Internationalization of African American Politics and Culture

This event was part of the May 2016 conference The Future of the African American Past, co-hosted by the American Historical Association and the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture.

This session moves beyond the national framework that defined the rest of the conference to examine the role of African Americans on the international stage, touching on topics such as global political movements, the progression of cross-cultural alliances, and transnational influences on African American ideas.

Speakers

• 00:12 – Introduction by Lonnie Bunch (NMAAHC) and Jim Grossman (AHA)
• 05:02 – Chair David Levering Lewis (New York Univ.) explains that the panel will bring to light certain globalized narratives that have been neglected by a narrower national framework.
• 16:36 – Carol Anderson (Emory Univ.) recounts the efforts of NAACP leaders to prevent the World Bank from granting loans to South Africa’s National Party “apartheid” government.
• 33:27 – T. Ruby Patterson-Myers (Vanderbilt Univ.) examines the role of women in Pan-African politics through the voices of two female activists, Addie Hunton and Vicki Garvin.
• 56:34 – Barbara D. Savage (Univ. of Pennsylvania) draws on the travel diary of African American scholar Merze Tate and explains the influence of international ideas on Tate’s work.
• 1:17:08 – James Sidbury (Rice Univ.) studies a group of Black loyalists (African Americans who sided with the British during the American Revolution) and their relocation to international communities.

Resources

• Merze Tate, Travel Diary, 1931, Merze Tate Papers, Moorland Spingarn Collection, Howard Univ.