Richard T. Hughes
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780252042065
- eISBN:
- 9780252050800
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5622/illinois/9780252042065.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Race and Ethnicity
The first edition of Myths America Lives By explores five Great American Myths—the Chosen Nation, Nature’s Nation, the Christian Nation, the Millennial Nation, and the Innocent Nation. This revised ...
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The first edition of Myths America Lives By explores five Great American Myths—the Chosen Nation, Nature’s Nation, the Christian Nation, the Millennial Nation, and the Innocent Nation. This revised edition introduces a sixth myth—the myth of White Supremacy—and argues, first, that the myth of white supremacy is the primal American myth that informs all the others and, second, that one of the chief functions of the other five myths is to protect and obscure the myth of white supremacy, to hide it from our awareness, and to assure us that we remain innocent after all. With one chapter devoted to each of the myths, the book relies especially on the voices of black Americans to help readers understand the pervasive power of white supremacy in American life and culture and how white supremacy translates into systemic racism, on the one hand, and white privilege, on the other. The book also explores how manifest destiny, the American dream, and capitalism have depended on the Great American Myths for their viability in American culture.Less
The first edition of Myths America Lives By explores five Great American Myths—the Chosen Nation, Nature’s Nation, the Christian Nation, the Millennial Nation, and the Innocent Nation. This revised edition introduces a sixth myth—the myth of White Supremacy—and argues, first, that the myth of white supremacy is the primal American myth that informs all the others and, second, that one of the chief functions of the other five myths is to protect and obscure the myth of white supremacy, to hide it from our awareness, and to assure us that we remain innocent after all. With one chapter devoted to each of the myths, the book relies especially on the voices of black Americans to help readers understand the pervasive power of white supremacy in American life and culture and how white supremacy translates into systemic racism, on the one hand, and white privilege, on the other. The book also explores how manifest destiny, the American dream, and capitalism have depended on the Great American Myths for their viability in American culture.
Richard T. Hughes
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780252042065
- eISBN:
- 9780252050800
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5622/illinois/9780252042065.003.0008
- Subject:
- Sociology, Race and Ethnicity
James Baldwin wrote that blacks have typically rejected the Great American Myths, for unlike most white Americans, they discerned the extent to which those myths were rooted in America’s primal myth, ...
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James Baldwin wrote that blacks have typically rejected the Great American Myths, for unlike most white Americans, they discerned the extent to which those myths were rooted in America’s primal myth, the myth of White Supremacy. Yet one must wonder how those myths might serve the nation if stripped of their coloration. The issue comes down to this—is such a color stripping even possible? At the very least, a color stripping would depend on two factors—increased face-to-face relationships between blacks and whites and, perhaps even more important, resistance, even in the face of torture and death. Perhaps a thin sliver of hope is all that American history can justify. But hope we must, for if we abandon hope, we have also abandoned our future.Less
James Baldwin wrote that blacks have typically rejected the Great American Myths, for unlike most white Americans, they discerned the extent to which those myths were rooted in America’s primal myth, the myth of White Supremacy. Yet one must wonder how those myths might serve the nation if stripped of their coloration. The issue comes down to this—is such a color stripping even possible? At the very least, a color stripping would depend on two factors—increased face-to-face relationships between blacks and whites and, perhaps even more important, resistance, even in the face of torture and death. Perhaps a thin sliver of hope is all that American history can justify. But hope we must, for if we abandon hope, we have also abandoned our future.
Jeff Strickland
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- January 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780813060798
- eISBN:
- 9780813050867
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813060798.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, American History: 19th Century
Charleston, South Carolina, was a cosmopolitan city during the mid-to-late nineteenth century. Germans, Irish, and a host of European and Latin American immigrants shared the same workplaces, ...
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Charleston, South Carolina, was a cosmopolitan city during the mid-to-late nineteenth century. Germans, Irish, and a host of European and Latin American immigrants shared the same workplaces, neighborhoods, streets, residences, and even households. Charleston was a slave society, and its economy relied on the forced labor of thousands of slaves. Immigrants also worked as entrepreneurs, skilled artisans, and laborers. Immigrants and African Americans interacted on a daily basis, and their relations were often positive. White southerners found those positive relations threatening, and nativist sentiments prevailed during the 1850s. Slaveholding meant economic and political power, and although some immigrants owned slaves many found it objectionable. The Civil War presented slaveholding immigrants, and those that aspired to it, the opportunity to side with the Confederacy. While many German and Irish immigrants enlisted in the fight to preserve slavery, others avoided the conflict. Following the Civil War, German immigrants that had continued to operate their businesses during the war led efforts to rebuild the city. Reconstruction afforded German and Irish immigrants and African Americans political opportunities previously limited or denied. The majority of European immigrants supported the Democratic Party, the party of white supremacy, and African Americans chose the Republican Party.Less
Charleston, South Carolina, was a cosmopolitan city during the mid-to-late nineteenth century. Germans, Irish, and a host of European and Latin American immigrants shared the same workplaces, neighborhoods, streets, residences, and even households. Charleston was a slave society, and its economy relied on the forced labor of thousands of slaves. Immigrants also worked as entrepreneurs, skilled artisans, and laborers. Immigrants and African Americans interacted on a daily basis, and their relations were often positive. White southerners found those positive relations threatening, and nativist sentiments prevailed during the 1850s. Slaveholding meant economic and political power, and although some immigrants owned slaves many found it objectionable. The Civil War presented slaveholding immigrants, and those that aspired to it, the opportunity to side with the Confederacy. While many German and Irish immigrants enlisted in the fight to preserve slavery, others avoided the conflict. Following the Civil War, German immigrants that had continued to operate their businesses during the war led efforts to rebuild the city. Reconstruction afforded German and Irish immigrants and African Americans political opportunities previously limited or denied. The majority of European immigrants supported the Democratic Party, the party of white supremacy, and African Americans chose the Republican Party.
Richard T. Hughes
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780252042065
- eISBN:
- 9780252050800
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5622/illinois/9780252042065.003.0005
- Subject:
- Sociology, Race and Ethnicity
The myth of the Millennial Nation held that the United States, grounded as it was in the natural order, would shine its example around the globe until all nations of earth had abandoned despotic ...
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The myth of the Millennial Nation held that the United States, grounded as it was in the natural order, would shine its example around the globe until all nations of earth had abandoned despotic rulers and claimed the natural order of freedom and democracy for themselves. White Americans in the early national period, therefore, stood with one foot in the mythic age of creation and the other in the mythic, golden age to come. History became irrelevant. Early in the nineteenth century, white Americans imagined that the millennial transformation of the globe could be wrought solely through America’s moral example. But moral example gave way to force and violence as the myth of the Millennial Nation gave way to the doctrine of manifest destiny. By the early twentieth century, manifest destiny morphed into the American Dream. If manifest destiny had turned the millennial vision outward, inspiring the acquisition of both land and opportunity for economic investment abroad, the American Dream turned the millennial vision inward, inspiring new visions of opportunity at home. As the nation transitioned from millennial vision to manifest destiny to American dream, the myth of White Supremacy was the constant connecting factor that underpinned all three.Less
The myth of the Millennial Nation held that the United States, grounded as it was in the natural order, would shine its example around the globe until all nations of earth had abandoned despotic rulers and claimed the natural order of freedom and democracy for themselves. White Americans in the early national period, therefore, stood with one foot in the mythic age of creation and the other in the mythic, golden age to come. History became irrelevant. Early in the nineteenth century, white Americans imagined that the millennial transformation of the globe could be wrought solely through America’s moral example. But moral example gave way to force and violence as the myth of the Millennial Nation gave way to the doctrine of manifest destiny. By the early twentieth century, manifest destiny morphed into the American Dream. If manifest destiny had turned the millennial vision outward, inspiring the acquisition of both land and opportunity for economic investment abroad, the American Dream turned the millennial vision inward, inspiring new visions of opportunity at home. As the nation transitioned from millennial vision to manifest destiny to American dream, the myth of White Supremacy was the constant connecting factor that underpinned all three.
Jeff Strickland
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- January 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780813060798
- eISBN:
- 9780813050867
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813060798.003.0007
- Subject:
- History, American History: 19th Century
The German Schuetzenfest was an important festival that combined German cultural traditions of sport-shooting, gymnastics, ballroom dancing, beer gardens, and various amusements. The festival was ...
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The German Schuetzenfest was an important festival that combined German cultural traditions of sport-shooting, gymnastics, ballroom dancing, beer gardens, and various amusements. The festival was essential to the maintenance of German identity in the postwar period and especially following German unification in 1871. The chapter demonstrates that German business leaders organized the event not only as a cultural activity based upon their ethnic heritage, but also as an opportunity to showcase their business success. In 1868, Germans organized the first Schuetzenfest since the Civil War and mainly Germans attended the event. By 1871, Charlestonians of all races and ethnicities, including southern white elites, flocked to the Schuetzenfest and made it the largest recreational and social event of the year. African Americans, Germans, and white southern children competed with each other in the various amusements located on the Schuetzenplatz grounds. Germans invited rifle clubs from throughout the South and United States to participate though African American rifle clubs were excluded. Increasingly, native-born white rifle clubs formed or reformed, and they participated in the annual military parade that took place on the first day of the Schuetzenfest. In parading alongside white rifle clubs, the Germans revealed their support for white supremacy.Less
The German Schuetzenfest was an important festival that combined German cultural traditions of sport-shooting, gymnastics, ballroom dancing, beer gardens, and various amusements. The festival was essential to the maintenance of German identity in the postwar period and especially following German unification in 1871. The chapter demonstrates that German business leaders organized the event not only as a cultural activity based upon their ethnic heritage, but also as an opportunity to showcase their business success. In 1868, Germans organized the first Schuetzenfest since the Civil War and mainly Germans attended the event. By 1871, Charlestonians of all races and ethnicities, including southern white elites, flocked to the Schuetzenfest and made it the largest recreational and social event of the year. African Americans, Germans, and white southern children competed with each other in the various amusements located on the Schuetzenplatz grounds. Germans invited rifle clubs from throughout the South and United States to participate though African American rifle clubs were excluded. Increasingly, native-born white rifle clubs formed or reformed, and they participated in the annual military parade that took place on the first day of the Schuetzenfest. In parading alongside white rifle clubs, the Germans revealed their support for white supremacy.
Jeff Strickland
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- January 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780813060798
- eISBN:
- 9780813050867
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813060798.003.0008
- Subject:
- History, American History: 19th Century
Germans, Irish, and African Americans profoundly influenced municipal politics during the Reconstruction period. African Americans, Germans, and Irish immigrants took advantage of universal suffrage ...
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Germans, Irish, and African Americans profoundly influenced municipal politics during the Reconstruction period. African Americans, Germans, and Irish immigrants took advantage of universal suffrage to run for political office and exercise their right to vote. The majority of African Americans voted Republican, but a small minority moved toward the Democratic Party. The Germans were primarily Democrats, but some Germans supported the Republican Party and several even served as Republican Party officials. When German immigrants took control of the Democratic nomination conventions in Charleston during the 1870s, it caused considerable conflict with conservative white southerners and African American Republicans. The 1871, 1873, and 1875 municipal elections revealed significant ethnic divisions in both the Democratic and Republican parties that often led to violence. In 1871, a municipal riot occurred in which African Americans assaulted German shopkeepers and destroyed their property, which highlighted the growing tension between both groups. By the mid-1870s, first-generation German immigrants and second-generation German Southerners had become more middle class than ever before, and most Germans decided to support the Democratic Party even though it had returned to a white supremacist platform by 1876.Less
Germans, Irish, and African Americans profoundly influenced municipal politics during the Reconstruction period. African Americans, Germans, and Irish immigrants took advantage of universal suffrage to run for political office and exercise their right to vote. The majority of African Americans voted Republican, but a small minority moved toward the Democratic Party. The Germans were primarily Democrats, but some Germans supported the Republican Party and several even served as Republican Party officials. When German immigrants took control of the Democratic nomination conventions in Charleston during the 1870s, it caused considerable conflict with conservative white southerners and African American Republicans. The 1871, 1873, and 1875 municipal elections revealed significant ethnic divisions in both the Democratic and Republican parties that often led to violence. In 1871, a municipal riot occurred in which African Americans assaulted German shopkeepers and destroyed their property, which highlighted the growing tension between both groups. By the mid-1870s, first-generation German immigrants and second-generation German Southerners had become more middle class than ever before, and most Germans decided to support the Democratic Party even though it had returned to a white supremacist platform by 1876.
Andrew Dilts
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- September 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780823262410
- eISBN:
- 9780823268986
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823262410.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
Punishment and Inclusion: Race, Membership, and the Limits of American Liberalism, gives a theoretical and historical account of the pernicious practice of felon disenfranchisement, drawing widely on ...
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Punishment and Inclusion: Race, Membership, and the Limits of American Liberalism, gives a theoretical and historical account of the pernicious practice of felon disenfranchisement, drawing widely on early modern political philosophy, continental and post-colonial political thought, critical race theory, feminist philosophy, disability theory, critical legal studies, and archival research into 19th and 20th state constitutional conventions. It demonstrates that the history of felon disenfranchisement, rooted in post-slavery restrictions on suffrage and the contemporaneous emergence of the modern “American” penal system, shows the deep connections between two political institutions often thought to be separate: punishment and citizenship. It reveals the work of membership done by the criminal punishment system, and at the same time, the work of punishment done by the electoral franchise. Felon disenfranchisement is shown to be a symptomatic marker of the deep tension and interdependence that persists in democratic politics between who is considered a member of the polity and how that polity punishes persons who violate its laws. While these connections are seldom deployed openly in current debates about suffrage or criminal justice, the book shows how white supremacy, a perniciously quiet yet deeply violent political system, continues to operate through contemporary regimes of punishment and governance.Less
Punishment and Inclusion: Race, Membership, and the Limits of American Liberalism, gives a theoretical and historical account of the pernicious practice of felon disenfranchisement, drawing widely on early modern political philosophy, continental and post-colonial political thought, critical race theory, feminist philosophy, disability theory, critical legal studies, and archival research into 19th and 20th state constitutional conventions. It demonstrates that the history of felon disenfranchisement, rooted in post-slavery restrictions on suffrage and the contemporaneous emergence of the modern “American” penal system, shows the deep connections between two political institutions often thought to be separate: punishment and citizenship. It reveals the work of membership done by the criminal punishment system, and at the same time, the work of punishment done by the electoral franchise. Felon disenfranchisement is shown to be a symptomatic marker of the deep tension and interdependence that persists in democratic politics between who is considered a member of the polity and how that polity punishes persons who violate its laws. While these connections are seldom deployed openly in current debates about suffrage or criminal justice, the book shows how white supremacy, a perniciously quiet yet deeply violent political system, continues to operate through contemporary regimes of punishment and governance.
Nicholas Grant
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781469635286
- eISBN:
- 9781469635293
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/northcarolina/9781469635286.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, African-American History
In this transnational account of black protest, Nicholas Grant examines how African Americans engaged with, supported, and were inspired by the South African anti-apartheid movement. Bringing black ...
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In this transnational account of black protest, Nicholas Grant examines how African Americans engaged with, supported, and were inspired by the South African anti-apartheid movement. Bringing black activism into conversation with the foreign policy of both the U.S. and South African governments, this study questions the dominant perception that U.S.-centered anticommunism decimated black international activism. Instead, by tracing the considerable amount of time, money, and effort the state invested into responding to black international criticism, Grant outlines the extent to which the U.S. and South African governments were forced to reshape and occasionally reconsider their racial policies in the Cold War world. This study shows how African Americans and black South Africans navigated transnationally organized state repression in ways that challenged white supremacy on both sides of the Atlantic. The political and cultural ties that they forged during the 1940s and 1950s are testament to the insistence of black activists in both countries that the struggle against apartheid and Jim Crow were intimately interconnected.Less
In this transnational account of black protest, Nicholas Grant examines how African Americans engaged with, supported, and were inspired by the South African anti-apartheid movement. Bringing black activism into conversation with the foreign policy of both the U.S. and South African governments, this study questions the dominant perception that U.S.-centered anticommunism decimated black international activism. Instead, by tracing the considerable amount of time, money, and effort the state invested into responding to black international criticism, Grant outlines the extent to which the U.S. and South African governments were forced to reshape and occasionally reconsider their racial policies in the Cold War world. This study shows how African Americans and black South Africans navigated transnationally organized state repression in ways that challenged white supremacy on both sides of the Atlantic. The political and cultural ties that they forged during the 1940s and 1950s are testament to the insistence of black activists in both countries that the struggle against apartheid and Jim Crow were intimately interconnected.
Millington W. Bergeson-Lockwood
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- January 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781469640419
- eISBN:
- 9781469640433
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/northcarolina/9781469640419.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, African-American History
In late nineteenth-century Boston, battles over black party loyalty were fights over the place of African Americans in the post–Civil War nation. In his fresh in-depth study of black partisanship and ...
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In late nineteenth-century Boston, battles over black party loyalty were fights over the place of African Americans in the post–Civil War nation. In his fresh in-depth study of black partisanship and politics, Millington W. Bergeson-Lockwood demonstrates that party politics became the terrain upon which black Bostonians tested the promise of equality in America’s democracy. Most African Americans remained loyal Republicans, but Race Over Party highlights the actions and aspirations of a cadre of those who argued that the GOP took black votes for granted and offered little meaningful reward for black support. These activists branded themselves “independents,” forging new alliances and advocating support of whichever candidate would support black freedom regardless of party. By the end of the century, however, it became clear that partisan politics offered little hope for the protection of black rights and lives in the face of white supremacy and racial violence. Even so, Bergeson-Lockwood shows how black Bostonians’ faith in self-reliance, political autonomy, and dedicated organizing inspired future generations of activists who would carry these legacies into the foundation of the twentieth-century civil rights movement.Less
In late nineteenth-century Boston, battles over black party loyalty were fights over the place of African Americans in the post–Civil War nation. In his fresh in-depth study of black partisanship and politics, Millington W. Bergeson-Lockwood demonstrates that party politics became the terrain upon which black Bostonians tested the promise of equality in America’s democracy. Most African Americans remained loyal Republicans, but Race Over Party highlights the actions and aspirations of a cadre of those who argued that the GOP took black votes for granted and offered little meaningful reward for black support. These activists branded themselves “independents,” forging new alliances and advocating support of whichever candidate would support black freedom regardless of party. By the end of the century, however, it became clear that partisan politics offered little hope for the protection of black rights and lives in the face of white supremacy and racial violence. Even so, Bergeson-Lockwood shows how black Bostonians’ faith in self-reliance, political autonomy, and dedicated organizing inspired future generations of activists who would carry these legacies into the foundation of the twentieth-century civil rights movement.
David D. Daniels III
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- April 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780199684045
- eISBN:
- 9780191838927
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780199684045.003.0011
- Subject:
- Religion, Church History
Religious dissent within the Black Church focuses on defending the Christian gospel against the alliance of Christianity and the race order of white supremacy marks the contribution of the Black ...
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Religious dissent within the Black Church focuses on defending the Christian gospel against the alliance of Christianity and the race order of white supremacy marks the contribution of the Black Church to the wider dissenting tradition. It engages in the religious delegitimation of the dominant racial order. While the White Church in the United States has historically replicated the dominant racial order of African American subordination, the religious dissent of the Black Church has resisted and subverted the dominant racial order in a way in which grace pre-empts race in the functional ecclesiology of the Black Church with Christian egalitarianism affirming the equality of the races, envisioning a church where grace structures ecclesial life rather than racism.Less
Religious dissent within the Black Church focuses on defending the Christian gospel against the alliance of Christianity and the race order of white supremacy marks the contribution of the Black Church to the wider dissenting tradition. It engages in the religious delegitimation of the dominant racial order. While the White Church in the United States has historically replicated the dominant racial order of African American subordination, the religious dissent of the Black Church has resisted and subverted the dominant racial order in a way in which grace pre-empts race in the functional ecclesiology of the Black Church with Christian egalitarianism affirming the equality of the races, envisioning a church where grace structures ecclesial life rather than racism.
Nicholas Grant
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781469635286
- eISBN:
- 9781469635293
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/northcarolina/9781469635286.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, African-American History
This chapter provides an overview of racial politics in the United States and South Africa in the 1940s and 1950s. It traces how African Americans and black South Africans have historically ...
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This chapter provides an overview of racial politics in the United States and South Africa in the 1940s and 1950s. It traces how African Americans and black South Africans have historically configured their struggles as being interconnected, while documenting how anticommunism limited opportunities for transnational black activism between both countries during the early Cold War. Less
This chapter provides an overview of racial politics in the United States and South Africa in the 1940s and 1950s. It traces how African Americans and black South Africans have historically configured their struggles as being interconnected, while documenting how anticommunism limited opportunities for transnational black activism between both countries during the early Cold War.
N. D. B. Connolly
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- January 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780226115146
- eISBN:
- 9780226135250
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226135250.003.0010
- Subject:
- History, African-American History
In addition to wrapping up the central themes covered in this book, the conclusion details the fate of Miami’s Central Negro District, also known as Overtown, shortly after the building of ...
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In addition to wrapping up the central themes covered in this book, the conclusion details the fate of Miami’s Central Negro District, also known as Overtown, shortly after the building of Interstate-95 and mass black suburbanization. It contends that present day recollections of Overtown’s apparent demise remain linked to black frustrations about the failures of suburbanization to provide greater racial and economic equality.Less
In addition to wrapping up the central themes covered in this book, the conclusion details the fate of Miami’s Central Negro District, also known as Overtown, shortly after the building of Interstate-95 and mass black suburbanization. It contends that present day recollections of Overtown’s apparent demise remain linked to black frustrations about the failures of suburbanization to provide greater racial and economic equality.
Nicholas Grant
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781469635286
- eISBN:
- 9781469635293
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/northcarolina/9781469635286.003.0010
- Subject:
- History, African-American History
This concluding chapter argues that African Americans were part of a broad and multifaceted effort to isolate South Africa in the global political arena. By repeatedly attempting to offer direct ...
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This concluding chapter argues that African Americans were part of a broad and multifaceted effort to isolate South Africa in the global political arena. By repeatedly attempting to offer direct support to African liberation movements and calling for America to renounce its political and economic ties with the National Party, their actions made life difficult for white politicians in ways that that would continue to inform the global anti-apartheid movement beyond the Sharpeville massacre of 1960. This argument is not meant to downplay the disruptive influence that anticommunism had on black protest. Rather, it is designed to shift the focus onto the ways in which black activists, with different political visions, responded to state power. Finally, given the broad response of African Americans to the anti-apartheid movement, this concluding chapter suggests that we might need to move towards a more expansive definition of black internationalism – one that accounts for the anticolonial political agenda and transnational solidarities forges by both African American leftists and liberals.Less
This concluding chapter argues that African Americans were part of a broad and multifaceted effort to isolate South Africa in the global political arena. By repeatedly attempting to offer direct support to African liberation movements and calling for America to renounce its political and economic ties with the National Party, their actions made life difficult for white politicians in ways that that would continue to inform the global anti-apartheid movement beyond the Sharpeville massacre of 1960. This argument is not meant to downplay the disruptive influence that anticommunism had on black protest. Rather, it is designed to shift the focus onto the ways in which black activists, with different political visions, responded to state power. Finally, given the broad response of African Americans to the anti-apartheid movement, this concluding chapter suggests that we might need to move towards a more expansive definition of black internationalism – one that accounts for the anticolonial political agenda and transnational solidarities forges by both African American leftists and liberals.
