Set the world on fire
How black women shaped black nationalist and internationalist movements in the twentieth century United States.
Uniformed attendees to a Marcus Garvey rally carry flags of the movement as they parade up Seventh Avenue in Harlem for a 1924 convention. Photo by George Rinhart Corbis via Getty Images.
In the newly released Set the World on Fire: Black Nationalist Women and the Global Struggle for Freedom, Keisha N. Blain recovers the participation of black women throughout the Diaspora in the global struggle for black liberation. These women, in the United States, Britain, Jamaica, and throughout the Diaspora, fostered relationships with other activists across the globe, utilizing these transcontinental partnerships to fight for the liberation of black people worldwide. Blain incorporates a range of unique sources, including newspapers, government records, songs, and poetry, to bring the lives and political careers of women like Mittie Maude Lena Gordon, Amy Jacques Garvey, Jane Allen, Maymie de Mena, Ethel Collins, Amy Ashwood and Ethel Waddell to the forefront of histories of the global black liberation movement.
The author, Keisha N. Blain, is an award-winning historian who writes on race, politics, and gender. Blain obtained a PhD in History from Princeton University and currently teaches history at the University of Pittsburgh. She is one of the co-editors of Charleston Syllabus: Readings on Race, Racism and Racial Violence (University of Georgia Press, 2016). She is currently the president of the African American Intellectual History Society (AAIHS) and senior editor of its blog, Black Perspectives.
