Symbol of Modernity: Ghana, African Americans, and the Eisenhower Administration A dissertation presented to the faculty of the College of Arts and Sciences of Ohio University In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy Kevin E. Grimm June 2012 © 2012 Kevin E. Grimm. All Rights Reserved. 2 This dissertation titled Symbol of Modernity: Ghana, African Americans, and the Eisenhower Administration by KEVIN E. GRIMM has been approved for the Department of History and the College of Arts and Sciences by Chester J. Pach, Jr. Associate Professor of History Howard Dewald Interim Dean, College of Arts and Sciences 3 ABSTRACT GRIMM, KEVIN E., Ph.D., June 2012, History Symbol of Modernity: Ghana, African Americans, and the Eisenhower Administration Director of Dissertation: Chester J. Pach, Jr. (359 pp.) Throughout the 1950s African Americans believed the decolonizing nation of Ghana gave the world a potent symbol of black ability to wield power fairly, peacefully, and effectively in modern political, economic, and social systems. Black Americans therefore attempted to use Ghana as a symbol of black modernity in the civil rights movement to convince American whites they should abandon the racist assumption that racial and social chaos would erupt upon the granting of full black civil rights. Such transnational racial identifications with Ghana also led numerous African American intellectuals, journalists, leaders, and organizations to pressure, often successfully, the administration of President Dwight D. Eisenhower to accord more attention and importance to Ghana, and to its leader Kwame Nkrumah. Among other events in the U.S.-Ghanaian relationship during the 1950s, African Americans played a role in causing Nkrumah’s 1951 and 1958 visits to the United States and Vice President Richard Nixon’s trip to the March 1957 independence ceremonies in Accra. Over the course of the decade African Americans also played a role in shifting American foreign policy in Africa toward at least a balance between European desires and African aspirations. Eisenhower and his Secretary of State John Foster Dulles largely left policy development on Africa to assistant secretaries of state and desk officers until the very end of the decade. African American leaders were constantly in contact with these mid-level officials, who often took black American views into account when thinking about the American approach to 4 Africa. Exploring both the specific symbol of black ability to embrace modernity that African Americans saw in Ghana and African American influence on American foreign policy toward Africa during the 1950s reveals one of the ways race produced positive outcomes in the globalizing Cold War. Approved: _____________________________________________________________ Chester J. Pach, Jr. Associate Professor of History 5 To my wife, Jenn, for all her support 6 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am especially grateful to Dr. Pach for all his help and advice with this project. His encouragement and suggested directions for the study have made the result all the more fruitful. I would also like to thank Dr. Muhammad, Dr. Jellison, and Dr. Brobst for their input and involvement. Numerous archivists, librarians, and others have helped me immensely throughout this process, especially as they fielded multiple requests for materials. I want to thank Joellen ElBashir at Howard University’s Moorland-Spingarn Research Center, Steve Robinson, Danielle Kovacs, and Anne Moore at the W.E.B. Du Bois Library at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Eva Guggemos and Moira Fitzgerald at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University, Edwina Ashie-Nikoi, Steven Fullwood, Nydia Swaby, and Diana Lachatanere at the New York Public Library’s Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Kevin Bailey, Valoise Armstrong, Chalsea Milner, and Catherine Cain at the Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum, and Doreen Hockenberry and the other members of the government documents department at Ohio University’s Vernon R. Alden Library. The staff of the National Archives at College Park was likewise extremely helpful. Finally, I would like to thank all of my family and friends who encouraged me during this process, including especially those who hosted me during my travels for research. I thank my parents for always supporting me and I thank my wife for her enthusiasm, her listening ear, and her belief in me. 7 TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Abstract ................................................................................................................................3 Dedication ............................................................................................................................5 Acknowledgements ..............................................................................................................6 List of Abbreviations ...........................................................................................................8 Introduction ........................................................................................................................10 Chapter 1: The Rise of Ghana ............................................................................................28 Chapter 2: Fantastic Stakes ................................................................................................63 Chapter 3: Shifting the Focus ............................................................................................96 Chapter 4: Questions and Some Answers ........................................................................133 Chapter 5: African Americans and the Middle Ground ...................................................167 Chapter 6: The Opportunities and Challenges of Independence .....................................199 Chapter 7: Race at All Levels ..........................................................................................238 Chapter 8: The Limits of Ghana’s Symbolism ................................................................288 Conclusion .......................................................................................................................334 Bibliography ....................................................................................................................347 8 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ACOA – American Committee on Africa AFSAR – Americans For South African Resistance AGUR – Accra, General USIS Records AMSAC – American Society of African Culture AWF – Ann Whitman File BAA – Bureau of African Affairs CDF – Central Decimal Files CFBA – Confidential U.S. State Department Central Files, British Africa CPP – Convention People’s Party (Nkrumah’s party) DDEL – Dwight D. Eisenhower Library DDEP – Dwight D. Eisenhower Papers as President FRUS – Foreign Relations of the United States GCACCGR – Gold Coast, Accra Consulate, Classified General Records GCGR – Ghana, Classified General Records JFDP – John Foster Dulles Papers MMNSC – Minutes and Meetings of the National Security Council MMNSC3 – Minutes and Meetings of the National Security Council, 3 rd Supplement NAACP – National Association for the Advancement of Colored People NACP – National Archives at College Park NEA – Near Eastern, South Asian, and African Division, State Department NLM – National Liberation Movement (opposition party in Ghana) NSC – National Security Council 9 OAA – Office of African Affairs, State Department OCB – Operations Coordinating Board OF – Official File OSAA – Office of Southern African Affairs, State Department OWAA – Office of West African Affairs, State Department PSB – Psychological Strategy Board RCOBIR – Records of Component Offices of the Bureau of Intelligence and Research RDEP-WHCF – Records of Dwight D. Eisenhower as President, White House Central Files REFM – Records of E. Frederic Morrow RG – Record Group SCDCA – St. Clair Drake Collection of Africana TC-JFDCH – Minutes of Telephone Conversations of John Foster Dulles and Christian Herter UGCC – United Gold Coast Convention (conservative party in Ghana) USCFEP – United States Council on Foreign Economic Policy WHO – White House Office 10 INTRODUCTION Main Arguments and Significance In March 1957 Vice President Richard M. Nixon journeyed to Accra for Ghana’s independence ceremonies. Nixon’s presence and speeches in Ghana generated much goodwill for the United States in a nation increasingly becoming important as a symbol of a decolonizing non-white world. While meeting with the charismatic leader of Ghana, Kwame Nkrumah, Nixon “expressed his pleasure that he was able to be present” and later “reiterated his pleasure at being present at this historic occasion.” Yet only a month earlier Nixon had been very reluctant to travel to Accra. Despite entreaties from Secretary of State John Foster Dulles and members of Congress, Nixon only agreed to go after he asked for, and received, a formal written request from President Dwight D. Eisenhower. In fact, African Americans, long enthusiastic over the symbol of black capability Ghana presented to the world, were primarily responsible for generating the official U.S. delegation to Ghana’s independence ceremonies. Three years earlier a black American leader had proposed the Congressional resolution that created the delegation. Likewise, Eisenhower’s highest level black official, E. Frederic Morrow, noted in early 1957 the “great pressures” black American leaders were placing on the administration to include an African American on the U.S. delegation. One