Author traces black political history

To many Philadelphians, last week's re-election of Mayor John Street marked the culmination of the fairly recent trend of black political empowerment.

But according to Professor Steven Hahn, in his book A Nation Under Our Feet: Black Political Struggles in the Rural South from Slavery to the Great Migration, Street's election was the climax of a black political presence which started as early as the era of American slavery.

Hahn discussed the book last night at House of Our Own bookstore before a crowd of mostly graduate students and members of the local community. Beginning with the often overlooked starting point of slavery and going through the rise of black nationalism in the 1920s, he described the book as a comprehensive account of black political activism in the South.

"The book is about how slaves and free people constituted themselves as political actors and engaged themselves in political struggles," Hahn said. "It looks at slaves as a political people, which most historians don't do, and shows how slavery is a very formative experience politically."

In addition to overlooking the emergence of black politics during slavery, white historians tend to surpass the connection between blacks and politics altogether, Hahn said.

"I decided to write the book because there is not a lot of history about black political activity at the time," Hahn said. "Through my research, I've gotten more and more interested in African-American history and political activity, even though it hasn't been studied as well as other areas of black life."

To add to his uncommon interpretation of the origins of black politics, Hahn explained that in his book, he also takes a nontraditional viewpoint regarding the origins of 20th century and modern black political activism.

According to Hahn, while most historians attribute the emergence of black nationalism to Marcus Garvey and the events of the 1920s, he sees political history as more continuous, placing Garvey's movement in the context of prior historical events, dating back to slavery.

"The book covers a long period of time, from slavery to the mass migration of the 1920s," Hahn said. "I tried to break down traditional historiographic barriers and the book then turned into a project about the origins of black nationalism."

And although it does not directly deal with the most recent occurrences in black politics such as Mayor Street's election, according to Phyllis Gilbert, a local resident who attended the lecture, the historical continuity described by Hahn is certainly applicable today.

"Things like this book really help us to understand the history of black politics so that we can understand what's going on now and be effective in our political work."

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.