Copyright by Lauren Whitney Hammond 2014 The Dissertation Committee for Lauren Whitney Hammond Certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: Outpost of Empire, Endpost of Blackness: African Americans, the Dominican Republic, and U.S. Foreign Policy, 1869-1965 Committee: Frank A. Guridy, Supervisor Juliet E. K. Walker Leonard Moore Minkah Makalani Tiffany Gill Seth Garfield Outpost of Empire, Endpost of Blackness: African Americans, the Dominican Republic, and U.S. Foreign Policy, 1869-1965 by Lauren Whitney Hammond, B.A.; M.A. Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Texas at Austin August 2014 Dedication To my grandmothers, Ruth and Sylvia, and my parents, Pierre and Joyce. Acknowledgements Throughout the research process, I had the privilege and pleasure of visiting several archives in the United States and the Dominican Republic. In the United States, I would like to thank the staffs of the Library of Congress, Howard University’s Moorland- Spingarn Research Center, the National Archives, the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, the Houghton Library at Harvard University, and the Benson Latin American Collection at the University of Texas at Austin. In the Dominican Republic, I would like to thank the archivist and librarians at the Archivo Histórico de Santiago, the Universidad Autónoma de Santo Domingo, and the Archivo General de la Nación. I would like to thank the members of my doctoral committee for their valuable advice and support through the research and writing process, as well as my development as a teacher and scholar. First, I would like to thank my advisor, Frank Guridy, who helped me conceptualize the project and first pointed me in the direction of foreign policy as a possible research topic. He also played an important role in my development as a scholar of the African diaspora. Seth Garfield provided much of the essential training I needed as Latin Americanist, in addition to giving me critical feedback on my writing. Tiffany Gill has been a wonderful mentor, highlighting the importance of knowing your worth in the academy. She also provided me one of the first opportunities I had to teach. Juliet E. K. Walker played a critical role in my professional development and was my biggest cheerleader besides my parents. Leonard Moore has modeled for me how to be an excellent scholar and teacher while holding true to my faith and values in the v academy. Minkah Makalani provided important feedback in the final stages of the process. I would also like to thank members of the University of Texas at Austin academic community and my circle in Austin. Professors Toyin Falola, Susan Deans-Smith, Laurie Green, Virginia Burnet, Emilio Zamora, Ni Lu, and Edmund Gordon all played an important role in my development at various phases during my time at UT. I also would like to give a special thanks to my friends and cohort members, Claudia Rueda and Juandrea Bates, who began this process with me and helped see me it through to victory. In many ways, they formed a core community for me from our first days in the program, and they played a key role in my development as a scholar. I would like to thank Takkara Brunson, who was both a friend and a mentor through much of the process. I am also grateful to my friends and writing partners, Jeffery Parker and Julie Grigsby, with whom I exchanged numerous drafts and spent countless hours with in coffee shops, particularly during Austin’s hot summers. And I would like to thank Jaqueline Smith, Christina García Lopez, Kwame Essien, Melissa Kravetz, and Irene Garza for their friendship and support over the years. I would like to thank my friends Jenny García and Sandra Zaragoza, who was also my roommate, for their support. I am also grateful to the staff at Flight Path Coffee House, particularly Angie, the morning barista, who always had a cup ready for me. I also had an amazing group of friends before I arrived at the University of Texas at Austin. In high school, I met my best friend, Meredith Hope. While our friendship waxed and waned over more than a dozen years, she has played a critical role in my development as a person and provided crucial support through prayer and laughter during the past two years. I was blessed to attend the University of Virginia before coming to UT. There I met at fabulous group of ladies I am grateful to: Shamia Morgan, Melissa vi Mason, Leigh Chapman, Chela Wallace, Stephanie Shannon, Regina Joice, Schuyler Espirit, Todne Thomas, and Yadira Pérez Hazel. I would also like to thank my mentors and advisors from the University of Virginia. Professor Corey D. B. Walker guided me through the process of deciding whether to choose a professional degree in law or a doctorate in History. Through him, I met Professors Reginald Butler and Scott French, who hired me to work at the Carter G. Woodson Institute, which is where this journey began. They introduced me to the methods of historical research and guided and supported me through the graduate school application process. I am also grateful to Milton Vickerman and Deborah McDowell for their support while I was at the University of Virginia. Last, but not least, I would like to express my profound gratitude to my family for their loving support over the years. My grandmothers, Ruth Scott and Sylvia Shamburger, are where much of this starts. Because they each pushed for something better for their families in segregated Virginia and Washington, D.C., I am who I am today. I am especially grateful to my nana, Ruth, and to my Aunt Kathi, would laid cornerstones for me in my faith in Jesus Christ, and who have prayed for me and with me throughout this process. I was, and am, blessed by my parent’s marriage, which has provided a firm foundation for me throughout my life. My parents have always made sure I had whatever I needed throughout this process. I am thankful for my dad, who instilled in me a love for history and architecture as a young child and helped me through the big decisions, the highs, and the lows. I am grateful to my mother, who never stopped praying, called me all the time, and made sure I took care of myself. I am also grateful to, and proud of, my two younger sisters, Adrienne and Breonna, who have achieved much in life. My sisters have saved me at difficult moments and at times made me laugh so hard I cried. They are my rays of sunshine. There are not enough words to vii express my gratitude to these people or to the God who gave them to me. This dissertation is for them and for Him. viii Outpost of Empire, Endpost of Blackness: African Americans, the Dominican Republic, and U.S. Foreign Policy, 1869-1965 Lauren Whitney Hammond, Ph.D. The University of Texas at Austin, 2014 Supervisor: Frank A. Guridy This dissertation explores African-American interests in U.S.-Dominican relations from 1869 to 1965. From President Grant’s Reconstruction scheme to annex the Dominican Republic to the U.S. intervention in Santo Domingo at the height of the Civil Rights Movement, African Americans and Dominicans confronted U.S. racial ideologies that undergirded Jim Crow and U.S. empire. Yet in spite, or perhaps because of, American racism and paternalism, Dominican elites crafted an Indo-Hispanic identity, notwithstanding Dominicans’ significant African heritage. In examining how the idea of shared African ancestry motivated African-American interest in U.S.-Dominican affairs despite the Dominican state’s projection of a non-black dominicanidad (Dominicanness), the dissertation highlights the power and limits of diasporic politics and argues that diplomacy is a potent tool of diasporic practice. African Diaspora Studies has illuminated much about diasporic politics and practice between black- and/or African- identified groups, yet there has been little consideration of how diasporic politics function in regard to countries like the Dominican Republic, where the state has stifled such identities. As the dissertation examines a series of episodes – the 1869 U.S. attempt to ix annex the Dominican Republic, the 1937 slaughter of Haitians living in the Dominican Republic during the Trujillato, OCIAA efforts to cement U.S.-Dominican ties during World War II, and President Johnson’s 1965 decision to send troops to Santo Domingo – it illuminates how African-American elites sought to use their limited influence in the public sphere and foreign policy circles to shape U.S. engagement with the Dominican Republic. The study uses periodicals, organizational records, and the personal and public writings of prominent and lesser known African-American intellectuals, activists, and journalists. Contextualizing these sources in the socio-political milieus of American Jim Crow, Dominican hispanophilia, and U.S. empire uncovers the thoughts, discursive strategies, and actions of African Americans who navigated these complexities for what they believed was the benefit of the Dominican people. Additionally, the project explores changes and continuities in African-American readings of U.S. foreign policy and understandings of Dominican politics and identity. What emerges is an intellectual history that contributes to Latin American and African-American history, African Diaspora Studies, and the history of U.S. foreign relations. x Table of Contents INTRODUCTION Outpost of Empire, Endpost of Blackness: African Americans, the Dominican Republic, and U.S. Foreign Policy, 1869-1965 ........................