[1] He grew up in rural Minnesota, the son of a postal service worker in the only black family in the town.
He hoboed across the western United States and joined the U.S. Army in World War II.
[citation needed] In his sequel Black Radical: The Education of an American Revolutionary, Peery wrote about his re-entry into civilian life following the war.
The book offers a perspective on the historically significant period from 1946–68, including the postwar, grassroots movement for equality and democracy led by black veterans, the battles of the black Left and revolutionaries during the McCarthy era and their role in the Freedom Movement, and the 1965 Watts Riots in Los Angeles, where Peery and his family were living at the time.
Peery compares these political goals to those of the United States in World War II.