Larry Neal, the Black Arts Movement and Reparations

Philadelphia was one of major centers of the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s/70s where Black Aesthetics took root and was nurtured. Many of the visual, literary and performing artists of the movement were natives of, or had some connection to Philly. Actually, Black Aesthetics in Philly began to gain prominence during the 1940s and 50s when the city became a haven for Black jazz and other artists. That foundation made Philly fertile ground for producing a Larry Neal.
Who is Larry Neal, you may ask? Born in 1937 in Atlanta, Neal’s family moved to Philadelphia when he was a child. He graduated from Roman Catholic High School in 1956, and Lincoln University in 1961 with a degree in history and English. After earning a master’s degree in folklore from the University of Pennsylvania in 1963, Neal became one of the primary figures of the Black Arts Movement. The Black Arts Movement was the artistic arm of the Black Power Movement. Artists like Neal, Amiri Baraka (Leroi Jones), Haki Mahdabuti (Don L. Lee), Sonia Sanchez, Nina Simone, Nikki Giovanni, Gil Scott-Heron and the Last Poets among others, were committed to using their artistic talents to liberate the minds of their Black brethren.
The Black Arts Movement is rarely discussed in Philly, and artists like Neal are virtually ignored. Young folks know nothing about him. If not for the artists of the Black Arts Movement the hip hop culture wouldn’t exist. Unlike many of today’s young artists, the Black Arts Movement was not about money. The movement was used as a tool of liberation. James Brown sang, “Say it loud, I’m Black and I’m proud.” The Last Poets said, “Niggers are scared of revolution.” Nina sang, “To be young, gifted and Black, that’s where it’s at!” Even the Parliament Funkadelics sang, “Free your mind and you’re ass will follow.” It was about conveying a positive message of Black love/empowerment/pride/strength/unity. They weren’t just artists – they were activists — unapologetic Black activists specifically.
Neal was a prolific scholar/activist who was a prominent leader of that movement. He was the editor of “The Liberator,” a Black literary magazine. In 1965, he co-founded the Black Arts Repertory Theater & School in Harlem along with Baraka, who is considered the father of the Black Arts Movement, and others. He was known for his writing in “Negro Digest/Black World”. He co-edited “Black Fire,” an anthology of Black writers and authored a book, “Visions of a Liberated Failure.” Neal was a deep, critical thinker — a top heavy brother as the elders would say.
Neal was a sought after scholar. He was a professor at Drexel Institute of Technology (Drexel University) for a short time. He also taught at the City College of New York, Wesleyan University and Yale University. While at Yale he won a Guggenheim Fellowship for African American studies. He also held the Andrew W. Mellon chair in humanities at Howard University.
From 1976-79, he served as executive director of the District of Columbia Commission on the Arts. That’s where I met Neal and learned of his work. While living in D.C. after graduating from Howard, I often attended programs – poetry readings, Black art exhibits, lectures — at the city’s Martin Luther King, Jr. Library, that were sponsored by Neal and the commission. Neal was conscious, focused, funny and engaging. His mission was exposing the grassroots to the culture and expanding their worldview. He was talking reparations strategies back then. His programs were held at the library instead of Howard’s campus where some might feel intimidated. I became part of a small, loyal group he organized that attended his monthly programs, until the new HNIC at the library kicked us out because he felt Larry and the group was too Black and too radical. We were pissed and complained to the city on Larry’s behalf to no avail. He became depressed and finally resigned from the commission.
That’s why I jumped at the chance to accompany members of the Philadelphia chapter of N’COBRA (National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America) to a 2006 retrospective on the work of Larry Neal at the historic Schomburg Center for Research and Culture in Harlem. The event was the culmination of a conference, “Re-evaluating Larry Neal’s Creative and Critical Vision of the Black Aesthetic,” that drew participants from around the nation.
Howard Dobson, director of the Schomburg, which houses the Larry Neal papers, opened the discussion. Dobson talked about Neal’s influence on the Black Power/Black Arts Movement and how it touched “every community in the U.S. and even around the world in Brazil, Jamaica, India and Australia.”
Many of Neal’s friends and peers participated in the roundtable discussion of his life-changing work. Writer/activists Quincy Troupe, Ted Wilson, Mae Henderson, Bob Law and the late James Spady, Philly’s own who wrote a book on Neal, were among those in attendance. They all spoke of how Neal’s goal in life – the liberation of African people the world over – was tied to the Black Consciousness Movement and how he influenced them. Neal was a revolutionary using art as his weapon. He was not just a writer — he was an activist. He believed in using art to liberate his people.
What does reparations have to do with Larry Neal and the Black Arts Movement? Writer/activist Ted Wilson said it best. “Larry was into the liberation of African people and when you talk about the liberation of African people you have to talk about reparations,” Wilson explained. “In the 60s we were into revolutionary nationalism and building the movement. The struggle for the 21st Century is reparations. If Larry were here, he would be very much in the forefront of the reparations movement because he was into institution building. I don’t think people have come to it yet, but this reparations movement is an institution we are building – a tool that we use to move towards liberation – getting back what belongs to us.”
The descendants of slaveholders and the founders of corporations like the Bank of North America, now Wells Fargo Bank, continue to enjoy the benefits of the fruits of our ancestors’ free labor. Many of the major corporations and institutions in the nation made billions from, and have roots in the business of slavery. It’s now time that the descendants of the enslaved be repaired for the damage done to our families over four centuries.
Neal’s peers spoke to how he supported reparations. “Larry Neal is a very important person,” said writer/activist Quincy Troupe. “Not only is he intellectually gifted, he was a committed person. He was always for reparations. It’s not a new thing. It’s old. We were involved in SNCC (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee) and the Black Panthers, and we organized. We’ve been doing this for 30, 40 years. He did it for a long time until he died.”
“Larry Neal helped to see the struggle to a new paradigm,” explained artist/activist/radio personality Bob Law. “Larry was a part of the nationalist consciousness that redefined what liberation is. We saw liberation as integration and racial tolerance. Larry understood that there’s a difference between racial tolerance and racial justice. The reparations movement recognizes that. Reparations goes beyond racial tolerance. It calls for the repairing of the damage done to Black people by institutional racism.”
Constantly working to advance Black Power and the liberation of Black minds and spirit – Neal died from a heart attack in 1981, while conducting a theater workshop in Hamilton, NY. The spirit of Larry Neal lives in the works he left us — an invaluable contribution to the movement and Black culture that should never be overlooked or forgotten.