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Exploring global context of African American experience By Celena E. Kusch
Dr. Cary Fraser (left), assistant professor of African and African American studies at Penn State and organizer of the conference, and Dr. Elliott Skinner, Franz Boas Professor of Anthropology at Columbia University, discuss conference outcomes at the end of the day. After the first sessions, Fraser summarized the research, noting, “Enriched by our conversations, we have problematized the nation-state as a paradigm for understanding Black experience, turning instead to a global and transnational context. We have seen that the emergence of America provokes the crisis of Western civilization in the 20th century. Both the exclusive and inclusive politics of race are central to this.” Dr. Deborah F. Atwater, head of the Department of African and African American Studies at Penn State, chaired a panel titled “African American Culture and the Agenda of Black Liberation.” Speakers from Michigan State University and Rutgers University explored the literature, history and rhetoric of Black liberation movements both in America and abroad during the first half of the century. Dr. Laurence Prescott, associate professor of Spanish, Italian and Portuguese and African and African American studies at Penn State, served as a panel discussant. In his response, he said, “The papers indicate that African American leadership was attentive to the situations of Black leaders around the world and with concerns for international democracy.” He suggested that the broad implications of this research “show us the complexities of racially based societies and help us to better understand the whole of the African Diaspora.”	In 1903, W.E.B. DuBois wrote, “The problem of the 20th century is the problem of the color line.” Nearly a century later, there is significant evidence of the truth of his statement. Last spring, the African Americans and the Age of American Expansion, 1898–1998, conference drew together Penn State scholars and researchers from around the nation to examine this problem from the vantage of the end of this “century of race.” The conference provided a forum for intensive discussion of the African American community’s varied contributions to America’s expansion and emergence as the dominant country in the world over the course of the 20th century. The conference, sponsored by the Department of African and African American Studies at Penn State, was supported by the College of the Liberal Arts, Outreach and Cooperative Extension’s Program Innovation Fund, and a grant from the Ford Foundation. Almost 40 scholars participated. Both speakers and attendees came from a variety of disciplines, including history, literature, anthropology, law, Portuguese, African and African American studies, political science and sociology. In his welcoming address, Dr. John Brighton, former executive vice president and provost of Penn State, noted that half of the participants were presenters from across the country who have never been to Penn State before. Reflecting on the conference outcomes, Dr. Cary Fraser, assistant professor of African and African American studies and the faculty organizer of the conference, said, “The conference achieved two things. It encouraged us at Penn State to reach out to a wider cross-section of scholars, both in terms of shaping the field here and engaging others who are looking at these key issues. It also fostered a sense of community. A conference like this draws together diverse people from around the country, showing that we are not isolated or working on marginal issues. It really puts a focus on African American studies as a critical component in the evolving curriculum and sustains the constituency of people who find this work valuable and important.” The conference featured some of the leading people in the field. Dr. Elliott Skinner, a former U.S. ambassador to Burkina Faso (formerly Upper Volta) and currently the Franz Boas Professor of Anthropology at Columbia University, delivered the keynote address. Skinner, author of African Americans and U.S. Policy Toward Africa, 1850—1924: In Defense of Black Nationality, spoke about “African American Perspectives on the American Century.” His presentation covered the history of the African American role in and responses to American imperialism in which African Americans are “caught between the contradictory values of their American host country and their own displaced African identity.” Tracing the role of African American leaders, politicians, journalists, activists and artists, Skinner filled in the gaps in the history of America’s growth in international influence. According to Skinner, throughout the century, “African Americans spoke out about American imperialism and supported the independence of what they saw as their brothers and sisters.” His address spanned the century, exploring the transition from Reconstruction America to the Black activists of the ’50s and ’60s. “In the early part of the century,” he explained, “many African Americans migrated out of the United States to Cuba to escape the American values that produced lynchings at home and invasions abroad.” As the American nation grew in status, many African Americans chose to brave those realities in order to reshape and participate in some of the nobler qualities of the nation. Skinner revealed that during World War II there were serious questions about whether or not African Americans should “flock to defend a country that still practiced discrimination,” but many took that risk, making a valuable contribution to both American sovereignty and eventually to their own. Other speakers discussed more narrowly defined aspects of the issue in panel presentations, including “Black Identity in a Transnational Perspective,” “An African American Dilemma: Representing America Abroad” and “The Logic of Race in American Foreign Policy.” Beyond the exchange of views and research findings about the evolution of American history and the centrality of race over the past century, the conference had some unexpected outcomes. Fraser noted, “The highlight of the conference for me was in the way we were able to bring different generations together in fruitful discussions and promote a true sense of collegiality throughout the event. This is particularly useful to young scholars who need to know what ground has already been covered and where to go from here.” Brighton opened the conference and welcomed participants to University Park. He emphasized the University’s support for innovative scholarship and acknowledged the importance of the support extended by the Ford Foundation for the conference. Dr. Susan Welch, dean of the College of the Liberal Arts, took time out from her meetings with alumni to introduce Professor Skinner at the keynote session. “Their involvement is evidence that Penn State’s commitment to African American studies is more than just symbolic,” Fraser said. “The conference was a way to give the department and the College of the Liberal Arts a profile in the national context in which African American studies is understood,” he explained. “Conferences of this nature seem to be a good investment for the University, and we will be working to promote more of them. It has been nearly five years since the department arranged our last scholarly conference, but I don’t think we’ll wait five years for the next one.”