Race Against Empire: Black Americans and Anticolonialism, 1937-1957

by Penny M. Von Eschen

Marshaling evidence from a wide array of international sources, including the black presses of the time, Penny M. Von Eschen offers a vivid portrayal of the African diaspora in its international heyday, from the 1945 Manchester Pan-African Congress to early cooperation with the United Nations. Tracing the relationship between transformations in anti-colonial politics and the history of the United States during its emergence as the dominant world power, she challenges bipolar Cold War paradigms. She documents the efforts of African-American political leaders, intellectuals, and journalists who forcefully promoted anti-colonial politics and critiqued U.S. foreign policy. The eclipse of anti-colonial politics―which Von Eschen traces through African-American responses to the early Cold War, U.S. government prosecution of black American anti-colonial activists, and State Department initiatives in Africa―marked a change in the very meaning of race and racism in America from historical and international issues to psychological and domestic ones. She concludes that the collision of anti-colonialism with Cold War liberalism illuminates conflicts central to the reshaping of America; the definition of political, economic, and civil rights; and the question of who, in America and across the globe, is to have access to these rights.

Genres: History, Race, Nonfiction, American History, School, Cultural Studies

288 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 1997

Reviews

[Michael Skora · Rating 5 out of 5]

As lucid as it is tragic, “Race Against Empire: Black Americans and Anticolonialism, 1937-1957” is my favorite book this year so far. I would love to see whether any comparable histories are available on Black anti-imperialist critique for different time periods. It was especially saddening to learn that some of the most prominent pioneers of 1940s Pan-African radicalism: W.E.B. Du Bois, Paul Robeson, and Alphaeus Hunton, saw their intellectual and organizational contributions heavily marginalized toward the ends of the lifespans. Many of their insights on the white supremacist political economy were apparently forgotten during the mass-mobilization of Black revolutionary action in the 1960s. On a reflective note, however, I do wish that the author discussed Claudia Jones’ or other Black women’s’ roles in trans-continental anti-colonialism.

[Deniz · Rating 5 out of 5]

This might be the most important book I have ever read. It informed me of a vast and intentional erasure of America's history in global involvement and intervention. If you think that Trump is an anomaly, then you must read this book and re-evaluate America's project to see it for what it is--a mutated, but still evil and greed-filled, empire. Using liberalism as a facade to cover imperialist tendencies, America has projected a false notion of what democracy means and who it serves. The current discourse of "fake news," first embraced by the left, and then later harnessed by the right, has actually further distracted from the very real assertion that major media news agencies are owned by corporations. So, yes, of course they don't serve the public interest because they would lose money if they disrupted America's larger pretense of imperialism and colonial exploitation. Let's stop the hapless battle of mud-slinging and outrage over the crisis of fake news--there has always been a history of American intelligence communities shutting down independent presses in favor of propping up persons that disseminate a story of a noble America; there has always been a very real corporate and capitalist interest in maintaining America's credibility of innocence. I can only say this to my left-of-center friends (because there is more of chance, I think, to convince you)--please WAKE UP! America has always been engaged in a effort to ease perceptions of discontent over racial and human rights violations so that their corporate backed and controlled "democracy" can appear as the most egalitarian and fair system. This battle was fought in the context of an ideological obsession with maintaining capitalist democracy in the face of the rising prospect of communism. As the book details, America has always smeared and discredited activists; we have gone so far as to take away U.S. citizens' passports who were spreading a message to help build solidarity among those exploited in the process of conquer, enslavement, and colonization. Taken away passports! I don't mean to sound harsh, but the left cannot miss an opportunity to realize what "America" is and what it's intention always was: to protect and bolster empire, colonization, and corporate interests, to the detriment of an exploited peoples. So, please read this book!!

[Christine Hill]

This was a great read. Covered a lot of the basics in the early pan-African movement and then went on to talk about the collapse of the coalition backed anti-colonial movement prominent in the 1940s.



The book focused on important figures as leaders of groups and movements, which is always important, but perhaps bogged down the books most powerful arguments about Cold War Politics in the 1950s. This book made me extremely sad to see so many people's work erased/forgotten/rewound due to the censorship of the McCarthy era.



And of course, it is always a shock to remember how recently issues like Apartheid, Human Rights, and Civil Rights have been fought over. We are not nearly as advanced as Americans like to think. Unfortunately, our memories are all too forgiving and forgetful when it comes to past injustices.



The books led me to think "What If" the anti-colonial movement had not lost some of its traction in the middle of the Cold War, but then again, "What Ifs" are almost never helpful. What I need to think is: "What now?"

[Inem]

Great book-- It reminded me of Pan-Africanism and Communism by Hakim Adi, White Malice by Susan White, and Proudly We Can be Africans by James Hunter Meriwether.

While the writing here does seem more dense (as someone else commented on), where this book really shines is with the quotes. The primary source material that the author pulls from is incredibly strong. My favorite chapter of the book is "Hearts and Mines" because you can see the vigor of Pan-Africanism and how hard the imperialists work to suppress it. It also really defeats the arguments that Pan-Africanism is/ was a one-sided thing. My favorite quote in the book is probably, "Among Gold Coast Africans, who consider themselves more or less the parent stock of U.S. Negroes, there is a deep, wary, almost psychotic concern with the whole issue of race relations in America." Also, the level of betrayal from US Black/ African newspapers during the Cold War is crazy. I didn't buy it at first, but the evidence is just too strong. Also, let us never forgive or forget what our enemies did to ancestor Paul Robeson in his final years. They were definitely poisoning and torturing that man during his final years.

Overall, it is a good book well worth the read.

[Matthew Rohn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very well framed history of black foreign policy activism, specifically related to anticolonialism. What really makes it stand apart from other works in this area is its focus on the shift in priorities of black activists from the prewar focus on a pan-African anticolonialism to an early Cold War support for US foreign policy for the benefit of a US specific civil rights movement rooted an black American's American identity

[Alexis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Can't really overstate how informative and insightful I found this book. Though I doubt I would've picked it up outside of class, I'm incredibly grateful it was something I had to read. As a follower of history and politics, it fills in so many blanks regarding the nature of African-American political consciousness in the U.S. and ultimately underscores how the relative assimilation of African-Americans into mainstream America came at the expense of political consciousness and solidarity with oppressed peoples the world over, specifically in Africa. It also introduces you to the incredible depth and breadth of the work of activists like Paul Robeson, who I feel ashamed to have never heard of previously. And finally, it really emphasized the (lasting!) impact that Cold War politics had on both domestic and foreign policies, which is very valuable for someone like myself who didn't live through it, but nonetheless still lives with the after effects. Overall, think it's a must-read for students of Africana Studies.

[J · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dense but well worth the read.