Cross-Border Cosmopolitans: The Making of a Pan-African North America

421 Pages·2023·12.068 MB·English

by  Wendell Nii Laryea Adjetey

Cross-Border Cosmopolitans
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Cross - Bor der
Cosmopolitans
The Making of a Pan-african
norTh aMerica
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Wendell nii laryea adjetey
The UniversiTy of norTh Carolina Press
Chapel Hill
This book is published with the assistance of the
Anniversary Fund of the University of North Carolina Press.
© 2023 Wendell Nii Laryea Adjetey
All rights reserved
Designed by Rich Hendel
Set in Miller and Transat
by Jamie McKee, MacKey Composition
Manufactured in the United States of America
Cover design by Lindsay Starr
Library of Congress Cataloging-in Publication Data
Names: Adjetey, Wendell Nii Laryea, author.
Title: Cross-border cosmopolitans : the making of a Pan-African North America /
Wendell Nii Laryea Adjetey.
Description: Chapel Hill : The University of North Carolina Press, 2023. |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: lCCn 2022022449 | isBn 9781469669922 (cloth ; alk. paper) |
isBn 9781469672113 (paperback) | isBn 9781469669939 (ebook)
Subjects: lCsh: Black people—North America—History—20th century. | Black
people—Political activity—North America. | Black people—North America—
Social conditions—20th century. | Pan-Africanism. | African diaspora.
Classification: lCC e49.2.B53 a45 2023 | DDC 320.54096—dc23/eng/20220629
lC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022022449
For
Osabu
(Osabu Olaitei, Ogidigidi, Gbègbèètégbèèté,
Katamansu Ta Tsè, Nuunko-Nuunko, Bo chukuò ni Bo nyagãa)
and
Atrékor Wé
for witnessing Osabu’s everlasting flame and
in whose hearts and minds Osabu kindled a spirit for
resisting injustice and surviving improbable odds.
Hiao! Hiao! Hiao!
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Contents
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List of Illustrations / viii
Acknowledgments / xi
Introduction. North America:
A Transnational, Global Zone, 1900–1919 / 1
part one
1. The Messianic Moment, 1919–1931 / 33
2. Borderlands Blues, 1930–1950 / 67
3. Civil Rights or Human Rights? 1950–1967 / 117
part tWo
4. Immigration, Black Power, and Draft Resisters / 153
5. The Mind of the State / 195
6. Cold Wars, Hot Wars / 230
Conclusion / 260
Notes / 269
Index / 375
illustrations
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fiGUres
J. R. B. Whitney and Ada Kelly Whitney / 13
Letter from Sir Edmund Walker / 13
Letter from Ontario prime minister Sir William Hearst / 14
Anna H. Jones, Oberlin class of 1875 / 14
Robert Paris Edwards, “A Credit to My Race” / 32
“Always Go by Tunnel” / 87
Joe Louis’s gloves / 87
Beulah Cuzzens, circa 1927 / 88
Earle A. Cuzzens / 88
Juanita Corinne DeShield / 88
Yenwith Kelly Whitney / 100
Allan Malcolm Morrison / 100
Gilbert St. Elmo “Gillie” Heron / 102
Daniel Grafton Hill III / 102
Hill family / 126
“Toronto Woman Calls Ghana in Appeal to Save Negro” / 130
Ghanaian prime minister meeting Canadian prime minister / 130
Cabinet of Ghana’s first president, Kwame Nkrumah / 131
Officers of the Baltimore chapter of the Black Panther Party, circa 1968 / 209
Defense Captain Warren Hart serves breakfast to schoolchildren, circa 1969 / 210
Purged members of the Baltimore chapter of the Black Panther Party / 210
MaPs
North America / xx
Great Lakes Cities, States, and Provinces / 68
Atlantic Triangle / 231
Caribbean Basin / 232
TaBles
2.1 Permanent U.S. Immigration to Canada / 110
2.2 Massachusetts Census Tracts / 111
2.3 Foreign-Born in Illinois, Michigan, New York,
and Ohio Census Tracts / 112
2.4 Foreign-Born in Wayne County (Mich.) Census Tract / 113
2.5 Foreign-Born in Cook County (Chicago, Ill.) Census Tract / 114
2.6 Foreign-Born in Ohio Census Tracts / 115
2.7 Foreign-Born in New York Counties:
Erie, Monroe, New York, and Onondaga / 116