The 1967 release of Harold Cruse’s book The Crisis of the Negro Intellectual isolated him from almost all other scholars and
activists of the American Civil Rights Movement—though many of those thinkers disagreed with each other, he nonetheless
found ways to disagree with them all. He thought that activists who believed that Black people such as himself should
culturally assimilate were naïve. But he also sharply criticized Black nationalists such as Marcus Garvey who wanted to
establish independent, self-contained Black economies and societies, even though Cruse himself identiﬁed as a Black
nationalist.
It describes a direction that Cruse felt the Civil Rights Movement ought to take.
It indicates that Cruse’s reputation as a persistent antagonist of other scholars is undeserved.
It describes a controversy that Cruse’s work caused within the Black nationalist movement.
It helps explain Cruse’s position with respect to the community of civil rights thinkers.
Choice D is the best answer. The text as a whole claims that Cruse disagreed with virtually all other Civil Rights scholars and
activists. The underlined sentence describes one way that Cruse both did and didn’t ﬁt in with those thinkers: he criticized
Black nationalists, even though he identiﬁed as one.
Choice A is incorrect. The underlined sentence doesn’t do this. It describes Cruse’s criticisms—it never mentions what Cruse
did want the movement to do instead. Choice B is incorrect. This conﬂicts with the text, which argues that Cruse did disagree
with almost all other scholars of the Civil Rights Movement. Choice C is incorrect. This is a step too far. The text never says
that Cruse’s work caused controversy within the Black nationalist movement.