Winning Our Freedoms Together: African Americans and Apartheid, 1945-1960

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UCL Institute of the Americas is pleased to host Dr. Nicholas Grant (UEA), who will be discussing his new book Winning Our Freedoms Together: African Americans and Apartheid, 1945-1960 (UNC Press).

This transnational account of black protest, examines how African Americans engaged with, supported, and were inspired by the South African anti-apartheid movement. Bringing black activism into conversation with the foreign policy of both the U.S. and South African governments, this study questions the dominant perception that U.S.-centered anticommunism decimated black international activism. Instead, by tracing the considerable amount of time, money, and effort the state invested into responding to black international criticism, the book outlines the extent to which the U.S. and South African governments were forced to reshape and occasionally reconsider their racial policies in the Cold War world.

Advance praise:

'A superb study of the black international traffic between the civil rights and anti-apartheid struggles. It will be hard to think of the global anti-apartheid movement and the racial politics of the Cold War in the same way after reading this book.'

--Alex Lichtenstein, Indiana University

For more information and to read an excerpt, visit the UNC book page.

Nicholas Grant is a Lecturer in American Studies. He joined UEA in 2013 after completing his doctoral research at the University of Leeds. His research and teaching engages with the fields of African American and black international history.