Gwendolyn Midlo Hall, Harry Haywood, and the Soulbook Essays, 1965–67

In 1964 Gwendolyn Midlo Hall and her husband, Haywood Hall (better known as Harry Haywood), completed a book manuscript, Towards a Revolutionary Program for Negro Freedom. Circulated among progressive circles across the U.S., the manuscript fell into the hands of a small group of African American activists on the west coast, who published four of its chapters in their revolutionary, small magazine known as Soulbook. The chapters created a small sensation, the effects of which are discussed in this paper.