Civil rights in America's African diaspora

In 1926, the United States (US) company Firestone Rubber in Akron, Ohio initiated a second practice of segregation in Liberia. The first practice began with the minority regime of the Afro-American settlers over 17 ethnic groups in the Republic of Liberia in 1847. Civil rights were unheard of in Liberia during either of these two periods. This changed when Liberian students travelled to the US on government scholarships, primarily to study in historical black colleges and universities (HBCUs) in the 1940s and 1950s. When the Liberian students were exposed to the Civil Rights Movement, they fully understood the injustice of the situation in Liberia. Dr Martin Luther King, Jr and others travelled to the Gold Coast for its transition into becoming the nation of Ghana on 6 March 1957. Meetings between King and Prime Minister Kwame Nkrumah led to collaborative efforts towards ending colonial racism in Africa and segregation in the US. During the Cold War, segregation in the US and Liberia was a source of shame for both nations. Liberian students returning from the US began “sit-ins” in protest against segregated Firestone facilities. The Liberian government responded by enacting its first Civil Rights Act against Firestone in 1958 and ending discrimination, except in segregated schools. This article shows, however, that it took more than another 30 years for the first decolonisation process to end the minority regime after the Civil Rights Acts of 1958, and to end the original form of ethnic segregation, which began in 1847 and ended as a result of the violent civil wars of the 1980s and 1990s

Civil rights · Colonialism · Diaspora · Government (linguistics) · Injustice · Political science · Racism · Sociology · Spanish Civil War · African history and culture analysis · African history and culture studies · African studies and sociopolitical issues · Gender Studies · Law

• Poland's Colonial Aspirations and the Question of a Mandate over Liberia, 1933–1939

  Open Access•Milena Skulimowska•The Historical Journal•2021

  Incluir item

• The origins of the civil rights movement

  Aldon D Morris•The origins of the civil rights…•1984

  Incluir item

• Bearing the Cross

  David J Garrow, David Garrow et al.•BEARING THE CROSS•1994

  Incluir item

• A History of Ethiopia

  Harold G Marcus•History of Ethiopia•1994

  Incluir item

• Foreign Relations of the United States

  Harry G Gelber•The Australian Quarterly•1965

  Incluir item

• The "Back-to-Africa" Movement in Arkansas

  Adell Patton•The Arkansas Historical Quarterly•1992

  Incluir item

• Asian and African Studies

  Burton Raffel•Books Abroad•1976

  Incluir item

• The Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr. Volume IV

  William H Harris, Martin Luther King et al.•The Journal of Southern History•2002

  Incluir item

• Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Third World

  James H Cone•Journal of American History•1987

  Incluir item

• The Nation and Beyond

  David Thelen•Journal of American History•1999

  Incluir item

• But a Local Phase of a World Problem

  R D G Kelley•Journal of American History•1999

  Incluir item

• The New Liberia. A Historical and Political Survey

  O John, O P St John et al.•International Journal Canada s…•1965

  Incluir item

• African Perspectives on Colonialism

  A Adu Boahen•African Perspectives on Colonialism•1989

  Incluir item

• A quantitative analysis of Liberian colonization from 1820 to 1843 with special reference to mortality

  Open Access•Tom W Shick•The Journal of African History•1971

  Incluir item

• Politics in Liberia

  Ronald W Davis, Martin Lowenkopf•The International Journal of…•1977

  Incluir item

• Physicians, Colonial Racism, and Diaspora in West Africa

  C Bawa Yamba, Adell Patton•The International Journal of…•1999

  Incluir item