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4.2 Anticolonialism and Black Political Thought
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This linked excerpt notes that during the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s — the peak period of African decolonization — African diplomats in the United States came face-to-face with the racism that African Americans faced on a daily basis. Presidents Truman, Eisenhower, and Kennedy, as well as other federal officials, tried hard to shield these diplomats from racial discrimination. After reading the excerpt and reflecting on the interview that Martin Luther King, Jr. gave in Ghana in 1957 (Required Source), write down, discuss, or simply think about answers to the following questions:
- Why was the federal government concerned about ensuring that African diplomats did not encounter the racial discrimination that was so deeply and broadly embedded in American society?
- In what ways might the federal government’s protective actions have supported the growing sense of diasporic solidarity between Africans and African Americans?
- In what ways might the federal government’s protective actions have undermined the growing sense of diasporic solidarity between Africans and African Americans?
The African Diplomats Who Protested Segregation in the U.S. Dwight D. Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy publicly apologized after restaurants refused to serve Black representatives of newly independent nations. Francine Uenuma via Smithsonian on February 24, 2023