Pardee Director Chairs Session at Conference on African Americans and US Foreign Policy

Pardee Center Director Prof. Adil Najam chaired a session on “Foreign Policy in World War II, the Cold War and the Civil Rights Movement” at a Boston University conference on African Americans and U.S. Foreign Policy held on October 27-28, 2010. The conference was organized by Boston University’s African American Studies Program in conjunction with the African Presidential Archives and Research Center.

The panel chaired by Prof. Najam looked at the topics by focusing on the lives of three prominent African Americans: Ralph Bunche, Malcolm X, and Carl Rowan. The speakers on the panel who looked at these three were, respectively, Prof. Pearl Robinson (Tufts University), Prof. Abdul Karim Bangura (Howard University) and Prof. Michael Krenn (Appalachian State University).

The goal of the conference was to analyze the role of African Americans on U.S. foreign policy, with a focus on both the historical and current impact. Beginning with the arrival of Africans in North American colonies through the abolition of slavery to contemporary U.S. foreign policy, the conference will delve into the influence of African American individuals, movements, and institutions and their role in shaping the policy framework defining American foreign policy. The emergence of Pan-Africanism, the importance of the African independence movement, the role of the Black Church, and United Nations and State Department politics will be addressed.