One could easily have overlooked James’ contribution to scholarship given the fact that he was a professor at a small African American college in Arkansas, a long way from the fabled halls of ivory or ebony in American education. James may not have known that his work would have the impact it did on the world, but he knew that it was necessary to set the record straight about the ancient history of philosophy. James was the fact that it struck at the jugular of white Western notions of superiority. Stolen Legacy was not dangerous in the sense that it called for revolution against oppression or that it promoted attacks on white racists. James wrote Stolen Legacy in l954 he had no awareness that his little book would become one of the most threatening pieces of literature ever published in the United States of America.
