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By Devyn Spence Benson ! December 3, 2016 " 3
First Name

With the recent election of Donald E-Mail Address

Sonia Lee Trump and the very public hate
speech and violence against people
of color that accompanied his Submit
campaign, it seems tting to revisit some of the best works on black
and brown community organizing against white supremacy. This
month I had the pleasure of interviewing Sonia Lee about her book
Building a Latino Civil Rights Movement: Puerto Ricans, African Americans, Categories
and the Pursuit of Racial Justice (Chapel Hill: The University of North
Carolina Press, 2014). Professor Lees work analyzes Puerto Rican and Select Cat
African American collaborations from the 1950s through the 1970s. egory
Sonia Lee is an Associate Professor of History at Washington
University in St. Louis. Her research focuses on the ways in which the
labor economy, social movements, electoral politics, housing reforms, Archives
educational curricula, and mental health treatment shaped
contemporary notions of race and ethnicity in the United States. Select Mo
nth
Devyn Spence Benson: The book traces the rise and decline of
Puerto Rican and African American political alliances in New York
in the 1960s. How did you become interested in this topic? Tags

Sonia Lee: One of my rst experiences of Americanization as a

Korean immigrant from Brazil was the L.A. riots of 1992. At the time,
#AAIHSRoundta
my parents business was not directly impacted by the riots, but we ble
were still pretty shaken up by the event. I had questions about the
#BlackLivesMatter
reasons why there seemed to be so much conict between Korean #comicsandrace
American business owners and their black customers, but I had no #WomenandPanAfricanismSeries
answers. Fast forward four years, and I was in the middle of a campus
debate at the University of California, Berkeley, about Prop 209, which
Activism black
feminism black
ultimately resulted in the prohibition of armative action at UC
campuses. I was taking Professor Leon Litwacks course on post-1865
African American history that semester, and he did a teach-in about intellectual
the history of armative action and racial inequity in the U.S. That
lecture impacted me deeply. For the rst time in my life, I felt that a history black
historical explanation for ones stance on a public policy was
internationalism
intellectually satisfying. I learned that history matters.
black lives matter black
nationalism Black
While I was going through my doctoral program at Harvard with Dr.
Evelyn Higginbotham, I read Altagracia Ortizs analysis of black and Panther Party black
Puerto Rican garment workers failed coalition in the International
Ladies Garment Workers Union. I was fascinated by her analysis, but I politics Black Power
knew there was more. This was 2003, and there were all kinds of
black protest Black
discussions going on about the fact that Latinos had surpassed
African Americans as the largest minority group in the U.S. and what radicalism black radical
that would mean for Black-Latino politics. Thats when I got hooked
on my research topic.
tradition Black
Benson: You use over thirty oral histories to trace moments of women Brazil
collaboration and distance between African Americans and capitalism Caribbean
Puerto Ricans. What were some of the challenges and benets of
civil rights Civil Rights
doing oral histories for this book?
Movement Cuba Donald
Lee: Doing oral histories was the most life-giving experience I had as
Trump Garveyism
a graduate student. I loved meeting political activists, listening to their
memories, and learning from their still vibrant political visions. I was Gender Haiti imperialism
deeply touched by their generositysome of them met with me Malcolm X mass incarceration
several times, read my manuscript, and gave me feedback. Many of
music New York Pan-
them expressed a personal investment in seeing my work published.
Africanism police
Not surprisingly, it was hard to create a distance between myself and
brutality police
my interviewees when I had to incorporate their memories into the
overall historical analysis. Since the mainstream medias narrative violence Politics Racial
focused on accounts of Black-Latino conict at the time, many of my
Violence racism
interviewees constructed their stories as a counter-narrative,
reconstruction religion
exaggerating the history of political unity between the two groups. As
amazing as these political activists were, I also learned that many of slavery slave trade
them were not above the temptation of self-elevation based on
teaching violence W.E.B. Du
narrow denitions of radicalism and working-class politics. It took
Bois
me several years to sift through their memories, to contextualize
them within the broader history of New York City and the U.S., and to
analyze their historical signicance in a fair and accurate manner. Trending Now
Benson: Chapter Five was my favorite chapter! In it you chart the
ways that Puerto Rican and African American nationalisms How
overlapped (briey) in the 1966 movement advocating for for Gentrication
and
community control over NY schools. What allowed for these
Displacement
collaborations and why did they dissolve?
Are
Remaking
Lee: Puerto Ricans had historically equivocated on their racial status,
Boston
but deindustrialization, urban renewal, and the culture of poverty
By Zebulon
discourse led them to publicly acknowledge their commonalities with Miletsky and
African Americans in the post-World War II era. Deindustrialization Tomas
stripped black and Puerto Rican workers ability to access good-paying Gonzalez

jobs. Urban renewal led black and Puerto Rican migrants to live in
The
increasingly segregated public housing projects. These processes
Connections
remained outside of the control of poor blacks and Puerto Ricans, but
Between
their poverty was blamed on their cultural pathologies. It no longer Urban
mattered that some Puerto Ricans were lighter-skinned and others Development
were darker; their entire culture was marked alongside black culture and
as deprived. As black and Puerto Rican New Yorkers fought against Colonialism
the racializing impact of the culture of poverty discourse, they By Paige
Glotzer | 1
developed a common antiracist sensibility.
Comment
 Black and Puerto Rican members of Local 10, ILGWU, before The Impact
the public hearing at the New York State Commission for of Student
Loans on
Human Rights, May 15, 1962, A. Philip Randolph (front-
Black Wealth
center). (International Ladies Garment Workers Union
By Devin
Records, Kheel Center, Cornell University) Fergus

Race,
The War on Poverty and the black freedom movement provided vital Property, and
organizing spaces for blacks and Puerto Ricans who became invested Economic
in each others liberation. The War on Poverty created a exible History: An
ideological space in which Puerto Ricans could redene their racial Introduction

identity as an ethnic minority and political identity as a By Walter

Greason | 1
predominantly working-class community. The Black Power
Comment
movement inspired Puerto Rican activists to follow a similar model of
political and cultural self-determination. As black and Puerto Rican A Discourse
nationalists supported each others liberation movements, they built a on Race and
universal vision of cultural pluralism. Inequality in
the United
Black-Puerto Rican coalitions dissolved in the 1970s as a result of States
external political repression and internal class divisions. White ethnic By Kasturi
leaders attacked black and Puerto Rican nationalists as reverse "Rumu"
DasGupta
segregationists. Black and Puerto Rican activists lost their own
internal sense of cohesion, as class fractures within their own
communities led them to lose their morale and mutual trust.
Comments

Manny Diaz giving a tour to Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy Each authors posts reect
on the Lower East Side, c. 1963 (Courtesy of Andrea Diaz) their own views and not
necessarily those of the
African American
Benson: With the election of Donald Trump, it seems more Intellectual History Society
important than ever for black and brown communities to work Inc. AAIHS welcomes
together to resist institutional racism and white supremacy. comments on and vigorous

What lessons does your research oer for contemporary Latin@ discussion about our posts.
We recognize that there will
and African American partnerships?
be disagreement but ask
Lee: Now, more than ever, we must make a choice to build unity that you be civil about such
across dierence. To create a people of color agenda that does not disagreements. Personal
insults and mean spirited
recognize the particular challenges that each community faces is
comments will not be
oensive. To ignore the common challenges that blacks and Latinos
(and so many other marginalized groups) face in this post-Trump tolerated and AAIHS
world, however, is senseless. So when we talk about the challenges reserves the right to delete

that we face today, we can frame undocumented immigrants fear of such comments from the
blog.
deportation as a Latino issue; Muslim womens fear of wearing a
hijab as a Muslim issue; the struggle against the Dakota pipeline as a
Native issue; or we can simply view all of these as an attack against
CONTRIBUTORS
humanity.

As Democrats are struggling to nd their own footing against an

America that is explicitly racist, it may be tempting to try to build a DONATE
working-class politics that erases racial/ethnic dierences. We may
feel nostalgic about FDRs era, and mistakenly remember the 1930s as
a time when social reforms beneted Americans universally. Most
likely, we are also inuenced by the myth that the Black Power
movement was a violent, hateful movement that unnecessarily
created conicts between blacks and whites. So we see the current
Movement for Black Lives through this lens. But we must remember
that the Black Power movements political legacy was much broader
and more universal: it called for the self-determination of any group
of people whose humanity that been violated. The idea of Black
Power was threatening to those who wanted to preserve white
supremacy, but it was empowering to everyone else. We must
remember this history, as we seek to build not only a new labor
economy, but also a democracy that includes plural identities.

Devyn Spence Benson is an Assistant Professor of Africana and Latin

American Studies at Davidson College and the author of Antiracism in
Cuba: The Unnished Revolution (UNC Press, 2016). Benson received
her Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill in the eld
of Latin American History, where her research focused on racial
politics during the rst three years of the Cuban revolution. Follow
her at Twitter @BensonDevyn.

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Devyn Spence Benson

Devyn Spence Benson is an Assistant Professor of
Africana and Latin American Studies at Davidson
College and the author of Antiracism in Cuba: The
Unnished Revolution (UNC Press, 2016). Benson
received her Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill in
the eld of Latin American History, where her research focused on
racial politics during the rst three years of the Cuban revolution.
Follow her on Twitter @BensonDevyn.

Comments on Puerto Ricans, African Americans, and

the Pursuit of Racial Justice: An Interview with Sonia
Lee

, Patrick S. O'Donnell | ! December 3, 2016 at 8:49 am

Informative and provocative interview, thank you.

Some readers may not be familiar (or only dimly familiar) with the
Puerto Rican quest for independence and self-determination. This
short list could be considered essential reading for an introduction to
the history of that struggle:

Berger, Dan. The Struggle Within: Prisons, Political Prisoners, and

Mass Movements in the United States. Oakland, CA: PM Press, 2014.
[This short book has a succinct history on Puerto Rican
Independence and political prisoners, pp. 28-38.]
Carr, Raymond. Puerto Rico: A Colonial Experiment. New York:
Vintage Books, 1984.
Corretjer, Juan Antonio. Albizu Campos and the Ponce Massacre.
New York: World View Publishers, 1965.
Denis, Nelson A. War Against All Puerto Ricans: Revolution and
Terror in Americas Colony. New York: Nation Books, 2015.
Foner, Philip S. The Spanish-Cuban-American War and the Birth of
American Imperialism, Vols. 1 and 2, 1895-1902. New York: Monthly
Review Press, 1972.
James, Joy, ed. Imprisoned Intellectuals: Americas Political Prisoners
Write on Life, Liberation, and Rebellion. Lanham, MD: Rowman &
Littleeld, 2003. [This collection includes introductions to the lives of
two former Puerto Rican political prisoners, Jos Sols Jordan and
Elizam Escobar, as well as samples of their intellectual work.]
Maldonado-Denis, Manuel. Puerto Rico: A Socio-Historic
Interpretation. New York: Random House, 1972.
Monge, Jos Tras. Puerto Rico: The Trials of the Oldest Colony in the
World. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1997.
Rivera, Oscar Lpez (Luis Nieves Falcn, ed.) Between Torture and
Resistance. Oakland, CA: PM Press, 2013.
Siln, Juan Angel. We, the Puerto Rican People: A Story of
Oppression and Resistance. New York: Monthly Review Press, 1971.
Torres, Andrs and Jos E. Velzquez, eds. The Puerto Rican
Movement: Voices from the Diaspora. Philadelphia, PA: Temple
University Press, 1998.
Zavala, Iris M. and Rafael Rodriguez, eds. The Intellectual Roots of
Independence: An Anthology of Puerto Rican Political Essays. New
York: Monthly Review Press, 1980.

[And let President Obama know your support for the 73-year-old
Puerto Rican political prisoner, Oscar Lpez Rivera. For basic
information, please see:
http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/06/01/why-is-obama-ignoring-
pleas-to-release-political-prisoner-oscar-lopez-rivera/ ]
 , Patrick S. O'Donnell | ! December 3, 2016 at 9:19 am

I belatedly noticed that I did not use the latest iteration of my list
above, so please consider these titles as well:
Falcn, Luis Nieves. Violations of Human Rights in Puerto Rico by the
U.S. San Juan, Puerto Rico: Ediciones Puerto, 2002.
Fernandez, Ronald. Prisoners of Colonialism: The Struggle for Justice
in Puerto Rico. Monroe, ME: Common Courage Press, 1994.
Fernandez, Ronald. The Disenchanted Island: Puerto Rico and the
United States in the Twentieth Century. Westport, CT: Praeger
Publishers, 2nd ed., 1996.
Rivera, Oscar Lpez, A Century of Colonialism: One Hundred Years
of Puerto Rican Resistance, in Joy James, ed. Warfare in the American
Homeland: Policing and Prison in a Penal Democracy. Durham, NC:
Duke University Press, 2007: 160-189.

, Dale Peifer | ! December 4, 2016 at 7:29 am

Well done, Sonia. I remember chapter 5 in your book, and found it

interesting and enlightening. Keep up the good work.

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