Today in Labor History April 16, 1994: Ralph Ellison died on this day. Ellison was a member of the Harlem Renaissance, best known for his book, The Invisible Man. He was friends with Langston Hughes and Richard Wright. He became active in the Communist Party, as did many of his peers. But he became disillusioned with them during World War II when he felt they became reformist. He wrote The Invisible Man during this era (published in 1952), in part, as a response their betrayal. But the book also looks at the relationship between black identity and Marxism, the reformism of Booker T. Washington, and issues of individuality and personal identity.