liberation Movement throughout the 70s as a leading organization in the National Black Political Convention, the National Black Assembly, African Liberation Day, the African Liberation Support Committee and the Black Women's United Front. CAP also became active in the new communist movement as the Revolutionary Communist League (MLM). This first-hand narrative of CAP is a part of a movement to document and analyze Black Power in the African American Freedom Movement from the 1950s through the 1970s"-- Provided by publisher Front Matter....Pages i-xiv Introduction....Pages 1-7 Born into the Storm....Pages 9-26 Black Power: The Context of CAP....Pages 27-32 The Founding of CAP and Emergence of Amiri Baraka as a National Political Leader....Pages 33-48 The Black Arts Movement and CAP....Pages 49-52 Ideology and Ideological Development....Pages 53-70 Maulana Karenga, Amiri Baraka, and Kawaida....Pages 71-77 Amina Baraka and the Women in CAP....Pages 79-84 Revolutionary Kawaida....Pages 85-92 CAP and the United Front....Pages 93-99 Transition to Marxism....Pages 101-125 Black Marxist-Leninists and the New Communist Movement....Pages 127-144 Transformed....Pages 145-155 Lessons....Pages 157-160 Back Matter....Pages 161-191 "Amiri Baraka and the Congress of African People accomplishes two very important tasks. It provides us with intimate details about CAP, a group that has been underappreciated in histories of Black radical organizations. The second, and equally significant, task Simanga addresses is the proper placement of Amiri Baraka into the historical record. He skillfully contextualizes Baraka's importance to the Black freedom movement and demonstrates why he was one of its most creative and politically committed thinkers."--Joseph Jordan, Director, Sonja Haynes Stone Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA