Mary Helen Washington at the Schomburg Center on Wednesday
On Wednesday night, Mary Helen Washington will discuss her new book The Other Blacklist: The African American Literary and Cultural Left of the 1950s at the Schomburg Center. Washington will be in conversation with Farah Jasmine Griffin.
As a preview for the event, here is Mary Helen Washington explaining how her Catholic upbringing in the 1950s led to an interest in the relationship between African Americans and the Communist Party. She describes how Communist newspaper in the United States became one of the few venues to provide serious discussions and coverage of African American literature during the 1950s. She also talks about her desire to see the work of radical African American artists and writers from this period become part of the canon:
