Otto and Hermina Huiswoud: Modern Black Diasporic Radicals

In the history of Black internationalism, few trajectories involve as many sites of political organizing as those of Hermina and Otto Huiswoud. Hermina participated in organizations spanning from the Harlem Tenants League in New York to the Lenin Institute in Moscow. While Otto remains principally remembered as the only Black person present at the founding meeting of the Communist Party USA, he also spearheaded recruitment campaigns in the Caribbean, and made his mark as chair of the Vereniging Ons Suriname (“Our Suriname Association”) in Amsterdam after WWII. The symposium brings together an international set of scholars discussing questions to do with the Huiswouds’ relationship to Pan-Africanism, their work for radical publications such as The Negro Worker and organizations such as International Trade Union Committee of Negro Workers, their legacy in the contemporary Dutch Caribbean, and their archive at The Black Archives in Amsterdam.

Confirmed participants include: Leslie James, Mano Delea, Guno Jones, Holger Weiss, Margaret Stevens, Mitchell Esajas, Jessica de Abreu, Minkah Makalani, and Pepijn Brandon.

Provisional Schedule:

Friday, 8 September 2023

Location: International Institute of Social History

9.30–10.00am Introductions

10.00-11.30 Leslie James

11.30-13.00 Mano Delea

13.00–14.00 Lunch

14.00-15.30 Guno Jones

15.30–17.00 Holger Weiss

Saturday, 9 September 2023,

Location: The Black Archives

10.00-11.30 Margaret Stevens

11.30-13.00 Tour of Black Archives

13.00–14.00 Lunch

14.00–15.30 Mitchell Esajas and Jessica de Abreu

15.30-17.00 Roundtable

Image reference: Otto en Hermina Huiswoud, photo courtesy of The Black Archives.

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