Blackness the Color of Red

This article draws on the archival records of the United States Consulate in Riga, Latvia, during the interwar period and other primary sources to reconstruct the rites of passage by African American citizens of the USA traveling to and from the Soviet Union. In the absence of established diplomatic relations between the USA and the USSR (until 1933), the US legation in Riga served as a popular entry point for American tourists and contract workers attracted by the mystique and job opportunities of the first socialist state. The consular records of the US legation in Riga contain a wealth of materials related to some of these travels. In the course of formal interviews with consular officials, US citizens, including the minority of black visitors, revealed remarkable details of their Soviet odysseys. The archival records bring to life a unique story of ‘race tourism’ by African Americans to the first socialist state and thus provide a rare insight into the early Soviet society and its accepted attitudes toward racial difference; and such accounts are usually juxtaposed with an eviscerating critique of North American and Western racism during the interwar period

Economic history · Interwar period · Negotiation · Period (music · Political science · Race (biology · Racism · Sociology · State (computer science · World War II · Communism, Protests, Social Movements · European history and politics · French Historical and Cultural Studies · Gender Studies · History · Law

• The Communist Transnational? Transnational studies and the history of the Comintern

  Open Access•Oleksa Drachewych•History Compass•2018

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