Study Sessions are VITAL to building alternative/ideologies of existence in the western world. No movement or intention has been successful or come to fruition without a consistent, collective space dedicated to analysis and critique of a community's experience: politically; socially; economically; culturally; spiritually.

A great historical example of the importance of community study sessions is John Henrik Clarke. As a person who began his career as a self-professed writer of fiction, he did not undergo the formal academic training of history in a university setting. Instead he learned through the African American community institution, the Harlem History Club. As one of the youngest members of The Harlem History Club, Clarke says:

"My formal introduction to history began in Harlem in the 1930s. I was active in the Harlem history club at the Harlem YMCA under Willis N. Huggins. I was fortunate enough to have met Arthur Schomburg and remembered reading his famous essay "The Negro Digs up His Past" while I was still in Georgia. I can say that it was Arthur Schomburg who taught me the interrelation of African history to world history. Willis N. Huggins taught me the political meaning of history. I would go to the lectures of William Leo Hansberry on the philosophical meaning of black history. The Harlem History Club was literally a graduate level history department with some of the most important figures in black history right there in the middle of Harlem. I learned all that I could.

Some of the club's publications would include John G. Jackson's and Willis Huggins's A Guide to the Study of African History. In this work, the references on Africa alone made it an important contribution. Besides his essay "["The Negro Digs up His Past]", Schomburg wrote a book entitled The New Negro. Huggins and Jackson later wrote an Introduction to African Civilization. I was being introduced to material and books I had never seen or heard of before. This would lead me to read more deeply. It might surprise you that H.G. Wells' Outline of History, despite its white supremacist views, is a good outline of history. It led me to read other works in history like Spingler's Decline of the West and the early works of Will Durant—the seven-volume Story of Philosophy.

John G. Jackson's works still have a great influence on me and this is evident in my inquiry into the role of religion as a force in history and the African origins of the legend of the Garden of Eden. He was one of the earliest scholars who attempted to separate myth from truth in biblical history. See his book Pagan Origins of the Christ Myth as well as his pamphlet Christianity Before Christ—later made into a book. His writing indicates that in some cases biblical stories were not true and were not meant to be true. The bible was meant to provide fables and myth to illustrate the truth. If you understand the truth from the illustrations, the bible has done what it was meant to do. For example, the story of the Exodus is told to illustrate that, at a given hour, God will come to the rescue of his people. It is a story on the ultimate goodness of God to rescue his people in their most desperate time. If you have real faith in yourself and God, the story is nothing more than that and has served its purpose.

Of particular value to me were William Hansberry's Sources for the Study of Ethiopian History and the writings of Charles Seiford, especially his unpublished "Who Are the Ethiopians?" In addition to the historic readings, I enjoyed a lot of good general writings such as the early fiction of Richard Wright. In fact, my writing style has been influenced by the white writers such as Sherwood Anderson, Ernest Hemingway, James Joyce, and other great writers who tried to take their writing into other dimensions that otherwise would not have been."

Asides receiving honorary degrees from numerous institutions and universities he served as consultant and adviser to African and Caribbean heads of state. (source)

NY Sankofa Circle
[2nd + 4th Tuesdays]

*Join the NY Sankofa Circle by calling 718-443-4160

NYC Circle/Potluck
[2nd Saturdays | 7pm]

*Join the NYC Circle/Potluck by emailing nycircle-subscribe@googlegroups.com

Washington, DC:
Kwame Ture Society
[Thursdays | 6pm]

*Join the Kwame Ture Society For Africana Studies by emailing kts-subscribe@yahoogroups.com 

[Selected Liberator Readings]