Aaron Alpeoria Bradley and the First Black Power Movement

American historians have long traced the genesis of the Black Power Movement to 1968. In reality, however, the Movement began a century before – in 1865 – during the turbulent period of early Reconstruction in the Deep South when freedmen fought for their rights as a class of laborers. Using the radical Georgia politician Aaron Bradley as a lens to the era, I contend that many former slaves clamored for autonomy. At times they openly promoted socialism, to be paired with a new black nationalism. For a few tumultuous years, possibilities for a more just, equitable future for African Americans abounded – before they were cut short by the prevalence of vigilante violence, an overzealous and racist criminal justice system, and the withdrawal of federal troops.

 

Bradley was born enslaved on a large plantation in South Carolina, but escaped to Boston in the 1830s, eventually becoming one of the nation’s first black lawyers. After the Civil War he moved to Georgia’s lowcountry, quickly becoming an important leader. Mere months after slaves learned of their emancipation, Bradley demanded reparations in both cash and land. He urged freedmen to appropriate the crops they had produced, and told them to refuse signing labor contracts with whites. Bradley shrewdly backed his proposals with sound legal reasoning. Over the next few years Bradley’s invective against the ruling elite became even more incendiary as he fought for the rights of all workers. Bradley’s legacy – focused on reparations for slavery, working-class labor solidarity, and an end to the unfree labor criminal justice system – still requires resurrection. Bradley’s story is far too salient to the present day to become lost to the annals of time.