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- Title
Allies Across Cold War Boundaries? The American Civil Rights Movement and the GDR.
- Authors
Schubert, Maria
- Abstract
The American civil rights movement received much attention in East Germany throughout the country's 40-year existence. Indeed, campaigns of »international solidarity « with »the other America« were official state policy. East Germany sent hundreds of thousands of letters of support to civil rights activists in the U.S., published books by black authors, and released recordings of African American musicians. At the invitation of the government, central figures of the civil rights movement - including W.E. B. DuBois, Paul and Eslanda Robeson, Ralph Abernathy, and Angela Davis - travelled to the country and participated in a host of events and state ceremonies. Only Martin Luther King, Jr., who visited for a few hours in 1964, came as guest of the church. This article considers those visits and the state policy that accompanied them. I take a closer look at how those visits were received by different groups within GDR society. In particularly, I show that messages of nonviolent resistance inspired East German Christians and opposition groups to take action. Finally, I ask why African American civil rights leaders visited socialist countries and discuss their experiences in light of the history of encounters between blacks and socialists during the 20th century.
- Subjects
AMERICAN civil rights movement; CHRISTIANS; SOCIALIST societies
- Publication
Kirchliche Zeitgeschichte: Internationale Zeitschrift für Theologie und Geschichtswissenschaft, 2020, Vol 33, Issue 1, p59
- ISSN
0932-9951
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.13109/kize.2020.33.1.59