A Dancer in the Revolution: Stretch Johnson, Harlem Communist at the Cotton ClubThe life of Howard Johnson, nicknamed "Stretch" because of his height (6'5), epitomizes the cultural and political odyssey of a generation of African Americans who transformed the United States from a closed society to a multiracial democracy. Johnson's long awaited memoir traces his path from firstborn of a multiclass multiethnic" family in New Jersey to dancer in Harlem's Cotton Club to communist youth leader and, later, professor of Black studies.