Vincent J. Intondi

African Americans Against the Bomb (eBook, ePUB)

Nuclear Weapons, Colonialism, and the Black Freedom Movement

• Format: ePub

Produktbeschreibung

Well before Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke out against nuclear weapons, African Americans were protesting the Bomb. Historians have generally ignored African Americans when studying the anti-nuclear movement, yet they were some of the first citizens to protest Truman's decision to drop atomic bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. Now for the first time, African Americans Against the Bomb tells the compelling story of those black activists who fought for nuclear disarmament by connecting the nuclear issue with the fight for racial equality.

Intondi shows that from early on, blacks in America saw the use of atomic bombs as a racial issue, asking why such enormous resources were being spent building nuclear arms instead of being used to improve impoverished communities. Black activists' fears that race played a role in the decision to deploy atomic bombs only increased when the U.S. threatened to use nuclear weapons in Korea in the 1950s and Vietnam a decade later. For black leftists in Popular Front groups, the nuclear issue was connected to colonialism: the U.S. obtained uranium from the Belgian controlled Congo and the French tested their nuclear weapons in the Sahara.

By expanding traditional research in the history of the nuclear disarmament movement to look at black liberals, clergy, artists, musicians, and civil rights leaders, Intondi reveals the links between the black freedom movement in America and issues of global peace. From Langston Hughes through Lorraine Hansberry to President Obama, African Americans Against the Bomb offers an eye-opening account of the continuous involvement of African Americans who recognized that the rise of nuclear weapons was a threat to the civil rights of all people.

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Produktdetails

• Verlag: Stanford University Press
• Seitenzahl: 224
• Erscheinungstermin: 7. Januar 2015
• Englisch
• ISBN-13: 9780804793483
• Artikelnr.: 48418518

Autorenporträt

Vincent J. Intondi is Associate Professor of African American History at Montgomery College and Director of Research at the Nuclear Studies Institute of the American University in Washington, D.C.

Inhaltsangabe

Contents and Abstracts
Introduction
chapter abstract
Discussing the focus, structure, and overall theme of the book, the
Introduction explains the importance of the study, as well its relevance to
African American and United States history. The introduction propose a
number of questions: Did African Americans respond differently to the
atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki than did other Americans and, if
so, to what extent was this related to the fact that the first victims were
non-Caucasians? Did African Americans' discrimination-induced estrangement
from American life allow for a more critical attitude toward the Cold War
in general and U.S. nuclear policy in particular? Did the left-oriented
social and political activism inspired by black Popular Front groups
translate into a broader critique of U.S. militarism and foreign policy,
both of which were undergirded by the American nuclear arsenal?
1The Response to the Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
chapter abstract
While the majority of Americans approved of President Truman's decision to
use nuclear weapons at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, African Americans' initial
response to the atomic bombings was quite different from that of the
general public. Historians have compiled polls, surveys, and data to
analyze the American reaction to the atomic bombings. Some data account for
racial differences. However, no one has explored the response of the black
church, press, entertainment industry, or ordinary black citizens. Chapter
One traces the reactions of black activists, organizations, journalists,
and others to the atomic bombings. Many black activists who appear
throughout the book, including W.E.B. Du Bois, Paul Robeson, and Bayard
Rustin, begin their antinuclear activism in this chapter. This chapter
examines black leftists who worked for nuclear disarmament through a new
communist-led peace movement, analyzing how they affected the black freedom
movement and the political landscape of the late 1940s.
2"We Will Not Go Quietly Into the Night": Fighting for Peace and Freedom
During the McCarthy Era
chapter abstract
With the rise of McCarthyism, antinuclear became synonymous with
pro-communism. However, black leftists refused to remain silent on the
nuclear issue and they were not alone. Throughout the black community,
citizens protested the use of nuclear weapons. They were not motivated by a
directive from Moscow, but fear that nuclear weapons would again be used on
a "darker nation," with the start of the Korean War. In an effort to
prevent President Truman from using nuclear weapons in Korea, black
activists circulated the "Ban the Bomb" pledge throughout the country, ran
for political office on peace platforms, and worked with organized labor in
a variety of ways. While the Red Scares of the 1950s stymied black
activism, the connections between peace, colonialism, and freedom did not
cease, and by the late 1950s had increased considerably.
3"Links in the Same Chain": Civil Rights, Anticolonialism, and the Bomb in
Africa
chapter abstract
Since 1945, black activists had consistently made that case that the bomb,
colonialism, and civil rights were inextricably linked. During the years
1954-1960 the argument never seemed clearer. Nuclear testing around the
world dramatically increased. The Civil Rights Movement emerged with the
Brown v. Board of Education decision and murder of Emmett Till. At the same
time, twenty-nine nations of Asia and Africa gathered in Bandung, Indonesia
to address racism, colonialism, and the threat of nuclear weapons. Black
leftists, civil rights activists, and ordinary citizens began making the
connections. During 1957-1958 African Americans began working in new
antinuclear groups like Committee for Non-Violent Action (CNVA) and
Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy (SANE). All of these issues came
together when Bayard Rustin led a team, including Kwame Nkrumah and Bill
Sutherland, in Africa to stop the French from testing a nuclear weapon, the
Sahara Project.
4"Desegregation Not Disintegration": The Black Freedom Movement, Vietnam,
and Nuclear Weapons
chapter abstract
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. began connecting nuclear disarmament to black
freedom in the late 1950s. Chapter Four challenges scholars who suggest
that King did not combine peace and freedom until 1967 when he spoke out
against Vietnam. This chapter also focuses on those African Americans who
again witnessed the U.S. declare war on a "darker nation," and threatened
to use nuclear weapons in Vietnam, while at the same time denied African
Americans equality at home. These activists included a number of black
women who began to make their voices heard as members of WILPF and Women
Strike for Peace (WSP). Throughout the 1950s-1960s, Coretta Scott King,
Lorraine Hansberry, Erna Harris, and others traveled around the world
attending disarmament conferences and even confronted the Pope to achieve
nuclear disarmament.
5"From Civil Rights to Human Rights": African American Activism in the
Post-Vietnam Era
chapter abstract
Following the Vietnam War, many black activists saw a direct link between
President Reagan's increased spending for nuclear weapons and the
elimination of funds for social programs that mostly benefited the poor. As
antinuclear activism reached new heights in the 1980s, black participation
was also at an all-time high. Black politicians, athletes, activists,
entertainers, and clergy consistently made the case that Reagan's nuclear
ambitions negatively impacted their community. From the Continental Walk
for Disarmament and Social Justice to the famous June 12, 1982 rally, these
men and women not only participated in antinuclear events, but in some
cases, took the lead in the movement to ban the bomb. Throughout these
events, black activists made clear the black freedom movement, peace, and
colonialism were indeed links in the same chain.
6Epilogue
chapter abstract
From Harold Washington to Ronald Dellums, black politicians have
consistently lifted the antinuclear banner throughout U.S. history. As a
student and presidential candidate Barack Obama spoke tirelessly about the
need for nuclear abolition. How have his policies as President matched up?
The book concludes by examining the current state of black activism and
analyzing whether President Obama has strengthened or weakened the chance
for a world with global human rights and free of nuclear weapons.