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UC San Diego UC San Diego Electronic Theses and Dissertations UC San Diego UC San Diego Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title From Southern California to Southern Africa: Translocal Black Internationalism in Los Angeles and San Diego from Civil Rights to Antiapartheid, 1960 to 1994 Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/86n7g448 Author Odom, Mychal Matsemela-Ali Publication Date 2017 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO From Southern California to Southern Africa: Translocal Black Internationalism in Los Angeles and San Diego from Civil Rights to Antiapartheid, 1960 to 1994 A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in History by Mychal Matsemela-Ali Odom Committee in Charge: Professor Luis Alvarez, Co-Chair Professor Daniel Widener, Co-Chair Professor Dennis R. Childs Professor Jessica L. Graham Professor Jeremy Prestholdt 2017 © Mychal Matsemela-Ali Odom, 2017 All Rights Reserved. The Dissertation of Mychal Matsemela-Ali Odom is approved, and it is acceptable in quality and form for publication on microfilm and electronically: Co-Chair Co-Chair University of California, San Diego 2017 iii DEDICATION This dissertation is dedicated to all my ancestors, family, and elders who made this study possible. This is dedicated to my ancestors beginning with Manch Kessee, the rebel enslaved African whose spirit lives in all his descendants. To Daphne Belgrave Kersee, Manch H. Kersee, Sr., Felton Andrew Odom, and Nadine Odom. It is dedicated to my parents Michael Andrew Odom and Maria Odell Kersee-Odom. This is for my wife Michelle Rowe-Odom and our children: Mayasa-Aliyah Estina Odom and Malika-Akilah Maria Odom. It is in honor of my siblings, Mosi Tamara Rashida Odom and Matthieu Renell Clayton Jackson; as well as your children, Jeremiah Harris, Makhia Jackson, and Josiah Harris. It is also dedicated to all members of the Odom, Kersee, Belgrave, Joseph, and Rowe families. As well, this is dedicated to the lives lost from state murder during the composition of this study: Trayvon Martin, Mike Brown, Eric Garner, Sandra Bland, Alfred Olango and the many others. Your deaths have not been in vain. They instead underscore the urgency of the work that has filled the succeeding pages as well as streets of the United States and beyond. iv EPIGRAPH Black Consciousness is an attitude of the mind and a way of life, the most positive call to emanate from the black world for a long time. Its essence is the realisation by the black man of the need to rally together with his brothers around the cause of their oppression - the blackness of their skin - and to operate as a group to rid themselves of the shackles that bind them to perpetual servitude. Steve Biko Of all our studies, history is best qualified to reward our research. And when you see that you've got problems, all you have to do is examine the historic method used all over the world by others who have problems similar to yours. And once you see how they got theirs straight, then you know how you can get yours straight. Malcolm X v TABLE OF CONTENTS SIGNATURE PAGE ··············································································· iii DEDICATION ······················································································ iv EPIGRAPH ··························································································· v TABLE OF CONTENTS ·········································································· vi LIST OF FIGURES ··············································································· vii GLOSSARY OF ABBREVIATIONS ···························································· x ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ······································································· xi VITA ······························································································· xvii ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION ······················································ xix INTRODUCTION The Black Global Spatial Imaginary from Central Avenue to Sophiatown ·············································································· 1 CHAPTER ONE Why Not the Same Concern?: Civil Rights, Black Nationalism, and the Development of African Consciousness in Southern California ····························· 44 CHAPTER TWO Crisis of the African Intellectual: The Racial Encounters of African Students in the Cold War University ··························································· 120 CHAPTER THREE Towards a Black International: The War on Poverty, Peace Corps, and Black Power’s Counterpoint to Cold War Liberalism ·································· 177 CHAPTER FOUR Ufahamu Na Kuumba: The Road to African Liberation Support in Southern California ··············································································· 256 CHAPTER FIVE “Free South Africa, You Dumb SOB”: Culture, Education, and Resistance in the Southern California Divestment Movement ····························· 347 EPILOGUE “You Still Got One Brother Left”: The Black Global Spatial Imaginary in a Post-Apartheid World ············································································ 428 BIBLIOGRAPHY ················································································ 449 vi LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1 Printed in the SDSU Daily Aztec, Herbert “Herblock” Lock’s political cartoon shows how Americans began to see clear similarities in African American and South African liberation movements in the spring of 1960. (Daily Aztec, SDSU Special Collections and University Archives) ···························································· 47 Figure 2 As CORE embraced more militant tactics, their membership grew. As well, they increasingly criticized American racial liberalism and San Diego's constructed image. (San Diego Union) ········································································· 68 Figure 3 Brown leading a Bank of American Protest. (Brown Papers, SDSU) ············ 72 Figure 4 Notice Brown's tatter and wrinkled clothes. Once released from jail, he immediately returned to the picket lines. (People's World) ··································· 76 Figure 5 Logo for the Afro-American Association. (Afro-American Dignity News, Freedom Archives) ················································································· 84 Figure 6 Von Wolfolk leading a private lesson on Black Studies. Photograph by Norman Baynard (San Diego History Center) ···························································· 95 Figure 7 “Why Not the Same Concern?” San Diego Voice, 12/10/64 (Brown Papers, SDSU Special Collections and University Archives) ········································ 103 Figure 8 Young men at the Africa House. While African clothing became largely associated with the cultural nationalist organizations of the late 1960s, this photo displays that such style politics were already being embraced. (San Diego History Center) ····· 108 Figure 9 An assorted variety of visual art was displayed at the Africa House. (San Diego History Center) ···················································································· 109 Figure 10 Usquiano and Bolden were slated to be instructors at the Africa House (San Diego Voice) ······················································································ 114 Figure 11 Mitchell was the director of the art guild at the Africa House (San Diego Voice) ······························································································ 114 Figure 12 The Case of Kumbula and Muchenje became a front-page story for the student newspaper. (SDSU Special Collections) ······················································ 131 Figure 13 The SAFAC Wilshire Boulevard Protest ca. 1964 linked Anti-Apartheid to Civil Rights protests in practice. (African Activist Archive) ······························· 150 vii Figure 14 Samuel Carr-Damu and members of the Simba Wachanga (Young Lions) ca. 1966 ································································································ 193 Figure 15 Unity and Leadership Conference Organizing Committee ca. 1966 (Sukumu Private Collection) ················································································ 201 Figure 16 Harold Brown at the Unity and Leadership Conference ca. 1966 (Brown Papers, SDSU) ···················································································· 202 Figure 17 Mervyn Dymally at the Unity and Leadership Conference (Brown Papers, SDSU Special Collections) ······································································ 202 Figure 18 San Diego Community Patrol Against Police Brutality ca. 1967 (Vernon Sukumu Private Collection) ····································································· 204 Figure 19 1968 Kuzaliwa at Mountain View Park (Vernon Sukumu Private Collection) ························································································· 229 Figure 20 Harold Brown delivering his Eulogy to Dr. King at an African Methodist Episcopal church in Maseru, Lesotho. Brown’s wife Laverne is to his right with her newly adopted natural hairstyle. The man sitting to Brown’s left is King Moshoeshoe II. Moshoeshoe II was amongst the opposition to the Jonathan’s BNP-led government. ·· 249 Figure 21 Baraka on one of his many visits to SDSU. Next to him is Sukumu ca. 1970. (SDSU Special Collections) ····································································· 271
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