Rawick revolutionized the study of slavery in the 1970s with his work, as he viewed the testimony of former slaves to be as serious as documentary left by slaveholders.
[1] During his teenage years, he witnessed the systematic extermination of Jewish people by the Nazi regime in World War II.
Later in his studies at the university he started to feel betrayed by the institution, as he believed they had thrown away their abolitionist heritage by suppressing a local Black community.
Rawick produced very little academic writing in these positions, as he faced criticism from anti-radicals at the upper levels of academia because of his association with Marxist ideology.
[2] Rawick was involved in leftist politics from his earliest days at Oberlin College, staking out a career as an anti-Stalinist socialist in the United States.
[5] He participated in a number of left organizations including the Communist Party, Correspondence Publishing Committee, Independent Socialist League, and Facing Reality.
His dive into Communist politics could be attributed to World War II, as his Jewish family stopped receiving letters from relatives in countries that were under Nazi control.
[2] He then worked briefly for Vito Marcantonio in Washington, D.C., a congressman that was supported by the Communist Party for his Left inter-racialism political views.
The accusations stem from Rawick declining to dance with an African American woman at a Communist Party meeting in Cleveland.
Rawick was able to use the Independent Socialist League as a platform to learn Marxist theory, journalistic writing, and to improve his public speaking skills.
Volume One of the series consists of Rawick's contribution to the historical literature of American slavery, an important book titled From Sundown to Sunup: The Making of the Black Community.
[6] The work shows Rawick's major contributions to African American history and Marxist social theory.
[6] David Roediger analyzed primary sources from the George P. Rawick Papers found at the University of Missouri to craft his introduction.
Roediger describes the development of Rawick's ideology in radical labor and the Black freedom movement in Detroit and London.
Rawick spoke to them about the civil rights campaign in the United States, and the struggles of workers in Detroit's automobile factories.
Lipsitz writes about Rawick's impact as a scholar and activist in the working class struggle, African American resistance, and stopping the spread of white supremacy.