African Americans in U.S. Foreign Policy: From the Era of Frederick Douglass to the Age of Obama

by Linda Heywood (Editor), Allison Blakely (Editor), Charles Stith (Editor), Joshua C. Yesnowitz (Editor), Walter C Carrington (Contribution by)

Overview

Bookended by remarks from African American diplomats Walter C. Carrington and Charles Stith, the essays in this volume use close readings of speeches, letters, historical archives, diaries, memoirs of policymakers, and newly available FBI files to confront much-neglected questions related to race and foreign relations in the United States. Why, for instance, did African Americans profess loyalty and support for the diplomatic initiatives of a nation that undermined their social, political, and economic well-being through racist policies and cultural practices? Other contributions explore African Americans' history in the diplomatic and consular services and the influential roles of cultural ambassadors like Joe Louis and Louis Armstrong. The volume concludes with an analysis of the effects on race and foreign policy in the administration of Barack Obama.

Groundbreaking and critical, African Americans in U.S. Foreign Policy expands on the scope and themes of recent collections to offer the most up-to-date scholarship to students in a range of disciplines, including U.S. and African American history, Africana studies, political science, and American studies.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780252038877
Publisher:	University of Illinois Press
Publication date:	02/10/2015
Edition description:	1st Edition
Pages:	264
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Allison Blakely is Professor Emeritus of History at Boston University. Linda Heywood is a professor of African American studies and history at Boston University and author of Contested Power in Angola: 1840s to the Present. Charles Stith is an adjunct professor of international relations and director of the African Presidential Center at Boston University, and the author of Political Religion. Joshua C. Yesnowitz has been a lecturer in American politics and research methods at Boston University and Suffolk University.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments   vii
Preface: Reflections of a Black Ambassador
Walter C. Carrington   ix
Introduction   1
Part I: Early African American Diplomatic Appointments: Contributions and Constraints
1   Blacks in the U.S. Diplomatic and Consular Services, 1869-1924   Allison Blakely   13
2   A New Negro Foreign Policy: The Critical Vision of Alain Locke and Ralph Bunche
Jeffrey C. Stewart   30
3   Carl Rowan and the Dilemma of Civil Rights, Propaganda, and the Cold War   Michael L. Krenn   58

Part II: African American Participation in Foreign Affairs through Civil Society: Religious, Military, and Cultural Institutions in Foreign Policy
4   Reconstructions' Revival: The Foreign Mission Board of the National Baptist Convention and the Roots of Black Populist Diplomacy
Brandi Hughes   83
5   White Shame/Black Agency: Race as a Weapon in Post-World War I Diplomacy
Very Ingrid Grant   109
6   Goodwill Ambassadors: African American Athletes and U.S. Cultural Diplomacy, 1947-1968
Damion Thomas   129
7   The Paradox of Jazz Diplomacy: Race and Culture in the Cold War   Lisa Davenport   140

Part III: The Advent of the Age of Obama: African Americans and the Making of American Foreign Policy
8   African American Representatives in the United Nations: From Ralph Bunche to Susan Rice   Lorenzo Morris   177
9   Obama, African Americans, and Africans: The Double Vision   Ibrahim Sundiata   200
Epilogue: The Impact of African Americans on U.S. Foreign Policy   Charles R. Stith   213
Contributors   225
Index   231

Editorial Reviews

"Several of this collection's chapters and topics will certainly spur new and further research in African American and US diplomatic history. African Americans in U.S. Foreign Policy will particularly interest those concerned with the history and challenges faced by African Americans involved in the making and execution of US foreign policy."—H-Net Review

"This thought-provoking work reveals the continuing complexity of African American foreign policy elites in shaping and executing American foreign policy. Highly recommended."—Choice

"Sheds light on understudied but timely phenomena at the intersection of race and U.S. foreign relations and does so in new and exciting ways. Expands the chronological and thematic scopes of existing works, making it truly original. I am convinced that this book will intervene in many scholarly conversations for years to come by offering something truly unique."—George White Jr., author of Holding the Line: Race, Racism, and American Foreign Policy toward Africa, 1953-1961

"The essays presented in African Americans in U.S. Foreign Policy raise important questions and provide insightful answers to them through rigorous archival and interpretive methods. The end result is a book that significantly advances our understanding of African Americans in the U.S. foreign policy-making arena. This outstanding book should be read widely by scholars of history, African American Studies, and political science."—Alvin B. Tillery Jr., author of Between Homeland and Motherland: Africa, U.S. Foreign Policy, and Black Leadership in America

From the Publisher