CIVIL RIGHTS AND GLOBAL LIBERATION

• What was the Double-V campaign?

  victory against Nazi racism abroad and victory against racism in America 
• How did Hitler view racism in America?

  he hoped to exploit racial and social tensions to bring american fascist to power bc he belived nazi germany and america were the same 
• 1. What is an example you can use as evidence for the influence of anti-colonial leaders on the civil rights movement?

  The Indian independence movement led by Gandhi strongly influenced leaders like Martin Lurther King Jr. 
• How did the connections between civil rights and decolonization create a foreign policy problem for the US government?

  The connections between civil rights and decolonization posed a foreign policy problem for the US government because supporting civil rights at home while ignoring or even opposing decolonization abroad created a contradiction in its principles and undermined its credibility as a promoter of democracy and human rights globally
• Explain various reactions to existing power structures in the period after 1900?

  • Civil Rights Movement
  • Global Liberation Movements
  • Resistance and Repression
  • International Solidarity
• Civil Rights Movement


  In the United States, African Americans and other marginalized groups challenged existing power structures through nonviolent protests, legal challenges, and grassroots organizing. They demanded equal rights and an end to segregation and discrimination
• Global Liberation Movements


  Internationally, colonized peoples in Africa, Asia, and Latin America fought against colonial powers for independence and self-determination. These movements sought to dismantle oppressive colonial structures and establish sovereign nations
• Resistance and Repression


  In response to these movements, existing power structures often reacted with resistance and repression. In the US, authorities used violence, intimidation, and legal barriers to suppress civil rights activists. Similarly, colonial powers employed military force and coercion to suppress liberation movements in their colonies
• International Solidarity


  Civil rights activists and liberation movements found solidarity and support across borders. They formed alliances with other marginalized groups and sought assistance from international organizations and sympathetic governments
• • During the 1930s, Joseph Goebbels, Hitler's minister of propaganda, recognized social and racial tensions in the United States and believed they could be exploited to foment revolution or support fascist elements.
• • Hitler sent Nazi agents to collaborate with the Ku Klux Klan, aiming to exploit racial tensions in America.
• • The U.S. Congress investigated over 100 fascist groups in America by the end of the 1930s.
• • The Nazi regime attempted to justify its discriminatory Nuremberg laws by comparing them to the Jim Crow laws in the United States
• • Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay, an Indian independence and women's rights leader, witnessed American racism firsthand during her travels in the 1940s, highlighting the country's racial issues
• • Mahatma Gandhi, referring to Chattopadhyay's experience, criticized both England and America for their treatment of colored races, indicating that he did not regard them as truly free countries
• • Foreign officials and dignitaries visiting the United States after the war also observed and reported similar stories of racial discrimination and inequality
• • The American socialist and civil rights activist, Bayard Rustin, traveled to India in 1948 after Gandhi’s assassination. When he returned home, Rustin became King’s mentor and ally, teaching him about Gandhi’s methods. In 1959, King traveled to India himself. This trip helped solidify his belief that non-violent resistance was the weapon to bring down imperialism abroad and vanquish racism in America
• • Gandhi’s philosophy of non-violent resistance was based on the concept of Ahimsa, a principle from Hinduism, Buddhism, and Janinism that means “non-injury”
• • Historian Keisha Blaine highlights the international activism of Black women in the twentieth century, emphasizing connections between their activism in America and global struggles for racial and gender equality
• • Figures like Amy Jacques Garvey and Mittie Maude Lena Gordon linked their activism to international movements, recognizing that the fight for Black rights in the U.S. was interconnected with global struggles for freedom
• • Black nationalist women were committed to black internationalism, understanding that their fight for civil and human rights could not be separated from global movements for freedom in Asia, Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean, and beyond
• • Through avenues such as journalism, print media, and overseas travel, Black nationalist women articulated and disseminated global visions of freedom and sought to build transnational and transracial alliances with other people of color
• • Women of color in both the United States and colonized regions fought against dual oppressions: independence struggles against colonialism and racism, and battles against gender discrimination
• • The onset of the Cold War and decolonization transformed civil rights into a national security issue for American leaders
• • As former colonies gained independence and joined the United Nations, both the United States and the Soviet Union sought to groom these new nations as allies
• • Throughout the 1960s, African and Asian leaders petitioned to move the UN headquarters from New York to a country where they would be treated as equals, citing America's racial inequality as a reason to align with the Soviet Union or remain neutral
• • The Soviets capitalized on America's racial inequality, using propaganda to denounce it and undermine American interests abroad
• • Civil rights leaders in the U.S. recognized the interconnectedness of their struggle with decolonization movements worldwide and often collaborated with leaders from Africa and Asia
• • Figures like Martin Luther King Jr. and Bayard Rustin traveled to Ghana in the 1950s to meet with leaders like Kwame Nkrumah, and King opposed the Vietnam War and called for nuclear disarmament
• • The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) connected their fight for civil rights with decolonization movements abroad, attending meetings of the Organization of African Unity and campaigning against Apartheid in South Africa
• • The Civil Rights Movement and decolonization movements were actively linked, with leaders understanding that the struggles for equality in the United States and international recognition abroad were intertwined. Ideas and strategies were shared as civil rights leaders traveled abroad and anti-colonial leaders visited the United States