Introduction: A galaxy of stars to steer by

Abstract

Revolutionary lives of the Red and Black Atlantic brings to light the life histories of a wide range of radical figures whose political activity in relation to the black liberation struggle was profoundly shaped by the global impact and legacy of the Russian Revolution of October 1917. The volume introduces new perspectives on the intellectual trajectories of well-known figures and critical activists including C. L. R. James, Paul Robeson, Walter Rodney and Grace P. Campbell. This biographical approach brings a vivid and distinctive lens to bear on how racialised social and political worlds were negotiated and experienced by these revolutionary figures, and on historic black radical engagements with left political movements, in the wake of the Russian Revolution.