Fear of a Black Nation

Race, Sex and Security in Sixties Montreal

David Austin

In the 1960s Montreal was a center of Black Power and the Caribbean left. There, the ideas of C.L.R. James, Aimé Césaire, Frantz Fanon, Édouard Glissant, and Malcolm X found expression alongside Pierre Vallières, Gaston Miron, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Simone de Beauvoir. The 1968 Congress of Black Writers gave expression to Black politics during this moment as prominent Black figures from Canada, the US, Africa, and the Caribbean—C.L.R. James, Stokely Carmichael, Miriam Makeba, Rocky Jones, and Walter Rodney—converged in Montreal. Within months of the Congress, a Black-led protest at Sir George Williams University (now Concordia) raised state security fears that Montreal was becoming the centre of international Black radical politics.

The public political presence of Blacks in Montreal dramatically influenced events in Quebec, English Canada, and the Caribbean. By examining the interrelated dynamics of gender, class, sex, and security during this period, David Austin provides insight into the legacy of this little-known history and suggests that the persistence of race continues to haunt us in ways that inhibit possibilities of genuine human solidarity and freedom.

Contents

Introduction
Still Searching for the Black Atlantic
Chapter 1
Narratives of Power
Chapter 2
Nègres Blancs, Nègres Noirs
Chapter 3
Kindred Souls
Chapter 4
Être et Noir/Being and Blackness
Chapter 5
Days to Remember…
Chapter 6
The Afterlife
Chapter 7
Fear of a Black Planet

About the Author

David Austin is Canada’s preeminent scholar on Black Power and the Black Canadian and Caribbean left. He is the editor of two volumes on C.L.R. James, including You Don’t Play with Revolution: The Montreal Lectures of C.L.R. James (AK Press, 2009), and the author of two radio documentaries for CBC Radio. His work has appeared in numerous journals and collections.