Black Liberation: A Comparative History of Black Ideologies in the United States and South Africa

401 Pages·1996·28.68 MB·English

by  George M. Fredrickson

Black
Liberation
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BLACK
LIBERATION
A Comparative History
of Black Ideologies
in the United States
and South Africa
George M. Fredrickson
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
New York Oxford
Oxford University Press
Oxford New York
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Berlin Ibadan
Copyright © 1995 by George M, Fredrickson
First published in 1995 by Oxford University Press, Inc.,
198 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016
First issued as an Oxford University Press paperback, 1996
Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise,
without the prior permission of Oxford University Press.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Fredrickson, George M., 1934-
Black liberation : a comparative history of Black ideologies
in the United States and South Africa / George M. Fredrickson.
p. cm. Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index.
ISBNO-19-505749-X
ISBN 0-19-510978-3 (Pbk.)
1. Civil rights movements—United States—History. 2. Civil
rights movements—South Africa— History. 3. Afro-Americans—
Politics and government. 4. United States—Race relations.
5. Blacks—South Africa—Politics and government. 6. South
Africa—Race relations. 7. Pan-Africanism—History. 8. Black
nationalism—United States —History. 9. Black nationalism—South
Africa—History. I. Title.
E185.61.F836 a1995 973'.0496073—dc20 94-37504
2468 10 9 7 5 31
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
For Lynne, Peter, and Sean
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Acknowledgments
The research, writing, and editing that made this book possible could not
have been accomplished without the generous help of many people and
institutions. The principal research was done in the following repositories:
the Stanford University Library, especially the library of the Hoover Insti-
tution; the Rhodes and Bodleian libraries of the University of Oxford; in
South Africa, the libraries of the Universities of the Witwatersrand, Cape
Town, Durban-Westville, and South Africa (UNISA); and the Harvard
University Library. I hope that the many librarians and curators who
rendered me special service will forgive me for not mentioning each of
them. In my zeal to get at the documents they provided, I often—and
inexcusably—failed to note their names. I can, however, name two schol-
ars who assisted my research in a direct and exceptional way: Louis Har-
lan and Robert Edgar provided me with primary materials from their own
files that turned out to be of enormous value. I also received help in
locating sources from Thomas F. Jackson and Ian Solomon.
Intensive work on this project began in 1988-89 when I was Harms-
worth Professor of American History at Oxford. Dr. Stanley Trapido of-
fered me the hospitality of his seminar in South African History and Poli-
tics, and I had the rare opportunity of presenting my preliminary findings
to four successive meetings of the seminar. The feedback that I received
from Stan Trapido and the other members of this distinguished group of
South Africanists was invaluable. I would also like to thank Professor
Shula Marks of the School of Oriental and African Studies at the Univer-
sity of London for inviting me to present a paper describing my project to
her seminar and for the useful criticism that I received on that occasion.
During my research trip to South Africa in the spring of 1989,1 benefited
from the hospitality and advice of several South African scholars, espe-
cially Bruce Murray, Charles van Onselen, Tim Couzens, and Philip Bon-
viii Acknowledgments
ner of the University of the Witwatersrand; Christopher Saunders, Her-
man Giliomee, David Welsh, Francis Wilson, and Helen Bradford of the
University of Cape Town; and Colin Bundy of the University of the West-
ern Cape. While in Cape Town, I learned much about the links between
American and South African freedom struggles during an extended inter-
view with Allan Boesak. On a subsequent visit to South Africa in the
summer of 1992, I received input from Tom Lodge, Fatima Meer, Mewa
Ramgobin, Greg Cuthbertson, and William Freund, among others.
The manuscript was completed and revised while I was a fellow of the
W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for Afro-American Research at Harvard Uni-
versity in 1993. I wish to thank the Institute and its director, Henry Louis
Gates, Jr., for the financial support that enabled me to bring the work to
fruition. The staff of the Du Bois Institute, especially its associate direc-
tor, Randall Burkett, rendered me every possible day-to-day assistance,
and I also learned a great deal from the weekly seminars that provided me
and other fellows with a chance to present our work to a discerning and
critical audience.
Portions of the manuscript dealing with black religious nationalism
were read by James Campbell, Randall Burkett, and Richard Newman,
all of whom provided extensive and perceptive comments. A complete
draft of the book benefited from the close scrutiny of Anthony Marx,
Clayborne Carson, and Sterling Stuckey. I often, but not always, followed
the advice of these highly valued friends and colleagues. Consequently,
they deserve much of the credit for the strengths of the book but bear no
responsibility for its shortcomings.
Sheldon Meyer of Oxford University Press played his customary role as
peerless editor, providing a full measure of the encouragement and
friendly guidance that gives an author confidence and sense of direction. I
would also like to thank Stephanie Sakson for a highly professional job of
copy editing, and Andrew Albanese and Joellyn Ausanka for guiding the
book through the press. Last but not least, my wife Helene deserves much
credit for accepting gracefully the disruptions in our life that pursuit of
this project entailed and for proofreading the text in its various incarna-
tions, employing her acute sense of linguistic propriety to catch many
errors.
G.M.F.
Contents
Introduction 3
1. "Palladium of the People's Liberties": The Suffrage Question and
the Origins of Black Protest 14
Black Voting in the Nineteenth Century; The Ballot in African-American
Protest Thought, 1840-1905; The Cape Suffrage and the Origins of Black
Protest Politics in South Africa; Suffrage Struggles: Connections and
Comparisons
2. "Ethiopia Shall Stretch Forth Her Hands": Black Christianity and
the Politics of Liberation 57
The Problem of Religion and Resistance; Ethiopianist Thought in the
Nineteenth Century; Popular Ethiopianism and African-American
Missions to Africa; Ethiopianism in South Africa; What Happened to
American Ethiopianism?
3. Protest of "The Talented Tenth": Black Elites and the Rise of
Segregation 94
The Making of Segregation; African-Americans Mobilize Against
Segregation; The National Congress in Comparative Perspective;
Resisting the High Tide of Segregation, 1913-1919
4. "Africa for the Africans": Pan-Africanism and Black Populism,
1918-1930 137
Working-Class Protest and Middle-Class Organizations, 1918-1921; Elite
Pan-Africanism; Populist Pan-Africanism: The Garvey Movement; Black
Populism in South Africa: Garveyism and the ICU; Two Black Populisms:
Comparing the UNIA and the ICU