The extreme importance of this book is that in one longish volume Haywood has given us an indispensable history, as reference and sum-up of practical struggles, of not only his particular thirty-six years in the Communist Party USA, including his road into and out of it, but equally has given us a good portion of political history. The chronicle of Haywood’s life, from his birth in South Omaha to his continuous traveling throughout this country and internationally, searching, struggling, organizing, the interwoven lives of his family, comrades, and the endless stream of personalities he encounters. The sweep of history and event contained in this book will fascinate any serious reader.

Black Bolshevik is the powerful story of one black man’s search for answers, from growing up in Omaha, to Minnesota, to Chicago, to Harlem, to France and World War I, to Africa, to Moscow, and back to Harlem USA, struggling every step of the way. This is not merely a search for answers for ‘self,’ but answers for all oppressed people whom Franz Fanon has called ‘the wretched of the earth.’

This is the first extensive autobiography of a black member of the American Communist Party This book needs to be read for the lessons it teaches for today.

Harry Haywood’s autobiography is indispensable for students of the history of the Communist Party and of Afro-American radicalism.

Harry Haywood is one of the modern pioneers in the Black liberation struggle. Harry Haywood’s name ranks in the early movement of the black struggle along with the names of Dr. W.E.B. DuBois and Paul Robeson.