History 317
African Americans and Internationalism, 1885-1960’s
Instructor: Stephen G. Hall, Ph.D.
Office: Mather House 208
Office Phone: TBA
Email: [email protected](best method of contact)
Office Hours: Thursday: 3-5 pm.
Required Texts
Pagan Kennedy, Black Livingstone: A True Tale of Adventure in the Nineteenth-Century
Congo (New York: Penguin Books, 2002.
James T. Campbell. Middle Passages: African American Journeys to Africa, 1787-2005.
.New York: The Penguin Press, 2006.
Ula Yvette Taylor, The Veiled Garvey: The Life and Times of Amy Jacques Garvey.
Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2002.
Richard Wright, The Color Curtain: A Report on the Bandung Conference. 1956; rpt
Banner Books: University of Mississippi Press, 1994.
Marc Gallicchio, The African American Encounter with Japan & China. Chapel Hill:
University of North Carolina Press, 2000
James M. Meriwether, Proudly We Can Be Africans: Black Americans and Africa, 19351961. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2002.
Gerald Horne, Black and Brown: African Americans and the Mexican Revolution, 19101920. New York: NYU Press, 2005.
___________. The End of Empires: Africans Americans and India. Philadelphia: Temple
University Press, 2008.
Frank Guridy, Forging Diaspora: Afro-Cubans and African Americans in a World of
Empire and Jim Crow. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2010.
Course Description
This course explores the development and articulation of African American
internationalism from the formal advent of the colonial project with the Berlin
Conference in 1884-1885 up through the early stages of African decolonization in the
1960’s. Internationalism is defined here, especially as it relates to African Americans, as
the sustained interest among governmental and non-governmental actors in promoting a
foreign policy agenda that sought to impact events in the Diaspora and on the African
continent itself. Using Africa, Asia and the Caribbean as case studies, this course will
excavate the role of governmental and nongovernmental actors such as the African
American press, church, civil rights organizations, advocacy groups and diplomats in
developing a viable African American foreign policy constituency. This course will stress
the centrality of race, gender and transnationalism as central proponents in the
development of black internationalism. This course will examine a number of global
events and the roles played by African Americans in shaping the outcomes including the
Berlin Conference (1885), the Spanish American War (1898), the Russo-Japanese War
(1905), The Mexican Revolution (1910-1920), World War I (1914-1919), the ItaloEthiopian War (1935), World War II (1939-1945), and the beginning of the formal
decolonization of Africa with Ghanaian independence in 1957 and the subsequent
challenges faced by various African countries in the early 1960’s. We will conclude the
course by looking at some of the contemporary issues in Black Internationalism. The
course will utilize biographies, case studies, and primary documents to examine these
issues.
Course Requirements
All students are required to attend class on a regular basis. In order to makeup missed
assignments, students must provide official documentation within one week of the
absence and arrange to complete all missed work. It is the responsibility of the student to
officially enroll in the class. Students should also retain copies of all written work.
Assignments in this course include a weekly précis, two interpretative papers of 5-6
pages in length, and a final paper. The précis is a 2 page weekly summary of the readings
for the week, which should provide a clear and concise overview of the major thrust of
the author’s argument. The interpretative papers must contain the following components:
a clear assessment of the major themes and issues covered, a discussion of how the
reading relates to the theme(s) under discussion, and a comparative component that
discusses the similarities and differences in how African Americans promoted a foreign
policy position in relationship to the particular region(s). Essays should include footnotes
or endnotes, which follow the model set forth in Kate Turabian’s A Manual for Writers
(guidelines will be distributed in class). Students will also construct a 15-20 pages
research paper on a topic of their choice. Detailed instructions for these assignments will
be distributed at the end of the third full week of classes.
Method of Determining the Final Grade
Interpretative Papers
Weekly précis
Final Research Paper
Attendance
200 (20%)
200 (20%)
500 (50%)
100 (10%)
Week I: Aug 30th
Introduction to Course
Week II: Sept 6th
Introduction to the Course
Week III: Sept 13.
Sketching the Contours of Black Internationalism:
African Americans and the Modern World from the Atlantic Slave
Trade to the Berlin Conference
Readings: Campbell, Middle Passages, 1-98
Week IV: Sept 20th
“From Capetown to Cairo:” Early Challenges to the Imperial Vision of
Africa
Readings: Kennedy, Black Livingstone, Part 1 (all); Campbell, Middle
Passages, Chapter 3
Week V: Sept 27th
Pan-Africanism and the Global Vision of Africa
Readings: Kennedy, Black Livingstone, Part II (all); Campbell, Middle
Passages, Chapter 4.
Week VI: Oct 4th
Border Wars: African American and Mexican Americans
Readings: Gerald Horne, Black and Brown: African Americans and the
Mexican Revolution, 1910-1920 (all);
Week VII: Oct 11th
Black Nationalism and the Garvey Movement
Readings: Taylor, The Veiled Garvey, Intro-Chapter 8 (all); Campbell,
Middle Passages, Chapter 5.
Week VIII: Oct 18th
A Nation For All: African Americans and the Cuban Connection
Guridy, Forging Diaspora (all)
Week IX: Oct 25th (No class)
“Africans of the World Unite:” African Americans and the Caribbean
Readings: Taylor, The Veiled Garvey, Chapter 9-12 (all); Campbell, Middle
Passages, Chapter 6
Week X: Nov 1st (Discuss Week IX readings in addition to Week X readings)
The Darker Races of the World: African Americans and Asia
Readings: Gallicchio, The African American Encounter with Japan &
China, Intro-Chapter 5 (all)
First Interpretative Paper Due
Week XI: Nov. 8th
Trading Spaces: Japan and China
Readings: Gallicchio, The African American Encounter with Japan & China,
Chapter 6-Epilogue (all); Campbell, Middle Passages, Chapter 7
Discuss Wright’s The Color Curtain
Week XII: Nov. 15th
Empire Waning: African Americans and India
Readings: Horne, The End of Empires (all)
Week XIII: Nov. 22nd
“Proudly We Can Be Africans:” Africa and Decolonization, The Early
Stages
Readings: Meriwether, Proudly We Can Be Africans, Intro- Chapter 4
(all); Campbell, Middle Passages, Chapter 8
Week XIV: Nov 29th
Decolonization and Independence: The Final Chapter
Readings: Meriwether, Proudly We Can Be Africans, Chapter 5-Epilogue
Week XV: Dec 6th
Assessing Black Internationalism: Reexamining Africa, Mexico, Asia,
and the Caribbean
Readings: Campbell, Middle Passages, Chapters 9 and 10
Second Interpretative Paper due