Window on Freedom: Race, Civil Rights, and Foreign Affairs, 1945-1988 / Edition 1

by Brenda Gayle Plummer

Overview

The civil rights movement in the United States drew strength from supporters of human rights worldwide. Once U.S. policy makers—influenced by international pressure, the courage of ordinary American citizens, and a desire for global leadership—had signed such documents as the United Nations charter, domestic calls for change could be based squarely on the moral authority of doctrines the United States endorsed abroad.

This is one of the many fascinating links between racial politics and international affairs explored in Window on Freedom. Broad in chronological scope and topical diversity, the ten original essays presented here demonstrate how the roots of U.S. foreign policy have been embedded in social, economic, and cultural factors of domestic as well as foreign origin. They argue persuasively that the campaign to realize full civil rights for racial and ethnic minorities in America is best understood in the context of competitive international relations.

The contributors are Carol Anderson, Donald R. Culverson, Mary L. Dudziak, Cary Fraser, Gerald Horne, Michael Krenn, Paul Gordon Lauren, Thomas Noer, Lorena Oropeza, and Brenda Gayle Plummer.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780807854280
Publisher:	The University of North Carolina Press
Publication date:	02/28/2003
Edition description:	1
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.25(h) x 0.61(d)

About the Author

Brenda Gayle Plummer is professor of history at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and author of Rising Wind: Black Americans and U.S. Foreign Affairs, 1935-1960.

Table of Contents

	Introduction	1
	Seen from the Outside: The International Perspective on America's Dilemma	21
	Race from Power: U.S. Foreign Policy and the General Crisis of White Supremacy	45
	Brown Babies: Race, Gender, and Policy after World War II	67
	Bleached Souls and Red Negroes: The NAACP and Black Communists in the Early Cold War, 1948-1952
	An American Dilemma: Race and Realpolitik in the American Response to the Bandung Conference, 1955	115
	Segregationists and the World: The Foreign Policy of the White Resistance	141
	The Unwelcome Mat: African Diplomats in Washington, D.C., during the Kennedy Years	163
	Birmingham, Addis Ababa, and the Image of America: International Influence on U.S. Civil Rights Politics in the Kennedy Administration	181
	Antiwar Aztlan: The Chicano Movement Opposes U.S. Intervention in Vietnam	201
	From Cold War to Global Interdependence: The Political Economy of African American Antiapartheid Activism, 1968-1988	221
	Selected Bibliography	239
	Contributors	251
	Index	253

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

It is difficult to understand why black protest, as old as the United States itself, finally succeeded in precipitating the Civil Rights Movement in the middle of the 20th century. Window on Freedom brings us one step closer to solving that mystery. . . . Sheds light on how global factors worked to solve the most American of problems.—Black Issues Book Review



This collection presents important original research that will be valuable and enabling for scholars studying the intersections of race, foreign affairs, and civil rights.—Penny Von Eschen, University of Michigan



Each contributor to this first-rate collection examines how the movement for racial equality in America can be better understood if placed in the context of competitive international relations. . . . A very good resource for students of racial factors in international relations.—Foreign Affairs



An excellent primer on the state of scholarship on the nexus of race and foreign affairs.—Journal of Southern History



All those interested in race relations and foreign affairs will move quickly to read Window on Freedom. These wide-ranging essays offer cutting-edge scholarship on a fascinating intersection of domestic and international history. The Cold War can no longer be understood without its racial dimensions.—Tim Borstelmann, Cornell University



The essays in Plummer's volume should be of interest both to scholars and students of civil rights and US foreign policy.—Ethnic & Racial Studies



Window on Freedom brings together a rich sampling of contemporary scholarship.—Journal of American History

Editorial Reviews

Cutting-edge scholarship on a fascinating intersection of domestic and international history. The Cold War can no longer be understood without its racial dimensions. (Tim Borstelmann, author of "The Cold War and the Color Line: American Race Relations in the Global Arena")

This collection presents important original research that will be valuable and enabling for scholars studying the intersections of race, foreign affairs, and civil rights. (Penny Von Eschen, University of Michigan)

"These wide-ranging essays offers cutting-edge scholarship on a fascinating intersection of domestic and international history. The Cold War can no longer be understood without its racial dimensions."

From the Publisher

Each contributor to this first-rate collection examines how the movement for racial equality in America can be better understood if placed in the context of competitive international relations. Most chapters highlight the first two postwar decades, when a complex and halting process of triangulation developed between Washington policymakers, race-focused domestic constituencies from right to left, and foreign critics. The authors argue that domestic calls for reform proved largely unavailing until America's international image and prestige came under withering fire from newly independent African and Asian countries in the fledgling United Nations and exposure of American hypocrisies about race handed the Soviet Union a powerful Cold War card. Specific topics include the impact of Gunnar Myrdal's 1944 classic An American Dilemma, the waning international traction of white supremacist ideologies, shifting attitudes toward Europe's postwar "brown babies," the "unwelcome mat" put out for African diplomats in metropolitan Washington, and the political reverberations of Bandung and Birmingham. Rich footnoting makes this work a very good resource for students of racial factors in international relations.

Foreign Affairs