Bookended by remarks from African American diplomats Walter C. Carrington and Charles Stith, the essays in this volume use close readings of speeches, letters, historical archives, diaries, memoirs of policymakers, and newly available FBI files to confront much-neglected questions related to race and foreign relations in the United States. Why, for instance, did African Americans profess loyalty and support for the diplomatic initiatives of a nation that undermined their social, political, and economic well-being through racist policies and cultural practices? Other contributions explore African Americans' history in the diplomatic and consular services and the influential roles of cultural ambassadors like Joe Louis and Louis Armstrong. The volume concludes with an analysis of the effects on race and foreign policy in the administration of Barack Obama.

Groundbreaking and critical, African Americans in U.S. Foreign Policy expands on the scope and themes of recent collections to offer the most up-to-date scholarship to students in a range of disciplines, including U.S. and African American history, Africana studies, political science, and American studies.

|Acknowledgments vii
Preface: Reflections of a Black Ambassador
Walter C. Carrington ix
Introduction 1
Part I: Early African American Diplomatic Appointments: Contributions and Constraints
1 Blacks in the U.S. Diplomatic and Consular Services, 1869-1924 Allison Blakely 13
2 A New Negro Foreign Policy: The Critical Vision of Alain Locke and Ralph Bunche
Jeffrey C. Stewart 30
3 Carl Rowan and the Dilemma of Civil Rights, Propaganda, and the Cold War Michael L. Krenn 58

Part II: African American Participation in Foreign Affairs through Civil Society: Religious, Military, and Cultural Institutions in Foreign Policy
4 Reconstructions' Revival: The Foreign Mission Board of the National Baptist Convention and the Roots of Black Populist Diplomacy
Brandi Hughes 83
5 White Shame/Black Agency: Race as a Weapon in Post-World War I Diplomacy
Very Ingrid Grant 109
6 Goodwill Ambassadors: African American Athletes and U.S. Cultural Diplomacy, 1947-1968
Damion Thomas 129
7 The Paradox of Jazz Diplomacy: Race and Culture in the Cold War Lisa Davenport 140

Part III: The Advent of the Age of Obama: African Americans and the Making of American Foreign Policy
8 African American Representatives in the United Nations: From Ralph Bunche to Susan Rice Lorenzo Morris 177
9 Obama, African Americans, and Africans: The Double Vision Ibrahim Sundiata 200
Epilogue: The Impact of African Americans on U.S. Foreign Policy Charles R. Stith 213
Contributors 225
Index 231|"Several of this collection's chapters and topics will certainly spur new and further research in African American and US diplomatic history. African Americans in U.S. Foreign Policy will particularly interest those concerned with the history and challenges faced by African Americans involved in the making and execution of US foreign policy."—H-Net Review
"This thought-provoking work reveals the continuing complexity of African American foreign policy elites in shaping and executing American foreign policy. Highly recommended."—Choice
"Sheds light on understudied but timely phenomena at the intersection of race and U.S. foreign relations and does so in new and exciting ways. Expands the chronological and thematic scopes of existing works, making it truly original. I am convinced that this book will intervene in many scholarly conversations for...