Draft:Jeffrey B. Perry

Jeffrey B. Perry (1946–2022) was an anti-white supremacist working-class author, editor, activist, and archivist. His work focused on Hubert Harrison, Theodore W. Allen, labor, and the centrality of the struggle against white supremacy to progressive social change.

Early life
Perry was born in The Bronx, New York on October 10th, 1946. In January 1955, at the age of eight, Perry and his family moved to Paramus, N.J.

At Paramus H.S, he did well as a student and received county-wide honors in basketball, baseball, and soccer. His 1964 baseball team won the County and State Championships. His 1963 basketball team won a County Championship.

Work on Hubert Harrison
Perry authored a two-volume biography of Harrison for Columbia University Press Hubert Harrison: The Voice of Harlem Radicalism, 1883-1918 (2009) and Hubert Harrison: The Struggle for Equality, 1918-1927 (2021). He also edited and introduced: A Hubert Harrison Reader (Wesleyan University Press, 2001); and Harrison’s When Africa Awakes: The ‘Inside Story’ of the Stirrings and Strivings of the New Negro in the Western World (Diasporic Africa Press, 2015).

Perry’s rediscovery of Harrison has been praised by many notable scholars, including Cornel West and David Roediger. His writings on Harrison have been peer-reviewed        and are included in graduate-level African-American studies programs.

Work with Theodore W. Allen
Perry began working with Theodore W. Allen in the early 1970s when he assisted Allen with the printing and distribution of early pamphlets which later formed the backbone of his two-volume work Class Struggle and the Origin of racial slavery: The Invention of the White Race. Allen then named Perry as his literary executor describing him as, “the individual most intimately acquainted with the development of the book's arguments.”

Perry then edited and wrote introductions along with new notes for the 2012 edition of Allen’s ''The Invention of the White Race Vol. 1: Racial Oppression and Social Control and Vol. 2: The Origin of Racial Oppression in Anglo-America (Verso Books, 2012) and the 2021 Composite Edition of The Invention of the White Race'' (Verso Books, November 2021). Perry also placed the Theodore W. Allen Papers and parts of his own Papers at the Archives of the University of Massachusetts-Amherst.

Personal
In 1988 Perry married Becky Hom, who had been active in the Asian American Movement and they have one child, a daughter, Perri Hom.

Selected writings
Jeffrey B. Perry, Hubert Harrison: The Voice of Harlem Radicalism, 1883-1918 (Columbia University Press, 2008), 624 pp., Nominated for the Isaac and Tamara Deutscher Memorial Prize.

Jeffrey B. Perry, Hubert Harrison: The Struggle for Equality, 1918-1927 (Columbia University Press, December 2021), 1000 pp., Nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.

Jeffrey B. Perry, The Developing Conjuncture and Some Insights From Hubert Harrison and Theodore W. Allen on the Centrality of the Fight Against White Supremacy Cultural Logic (2010). (PDF Format) The "Addendum" discusses "Daedalus".

Jeffrey B. Perry, "On the Centrality of the Struggle Against White Supremacy" DSAUSA, September 20, 2017.

Jeffrey B. Perry and Charles Richardson, "The Radicalization of Ray Richardson: Suspicion Still Surrounds Death of Black Activist TV Producer" Black Agenda Report, October 8, 2013

Jeffrey B. Perry, "Two-Tier U.S. Immigration: The Lautenberg Amendment" Black Agenda Report, June 11, 2013,

Jeffrey B. Perry, “On the Loss of LMRDA Rights in the National Writers Union” Your Union News, November 15, 2003

Jeffrey B. Perry, "No Basis for Claims John Punch Was 'Indentured' and Two Servants Were 'White'” History News Network, August 6, 2012

Jeffrey B. Perry, “Hubert Harrison (1883-1927)" Socialism and Democracy Volume 17, 2003

Jeffrey B. Perry, “In Memoriam: Theodore W. Allen" ZNET, February 2, 2005

Jeffrey B. Perry, “Theodore W. Allen on the Invention of the White Race, White Privilege and the Working Class” Facts for Working People, April 19, 2015 Jeffrey B. Perry, “Theodore Allen on Race and Privilege” Socialist Worker.Org, April 28, 2015

Jeffrey B. Perry, [https://www.jeffreybperry.net/blog/archives/2018-07 “40th Anniversary of the Postal Wildcat Strike of 1978. Let Us Not Forget!”]

Jeffrey B. Perry, “Race Consciousness and the Struggle for Socialism,” Socialism and Democracy, Vol. 17, No. 2 (June 2003)

Jeffrey B. Perry, "Hubert Henry Harrison: The Father of Harlem Radicalism: The Early Years—1883--Through the Founding of The Liberty League and 'The Voice" in 1917" Columbia University Ph. D Dissertation (1986), 834 pp., reprinted by UPI Dissertation Services 1999.

Selected editorial work
A Hubert Harrison Reader Wesleyan University Press, 2001

Hubert H. Harrison, When Africa Awakes: The "Inside Story" of the Stirrings and Strivings of the New Negro in the Western World Diasporic Africa Press, 2015 (Complete edition of Harrison's original 1920 volume)

Theodore W. Allen, Class Struggle and the Origin of Racial Slavery: The Invention of the White Race Center for the Study of Working Class Life, State University of New York, Stony Brook, 1975, 2006

Theodore W. Allen, The Invention of the White Race, Vol. 1 "Racial Oppression and Social Control" Verso, 2012

Theodore W. Allen, The Invention of the White Race, Vol. 2 "The Origin of Racial Oppression in Anglo-America," Verso, 2012

Selected archival work
Hubert H. Harrison Papers at the Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Columbia University.

Theodore William Allen Papers at the Special Collections and University Archives at the University of Massachusetts Amherst

Selected writings about Jeffrey B. Perry
Merrell Noden [https://paw.princeton.edu/article/do-it-yourself-scholars “Do It Yourself Scholars, No Backing from the Ivory Tower. Plenty of Grit.”] Princeton Alumni Weekly, April 22, 2009

Ed Mills "Perry Starred on, off Athletic Field: Paramus Standout Now a Historian" The Record, May 26, 2015

Scott McLemee "Rediscovering Hubert Harrison" Inside Higher Ed, December 10. 2008

Carlett Spike "Jeff Perry ’68’s Scholarship Is Elevating ‘the Father of Harlem Radicalism’" Princeton Alumni Weekly, April 27, 2022

Robert Greene II [https://www.thenation.com/article/society/hubert-harrison-jeffrey-perry/ The Stalwart Hubert Harrison’s radical life and times] The Nation, June 1, 2022 "Jeffrey B. Perry, A Spartan Who Took a Different Path" The Paramus Post, February 13, 2022 Sean Ahern Review of The “Invention of the White Race" Substance News August 28, 2013

Sean Ahern "Hubert Harrison, Tribune of the People: Part Three, The Struggle for Equality" Black Agenda Report, June 22, 2022

Video presentations
Jeffrey B. Perry on Hubert Harrison: The Voice of Harlem Radicalism, 1883-1918

Jeffrey B. Perry, on Theodore W. Allen's The Invention of the White Race. Jeffrey B. Perry on Theodore W. Allen, ‘The Invention of the White Race,’ Labor History, and the Centrality of Labor Struggle Against White Supremacy Jeffrey B. Perry, Discusses “The Invention of the White Race," New Expanded Edition of Theodore William Allen's The Invention of the White Race in Interview with Gary Glennell Toms