The Scholar and the Struggle

Lawrence Reddick's Crusade for Black History and Black Power

David A. Varel

• Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN: 9781469660967, 9781469660950
• eBook ISBN: 9781469660974
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Social Science Biographies
• Index: Social Sciences

Lawrence Reddick (1910–1995) was among the most notable African American intellectuals of his generation. The second curator of the Schomburg Library and a University of Chicago PhD, Reddick helped spearhead Carter Woodson’s black history movement in the 1930s, guide the Double Victory campaign during World War II, lead the Southern Christian Leadership Conference during the Cold War, mentor Martin Luther King Jr. throughout his entire public life, direct the Opportunities Industrialization Center Institute during the 1960s, and forcefully confront institutional racism within academia during the Black Power era. A lifelong Pan-Africanist, Reddick also fought for decolonization and black self-determination alongside Kwame Nkrumah, Nnamdi Azikiwe, Léopold Senghor, and W. E. B. Du Bois. Beyond participating in such struggles, Reddick documented and interpreted them for black and white publics alike.

In The Scholar and the Struggle, David A. Varel tells Reddick’s compelling story. His biography reveals the many essential but underappreciated roles played by intellectuals in the black freedom struggle and connects the past to the present in powerful, unforgettable ways.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of Illustrations
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• 1: Coming of Age at Fisk University
• 2: The Black History Movement during the Depression
• 3: Librarianship for Democracy at Home and Abroad
• 4: Cold War Civil Rights in Atlanta
• 5: The Nonviolent Crusade from Montgomery to Madras
• 6: The Search for Black Power in the Sixties
• 7: Ebony Scholar in the Ivory Tower
• Conclusion
• Notes
• Index