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Alphaeus Hunton, Was Jailed for Nine Months in 1951

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Alphaeus Hunton, Was Jailed for Nine Months in 1951 FOR THE FIRST TIME, A PANORAMIC VIEW OF U.S. ACTIVISM ON AFRICA FROM 1950 TO 2000. “We were part of a worldwide movement that continues today to redress the economic and social injustices that kill body, mind, and spirit. No Easy Victories makes clear that our lives and fortunes around the globe are indeed linked.” —NELSON MANDELA Hundreds of thousands of Americans mobilized to oppose hear in No Easy Victories.” —Charlayne Hunter-Gault, author of apartheid in the 1980s.They built on decades of behind-the- New News out of Africa: Uncovering the African Renaissance scenes links between African liberation movements and American activists, both black and white. “With its mixture of history, personal stories and photographs, this richly detailed book has the feel of a family album.The family, No Easy Victories draws on the voices of activists of several genera- though, is a large one: multiracial, multicontinental. Some of its tions to explore this largely untold history.While U.S.-based members are well known, some unsung.All of them share a pas- groups and individuals contributed to African liberation,African sion for justice.” —Adam Hochschild, author, King Leopold’s Ghost struggles also inspired U.S. activism, including the civil rights and black power movements. “No Easy Victories is equal parts inspiration, education and celebration of how social change happens. It is a remarkable Today Africa and the world face global injustices as deadly as chronicle of how activists on opposite sides of the Atlantic apartheid. Understanding this history of solidarity is essential for united around their shared commitments to freedom and finding new paths to a future of equal human rights for all. self-determination.” —Amy Goodman, host, Democracy Now! Richly illustrated with 120 photographs, No Easy Victories features chapters by William Minter, Lisa Brock, Mimi Edmunds, Joseph F. Jordan, David Goodman, and Walter Turner. Shorter essays high- WILLIAM MINTER taught at the secondary school of the light a wide array of individual activists and organizations. Mozambique Liberation Front in 1966–68 and 1974–76.An independent scholar, widely published author, and activist, he is “No Easy Victories tells the compelling stories behind the U.S. the editor of AfricaFocus Bulletin. anti-apartheid movement in the voices of those who were there. It reminds us that movements emerge over time, built on hard GAIL HOVEY, among the founders of Southern Africa magazine work by movement foot soldiers and on personal networks that in 1964, served as research director for the American Committee bridge generations and continents.” —Danny Glover, actor, on Africa/The Africa Fund and as managing editor of Christianity activist, chair of TransAfrica Forum and Crisis. “Africa today is experiencing a second wind of change, with CHARLES COBB JR., senior correspondent for allAfrica.com, Africans demanding good governance, respect for human rights, was a field secretary for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating and empowerment of women.Those who are in the forefront are Committee (SNCC) in Mississippi in 1962–67. His latest book is standing on the shoulders of those whose voices and stories we On the Road to Freedom:A Guided Tour of the Civil Rights Trail. No Easy Victories: African Liberation and American Activists over a Half Century, 1950-2000 SPECIAL 20% discount off list price if you place your order by October 30. edited byPRE-PUBLICATION William Minter, Visit Gail www.noeasyvictories.org Hovey, and Charles for Cobb,details andJr. toAfrica make Worldyour purchase. Press, 2008. xvii, 248OFFER! pages; Use ill., Google maps; Checkout, 28cm. Paypal,Includes or print bibliography out a form to and mail index. in. ISBN: 1592215742 (hardback); 1592215750 (paperback). Excerpts and more information at www.noeasyvictories.org List price $29.95. 15% discount------------------------------- for orders through www.noeasyvictories.org List For Price additional Library $29.95. Recommendation 5%15% discount discount enter on www.noeasyvictories.org. couponForm code asp08 Name: _____________________________"This is a remarkable5% andadditional often insightful discount: E-mail collection enter or phone coupon of essaysnumber: code andasp08 ______________________reflections ... in its Position"This is a (faculty,remarkablevery strength student, and oftenit otherexposes insightful library an entire collection user): realm _________________________________________of of essays research and that reflections has yet ...to bein itscompleted." very strength - it exposes an Comments:entire realm of research thatGerald has yet Horne, to be H-Net completed." revieww, - Gerald January Horne, 2008 H-Net Review, January 2008 The 1950s: Africa Solidarity Rising Lisa Brock n the summer of 1979, I attended my first journey and emerged as leaders: George Houser, Bill demonstration in solidarity with the people Sutherland, and Charlene Mitchell. For each of them, of Africa. Little did I know that this would be but in very different ways, the 1950s was a determin- the first of many such actions, or that out of it ing decade that shaped the work they would engage Iwould grow my intellectual and political work for the in for the next half century. next 20 years. The Southern Africa Support Project From the vantage point of the twenty-first in Washington, DC called the demonstration to century, it is important to grasp that the 1950s was a protest the presence in Washington of Bishop Abel messy dance of a decade. The Cold War was omni- Muzorewa. Recently installed as leader of what was present, both shaping and being shaped by rising briefly called Zimbabwe-Rhodesia, Muzorewa was demands for freedom and civil rights on the African in town to gain support for his government, which continent and in the United States. The struggles had been established to forestall genuine majority against racism, colonialism, and nuclear prolifera- rule in Zimbabwe. tion were intertwined. Enormous, almost impos- Even before, I had been involved in domestic anti- sible, hopes and dreams were placed on Africa and racist issues, as a student at Howard University and African leaders by Americans, especially African as a member of the National Alliance Against Racist Americans, who wanted to believe that colonialism and Political Repression. I had begun to see the con- and racial oppression were finite and vulnerable. nections between the local and the global, especially As I began to explore the 1950s, probably most in terms of racism, sexism, power, and imperialism. revelatory for me was the discovery that virtually all Meeting Dennis Brutus, while I was a graduate student U.S.-centered activists and scholars whom we iden- at Northwestern University, solidified my growing tify with the civil and human sense of internationalism with concrete action. It was rights movements consciously at Dennis’s urging that I became a co-chair in Chicago saw themselves as working in of the Stop the Apartheid Rugby Tour in 1981, and I solidarity with the peoples of never looked back. I came to understand that I was Africa. The list is far too long to part of a tradition of activists and intellectuals who name in full but includes Paul had made that same political and personal journey. and Essie Robeson, St. Clair In this chapter about the 1950s, I will present Drake, Thurgood Marshall, three “lions,” activists who preceded me on this Sidney Poitier, Ella Baker, Billie Lisa Brock Photo courtesy of Lisa Brock. Holiday, and Harry Belafonte. This discovery rein- From its office on 26th Street in New York City, forced the need for the sort of history we present here, the council linked the struggle against racism in and it raised important questions. Why are the histo- the United States with the colonization of “colored ries, documentaries, and biographies of these people peoples” the world over. Guests from South Africa and this era problematically constructed to emphasize and India were honored at its events. CAA cam- the national and not the international? How does the paigns—opposing Mussolini’s invasion of Ethiopia; desire for a “national narrative” obscure the evolution advocating for a strong United Nations; champion- of an international one? Could this be one postmod- ing workers’ causes in South Africa, Nigeria, and ern undertaking of scholar activists, to deconstruct Ghana; demanding the end of the South African the “imagined past” toward a reimagined future? This mandate over South West Africa—were widely small essay dreams so. applauded in U.S., European, and African newspa- pers. The council in the late 1940s had varied and Race, Ideology, and the Fall of the deep personal, political, and journalistic ties in Council on African Affairs Africa, India, the Caribbean, and Europe. Before I present the lives and work of George By 1952, however, the liberal-left coalition was Houser, Bill Sutherland, and Charlene Mitchell, imploding under the weight of a totalizing Cold a few words should be said about the Council on War. Robeson and Du Bois were hounded by U.S. African Affairs. The council closed its doors in the authorities and Hunton served nine months in jail mid-1950s, just as Houser’s American Committee in 1951 for his political and ideological beliefs. on Africa was opening up for business. Labeling them as subversive and soft on commu- Formed in 1937, the Council on African Affairs nism was both accurate and effective, and it cost the was by the 1950s the largest Africa solidarity organi- council considerable support. While none professed zation in the United States up to that time. Its history illus- trates the power of African American solidarity with the peoples of Africa as well as the threat this solidarity posed to the American estab- lishment. At the beginning of World War II the orga- nization was “crafted by the left” but embraced by “the full range of black American liberals, church leaders, [and the] professional and middle class” (Von Eschen 1997, 19), as well as by black nation- alist organizations.
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