“They robbed me of my sight, but not my vision.” With these words in 1961 Henry Winston challenged the blindness caused by deliberate neglect of his health while imprisoned as a Communist leader under the Smith Act frameup.
Born in Mississippi in 1911, grandson of a slave, he is now National Chairman of the Communist Party, U.S.A. Since first joining the Young Communist League at the age of 19, his life has been one of activism and of leadership in struggles that range from the unemployed movements and the Scottsboro trial of the 1930's, the labor Organizing campaigns of pre-World War II, his own military service in that war, through the colonial and Black liberation drives of the succeeding decades. In these latter, his views and counsel frequently played an important part in shaping the policies and plans of governments, parties and leaders in Europe and in Africa. In the United States, he recently gave special attention to organizing the movement which led to the acquittal of Angela Davis.
Henry Winston has written numerous articles and pamphlets published and circulated internationally. Strategy for a Black Agenda is his first full-length book.