Teaching the Article
Exercise 3
African Americans and Africa
As historians look back on the twentieth century from a greater distance, certain events and themes will come to dominate the understanding of the era. The topic of this article is situated at the intersection of some of those historical engines: the worldwide end of European colonialism, the bitter Cold War between the century's two superpowers, and race and the struggle for equality.
Yet in 1950 the majority of Americans would probably not have identified these major historical currents. Many in the United States paid little attention to their fellow citizens’ demands for civil rights; even fewer noticed the freedom struggles underway in Africa. By the end of the decade, however, few Americans could remain unaware of the civil rights struggle in their midst or of the overthrow of colonialism occurring across the Atlantic Ocean.
The relationship that black Americans had with Africa during the confluence of the civil rights struggle in the United States and the freedom movements in Africa reverberated across the Atlantic, and with powerful influence. As one black American said at the time, “Africa provides me today with a kind of proud identification with ancestors. It causes you to swell up with pride just to see an African on the podium of the UN, Africans who have to be consulted in the decision-making process in the world.”
The success of African liberation struggles pushed black Americans forward in their own struggle, providing a gauge to which they could compare their campaign for civil rights. “The nations of Asia and Africa are moving with jet-like speed toward gaining political independence,” wrote Martin Luther King Jr., “but we still creep at horse-and-buggy pace toward gaining a cup of coffee at a lunch counter.”
African successes also provided black Americans with the belief that they were not an isolated and outnumbered minority, but part of a sweeping global majority. Seeing black men and women demanding and receiving their freedom, running their own countries, and playing important roles on the world stage was powerful imagery. Consider how this burgeoning relationship influenced individuals such as Jackie Robinson, known for his pioneering action in breaking the color barrier in major league baseball, and Martin Luther King, known for his civil rights efforts in America, to see their struggles and lives as linked with those of men and women thousands of miles away. What does this tell us about the power of (sometimes hidden) transnational networks and identities? The documents in this exercise offer ways of seeing the relationship in 1959 and 1960. When reading them, take note of the terms used to discuss Africa and the sense that is conveyed about this increasingly independent Africa. How does their language and vision compare with the views of some U.S. officials in “Exercise 2: United States and Colonialism in Africa”?
Sources
-
Letter from Jackie Robinson to Vice President Richard Nixon,
May 18, 1960, box 3, Jackie Robinson Papers (Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, DC). Courtesy Rachel Robinson. - Alex. M. Rivera, “Courier Sees Birth of Ghana,”
Pittsburgh Courier, March 9, 1957. p 1. -
Letter from Martin Luther King Jr. letter to Tom Mboya,
July 8, 1959, King Encyclopedia, http://www.stanford.edu/group/King/about_king/encyclopedia/mboya_thomas_joseph.html. - Nixon in Ghana.
Courtesy National Archives, photo no. 306-RNT-12-16. - Kennedy meets Mboya.
Photograph by Boston Herald American in the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Boston. - African students arrive in New York.
Photo by Daniel Nilva for the African-American Students Foundation. Courtesy Library of Congress, Manuscript Division, Jackie Robinson Papers. - Kenyans and Americans wait to greet students.
Photo by Daniel Nilva for the African-American Students Foundation. Courtesy Library of Congress, Manuscript Division, Jackie Robinson Papers. - Jackie Robinson greets students.
Photo by Daniel Nilva for the African-American Students Foundation. Courtesy Library of Congress, Manuscript Division, Jackie Robinson Papers.