The Black Utopians - by Aaron Robertson

About the Book

"A memoiristic history of Black utopian movements in the United States"--

Book Synopsis

One of The New York Times's 100 Notable Books of 2024
One of the Washington Post's 50 Best Nonfiction Books of 2024
A Finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for History

A New York Public Library Top Ten Book of 2024 A Boston Globe Best Book of 2024
A New Republic Best Book of the Fall A Time Must-Read Book of the Year
A 2025 Michigan Notable Book A Booklist Best History Book of 2025
Named a Best Book of the Year by The New Yorker Literary Hub Essence Elle Chicago Public Library

"[An] extraordinary new work of history and memoir . . . Unforgettable." --Gabriel Bump, The Washington Post

A lyrical meditation on how Black Americans have envisioned utopia--and sought to transform their lives.

How do the disillusioned, the forgotten, and the persecuted not merely hold on to life but expand its possibilities and preserve its beauty? What, in other words, does utopia look like in black?

These questions animate Aaron Robertson's exploration of Black Americans' efforts to remake the conditions of their lives. Writing in the tradition of Saidiya Hartman and Ta-Nehisi Coates, Robertson makes his way from his ancestral hometown of Promise Land, Tennessee, to Detroit--the city where he was born, and where one of the country's most remarkable Black utopian experiments got its start. Founded by the brilliant preacher Albert Cleage Jr., the Shrine of the Black Madonna combined Afrocentric Christian practice with radical social projects to transform the self-conception of its members. Central to this endeavor was the Shrine's chancel mural of a Black Virgin and child, the icon of a nationwide liberation movement that would come to be known as Black Christian Nationalism. The Shrine's members opened bookstores and co-ops, created a self-defense force, and raised their children communally, eventually working to establish the country's largest Black-owned farm, where attempts to create an earthly paradise for Black people continues today.

Alongside the Shrine's story, Robertson reflects on a diverse array of Black utopian visions, from the Reconstruction era through the countercultural fervor of the 1960s and 1970s and into the present day. By doing so, Robertson showcases the enduring quest of collectives and individuals for a world beyond the constraints of systemic racism.

The Black Utopians offers a nuanced portrait of the struggle for spaces--both ideological and physical--where Black dignity, protection, and nourishment are paramount. This book is the story of a movement and of a world still in the making--one that points the way toward radical alternatives for the future.

Review Quotes

"[An] extraordinary new work of history and memoir . . . An unforgettable history of seemingly impossible yet worthwhile dreams." --Gabriel Bump, The Washington Post

"[Robertson] dodges the pitfalls of nostalgia and sentimentality; his anecdotes crackle with immediacy . . . Layered and probing, studded with germane autobiography, The Black Utopians is an extraordinary achievement in narrative nonfiction." --Hamilton Cain, Minneapolis Star-Tribune

"[A] captivating exploration of Black utopian movements in the United States. Robertson weaves together memoir, history, and social analysis, tracing the efforts of African Americans to create self-sufficient communities and escape systemic oppression." --The New Republic

"A lush history couched in a stirring memoir . . . [Robertson is] so elegant in braiding personal history and research that both distant events and bright futures feel tangible and alive." --Literary Hub

"A genre-bending debut . . . The personal and the collective are seamlessly blended in this sweeping yet intricate book that excavates the past and imagines a different future." --Oprah Daily

"The Black Utopians provides a refreshing and in depth reinterpretation of the Civil Rights and Black Power periods . . . Robertson engages with serious and important themes without being didactic or heavy-hearted. On the contrary, the knowledge shared within the pages of this book is quite freeing and liberating." --Essence

"Interesting and idiosyncratic . . . A meaningful contribution to the wider literature on American utopianism . . . Original and compelling." --John Jeremiah Sullivan, The New York Times Book Review

"A compelling volume that emphasizes not only the dream of utopia but the necessary pursuit of it." --Elle

"Using his ancestors as his guide, Robertson lays out a path toward survival and prosperity for all Black Americans." --TIME

"[A] magnificent work . . . Robertson has created a document that historians and scholars will reference for years to come." --Fare Forward

"[The Black Utopians] refuses any kind of essentialization . . . A stunning work of literature." --Mitchell Atencio, Sojourners

"Ambitious and captivating . . . Robertson paints a vivid and beguiling picture of the indomitable human yearning for a safe and nurturing home. It's a must-read." --Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"Fascinating and resonant." --Booklist (starred review)

"Inventive . . . A fresh perspective on Black history." --Kirkus Reviews

"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." --Library Journal

"At a time when signs of dystopia and despair abound, The Black Utopians takes us on a journey to a place--as much inside as around us--where stubborn hopefulness pushes back against the sirens of impossibility. In these pages, utopia is not fanciful and fleeting escapism, but the sweat-soaked soil of freedom dreams and fugitive imagination--nowhere and everywhere at once." --Ruha Benjamin, author of Viral Justice: How We Grow the World We Want and Imagination: A Manifesto

"An entrancingly rich odyssey of observation and storytelling, The Black Utopians returns us to forgotten and unknown histories of the ongoing search for a fairer, more equitable America. Aaron Robertson reminds us that integral to Black struggle has been an unbreakable sense of hope, resistance, and joy." --John Keene, National Book Award-winning author of Punks: New & Selected Poems and Counternarratives

"A richly braided and beautifully written account that combines history, personal memoir, and journalism to explore the search for a black utopia. Robertson's tone is elegiac and lyrical, his method grounded in colorfully detailed characters and painstakingly reconstructed examples. This wise and often moving book offers both a slice of a particular utopia as well as a more general portal onto the quest for a better world that has propelled so much human history. A deeply original and major contribution to the literature of utopia." --Akash Kapur, author of Better to Have Gone: Love, Death and the Quest for Utopia

"In this stunning narrative, Aaron Robertson beautifully unveils the hidden spirit of Black utopian yearnings. By telling the forgotten story of the important Detroit pastor, Albert B. Cleage, Jr. and the Shrine of the Black Madonna, which he led, and the 1960s Black freedom struggles, with which he was affiliated--The Black Utopians deftly shifts from intellectual history to cultural critique to personal memoir. In doing this, Robertson answers a profound question: what does it mean to be free? The Black Utopians is thus more than just a gripping story; it is an indispensable resource for all those who dream of horizons, and who imagine unimaginable worlds." --Alex Zamalin, author of Black Utopia: The History of an Idea from Black Nationalism to Afrofuturism

"In The Black Utopians, Aaron Robertson invites readers into a lyrical, rigorous, and deeply personal chronicle of the 'better worlds' that Black Americans have, against all odds, dreamed into being. Robertson's exploration is not merely a historical recounting of collective innovation, but an urgent philosophical quest for what is sacred about the Black utopian imagination in the face of brutal constraints. Robertson's voice is exquisitely clear-eyed, searching, and expansive, offering a perspective as wise as it is intimate. From the postbellum settlement of Promise Land, Tennessee, to the radical social movements of Detroit, The Black Utopians unearths again and again crucial legacies of Black resistance." --Adrian Shirk, author of Heaven is a Place on Earth: Searching for an American Utopia

About the Author

Aaron Robertson is a writer, an editor, and a translator of Italian literature. His translation of Igiaba Scego's Beyond Babylon was short-listed for the 2020 PEN Translation Prize and the National Translation Award, and in 2021 he received a National Endowment for the Arts grant. His work has appeared in The New York Times, The Nation, Foreign Policy, n+1, The Point, and Literary Hub, among other publications. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.