America’s First Black Socialist: The Radical Life of Peter H. Clark by Nikki M. Taylor (review)

Unless you lived in the city of Cincinnati or the state of Ohio, you probably would not know the name Peter H. Clark. Despite his significance in the nineteenth century, he is little remembered by current historians or politicians. This is a key reason why Nikki Taylor set out to write his biography. As Taylor has noted, in the years prior to and following the Civil War, Clark was among the best-known and well-respected public figures in the Ohio African American community. But by the last two decades of that century, he had become a peripheral and, in some quarters, despised individual. The story of his rise and fall is the central theme of this book.

Clark did not leave an abundance of papers and records with which to reconstruct his life. Other than documents retained by Clark’s family and his writings or speeches published in newspapers, there is but scant additional information upon which to draw. This is probably another reason why Clark’s life history has not been previously explored in depth. Despite these challenges, Taylor does an excellent job of reconstructing and analyzing Clark’s life.

Clark’s story parallels that of a tragic Greek hero. He first comes to prominence as a consequence of his involvement in the black convention movement in Ohio. His participation in that movement, Taylor suggests, marks his initial embrace of radical black nationalism. Clark is also a stalwart supporter of black education and political rights. In many ways Clark’s intellectual flexibility was both his strength and his Achilles’ heel. As long as his words and actions reflected the hopes and values of the African American community, he remained an influential figure in Ohio politics. But his switch from the Republican Party to the Democratic Party in the 1880s eroded this base of support and his influence. Why he decided to do this is open to debate, but undoubtedly it led to his going from being a revered figure among African Americans to a reviled one in most quarters. It also marks his steady decline into oblivion as he was relieved of his position in the Cincinnati school system and forced to scramble for his livelihood.

Taylor’s intent is to put Clark’s thought process into perspective. He is a complicated personality who is willing to embrace different ideas if he believes they might help him achieve his goals. As Taylor points out, Clark was one of the first black socialists as well as a black nationalist. She believes that despite his decisions later in life, “he is one of the foremost public intellectuals in nineteenth-century African American history” (2). It is not an easy case to make, but Taylor does it successfully. She accomplishes this through a thorough examination of his writings and what has been written about him by his contemporaries and others. What results is a carefully balanced assessment of Clark. While Taylor thinks highly of Clark, she also recognizes that personal ambition and conceit served him poorly later in life and in many ways undermined what was a brilliant career for many years.

America’s First Black Socialist is a fascinating character study of the rise and fall of an important but forgotten historical figure. There is much to be learned from the choices Clark made, as well as the issues that African Americans in positions of leadership faced. Taylor reminds us that even admirable, charismatic individuals can make poor decisions that can cause all their previous accomplishments to be overlooked and forgotten.