Harold Cruse(March 8, 1916-March 30, 2005) was an outspoken social critic and teacher of African-American studies at the University of Michigan until the mid-1980s. His most regognized work is the collection of essays, "The Crisis of the Negro Intellectual", which was published in the mid-1960s. One of the resounding themes in Crisis was, as Christopher Lasch put it, that intellectuals must play a central role in movements for radical change."

Early Life

Harold Wright Cruse was born on March 8 1916 in Petersburg [[Virginia]. As a young child he moved to New York City with his father who was a railway porter . After graduating from highschool Cruse worked in a variety of jobs but strove to become a writer. He server with the United States Army in the European Theater during World War II.

Post-War

After returning home Cruse attended the City College of New York, however he never graduated. In 1947 he joined the Communist party breifly. In the mid-1960's Cruse, along with LeRoi Jones (now Amiri Baraka), founded the Black Arts Theater in Harlem. Cruse's viewed the arts scene as a white dominated misrepresentation of black culture ; the epitome of this was George Gershwin's folk opera "Porgy and Bess." He was against integration, stating "Integrate with whom?"; instead proposed that blacks must form their own separate political, economic and cultural base.

List of Works

• "Rebellion or Revolution?"
• "The Crisis of the Negro Intelectual"
• "Plural but Equal: A Critical Study of Blacks and Minorities and America's Plural Society"
• "The Essential Harold Cruse: A Reader" edited by William Jelani Cobb with a foreword by Stanley Crouch.

References

New York Times Obituary of Harold Cruse