Hm.
"The workers will only be freed by their own efforts" (Anarcho-syndicalism motto)
But I do agree about the dumbass liberals. (And we're two on the left, Allan )
Oh well, anyway, I spent most of my time on the board on Wednesday reading this thread. Pretty nice thread, to start off with. So to get back to Amiri Baraka, I came across his writing first in the sleeve notes for Willis Jackson's 'Thunderbird'. Much nostalgia from Leroi there about the time of the honkers. And I always had the feeling that these were the first revolutionaries - who totally disregrded the 'white' rules of taste and playing 'properly' - who were his heroes. And not just musical heroes. Soon after I read the 'Thunderbird' notes, I came across a short story of his in an anthology of new American writing. The story was called 'The screamers'. The anthology was all, as far as I know, fiction and I thought 'The screamers' was fiction, too, because it was about a honking Chicago tenor player I'd never heard of - Lynn Hope. But when I found out Hope was a real person - and a Muslim back in the day - I had second thoughts, though I still don't know if the story - of Hope coming to Newark to play and walking the band right out of the dancehall ionto the streets and inciting a riot in the city was an account of a real event or something Amiri would have liked to have happened.
MG
You answered your own question. As you say, "The Screamers" is fiction. If that event had happened, Baraka would no doubt have included it in Blues People or in another of his books about music.