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Recent protests and campaigns for racial justice and equality have inspired many movements and organisations to re-dedicate themselves to foregrounding black members and influences.
Humanists, who care about the building of a more rational and fairer society, should always be ready to combat not just hate and prejudice but the injustice that arises from long standing inequalities.
Humanists UK co-organised the first global congress against racism in the UK in 1911 and was a campaigner against colonialism, and its social and intellectual forebears have a good record on opposing slavery and injustice.
What we don’t do as often is celebrate the black humanists who have shaped the humanist movement and are part of our modern tradition so here are seven of the best.
Hope some of them may capture your attention and inspire you to learn more!
Hope some of them may capture your attention and inspire you to learn more!
James Baldwin (1924-1987)
‘Words like freedom, justice, and democracy are not common concepts; on the contrary, they are rare... It takes enormous and, above all, individual effort to arrive at the respect for other people that these words imply.' - James Baldwin
Novelist, playwright, essayist, poet, activist. James Baldwin explored identity, race, and class. First novel was Go Tell It on the Mountain in 1953 and first essay collection, Notes on a Native Son in 1955. Read them! And Giovanni's Room (my favourite...)
Zadie Smith (b.1975)
‘I’m a sentimentalist humanist. I believe art is here to help, even if the help is painful.’ - Zadie Smith
Novelist and story writer Zadie Smith. Thought provoking and stylish writing on culture clashes as sources of joy and creativity as well as hatred and frustration. Read novels like White Teeth, On Beauty (my favourite as an EM Forster fan!), and NW.
Richard Wright (1908-1960)
‘If you find enough courage to speak out what you are, you will find that you’re not alone’ - Richard Wright
Novelist Richard Wright, known for his work on racial themes, especially the plight of African Americans during the late 19th to mid-20th centuries. A freethinker of the Harlem Renaissance, his work changed attitudes towards and ideas on race. Read Native Son and The Outsider!
Lorraine Hansberry (1930-1965)
‘Children see things very well sometimes – and idealists even better’ - Lorraine Hansberry
Playwright and writer, Lorraine Hansberry was one of the intellectual giants of the New York literary scene of the 1950s and 1960s. Her most famous play, A Raisin in the Sun, contains an extended reflection on how human achievements are often erroneously credited to religion.
Ta-Nehisi Coates (b.1975)
‘The pursuit of knowing was freedom to me, the right to declare your own curiosities and follow them through all manner of books. I was made for the library, not the classroom. The classroom was a jail of other people’s interests. The library was open, unending, free.’
Just a superb writer and thinker. Ta-Nehisi Coates writes about cultural, social, and political issues, particularly in relation to African Americans and white supremacy. Read Black Panther, Between the World and Me, and The Water Dancer.
Zora Neale Hurston (1891-1960)
‘Why fear? The stuff of my being is matter, ever changing, ever moving, but never lost; so what need of denominations and creeds to deny myself the comfort of all my fellow men? The wide belt of the universe has no need for finger-rings. I am one with the infinite...’
Novelist, activist, folklorist. Rightly celebrated for her contributions to the academic understanding of African American folklore and for her accurate depictions of language and oral tradition in her work. Immense contribution to US culture.
Wole Soyinka (b.1934)
‘The greatest threat to freedom is the absence of criticism.’
- Wole Soyinka
- Wole Soyinka
I 
Wole. None of us who heard his keynote speech at the Humanists UK hosted World Humanist Congress in 2014 will ever forget his haunting evocation of the horrors faced by schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram and his stirring call for a universal humanism.
Wole. None of us who heard his keynote speech at the Humanists UK hosted World Humanist Congress in 2014 will ever forget his haunting evocation of the horrors faced by schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram and his stirring call for a universal humanism.
A life dedicated to humanist goals like freedom of expression, and a formidable critic of Islamic fundamentalism. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1986, the first African to be honoured in that category.
