The Black utopians Searching for paradise and the Promised Land in America

Translator Robertson (Beyond Babylon) debuts with an ambitious and captivating group portrait of African American visionaries who sought to escape the "persistence of abysmal realities for black people" by setting up self-sustaining communities. Opening the narrative with a visit to his ancestral home in Promise Land, Tenn.--"one of the oldest-known settlements founded by formerly enslaved people"--Robertson then delves into the history of the migration of freedmen and their descendants (including Robertson's grandparents) from Tennessee to Detroit, and the founding of Detroit's Shrine of the Black Madonna church, a "countercultural mecca" that gained momentum in the 1960s when Black Detroiters displaced by gentrification were pushed into the surrounding neighborhood. Headed in the 1960s by "firebrand" pastor and Black Nationalist leader Albert Cleage Jr. (later known as Jaramogi Abebe), the church became a hub for utopian experimentation, such as Mtoto House, a "communal child-rearing" experiment based on socialist kindergartens in the Soviet Union and kibbutzim in Israel. Speaking to and researching former Mtoto House residents and other participants in Black utopian projects, as well as reflecting on his family's "sacred" relationship with Promise Land, Robertson paints a vivid and beguiling picture of the indomitable human yearning for a safe and nurturing home. It's a must-read. (Oct.)

NEA grantee Robertson's book shows that formerly enslaved people established 200 to 1,200 settlements in the U.S. and Canada between the late 18th and early 20th centuries, and their frameworks for self-ruled and safe spaces for Black people bear emotional and tangible links to the Black nationalism of the 1960s and '70s and the 21st-century Black Lives Matter movement. Unfolding a broad, nuanced narrative of personal reflection and familial connection, Robertson explores individual and collective ideas and efforts among Black people striving to realize the security of independence. The narrative moves between the author's hometown of Detroit and his ancestral home in Promise Land, a middle Tennessee village founded by Black people during the Reconstruction era. He focuses on Detroit minister Albert Cleage Jr. (1911--2000), his Shrine of the Black Madonna church, the Black Christian Nationalism it symbolized, and Beulah Land, the 4,000 church-owned acres in South Carolina that were envisioned as a haven to physically and psychologically liberate Black people. VERDICT This enticing mix of personal and general history of Black utopian safe spaces promises to engage readers interested in reckoning with the past and present of Black American experiences and milestones.--Thomas J. Davis