Title: Hubert Rap Brown

Author: Die N* Die!

Year of Publication: 1969

Thesis:

H. Rap Brown is a modern-day David Walker; his appeal speaks to Black people of all shades to set aside their class differences based on a color hierarchy developed by and supported by Black people. Argues that Black people should also be ready to protect themselves and asserts that nothing short of revolution and control by Black and People of Color will equate to freedom.

Time: 1960s

Geography: U.S.

Organization: Numbered chapters

Type: Primary Source

Methods:

Sources:

Historiography:

This text had a wide readership and continues to form a cornerstone of the Long Black Freedom Struggle.

Keywords:

Themes:

Class, colorism, revolutionary violence, education, tone policing, police brutality, gun ownerships, self defense, self respect and dignity, masculinity, integration vs. segregation, racialized imprisonment and mass incarceration (this covers virtually every current theme being discussed in anti-racist circles)

Critiques:

Lisa Corrigan, if I remember correctly, critiques Brown's publication both for its rhetorical force advocating revolutionary violence as a strategy and for its sexism and homophobia in Prison Power (2018) (contextualized within a freedom struggle that often tended to make men more the center of attention, especially early on).

Questions:

Quotes:

Notes:

It would be useful for me to pair this with a biographer's work, especially as Brown has been imprisoned for so long, so it would be helpful to get a sense of how he has changed over time and what he has done since. This book states the aims of the BP movement plainly and resonates.