The Foreign Service Journal, January-February 2016

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2016 93 Washington, D.C. After retiring in 2000, he worked for 12 years as a writer and editor for a group of newsletters serving the electric util- ity industry. He currently lives in Troy, New York, where he does freelance writing and serves on the boards of several nonprofits. A Proud History Finally Receives Its Due African-Americans in U.S. Foreign Policy: From the Era of Frederick Douglass to the Age of Obama Linda Herwood, Allison Blakely, Charles Stith and Joshua C. Yesnowitz, editors; University of Illinois Press, 2015; $25/ paperback, $14.87/Kindle; 264 pages. Reviewed By Charles A. Ray The concept of this book, a survey of Afri- can-American involvement in U.S. foreign policy throughout our nation’s history, originated at a conference on “African- Americans and U.S. Foreign Policy” held at Boston University in October 2012. Organized by editors Linda Herwood and Charles Stith, a former ambassador, the event drewmore than 350 scholars, former diplomats, State Department officials, students and members of the general public. Students of American diplomatic history are indeed fortunate that the conference organizers decided to gather the papers delivered there for publication as a book that outlines the significant, though often ignored or marginalized, role African-Americans have played in the development of the country’s foreign policy. With an introduction by Walter C. Car- rington and an epilogue by Charles Stith, both distinguished African-American diplomats, the essays in African-Amer- icans in U.S. Foreign Policy examine how the role of black elites, as well as the rest of the African-American commu- nity, has evolved over the past century into a central policymaking role on the global stage. While this volume is not all-encompassing and, in places, is extremely academic in tone, it does fill in a lot of gaps in U.S. diplo- matic history. These contributions are of value not just to our minority diplomats, but to every individual involved in the conduct of American diplomacy. After all, a fuller understanding of our past will help Foreign Service members effectively execute our overseas missions today. As the early essays in this volume recount, the first wave of black U.S. diplo- mats came during the administration of Ulysses Grant (1869-1877). Republicans appointed black supporters to diplomatic and consular positions, primarily in African or Caribbean posts, to appeal to newly enfranchised black voters. Later sections trace the effects of the Rogers Act’s merging of the diplomatic and consular services in 1924, detail the emergence of the “New Negro” (exempli- fied by Ralph Bunche and Alain Locke) during the period between World War I and the beginning of the Cold War, and remind us of the (often schizophrenic) road African-American diplomats had to walk during the civil rights era. Of particular interest to me was the section on Carl Rowan, which highlighted the balancing act African-Americans faced during the height of the Cold War. During those years any criticism of domestic issues, such as segregation and discrimination, was often met with accusations of disloyalty or com- munist sympathies. Having begun my government career in 1962, when I enlisted in the Army, I am intimately familiar with the difficulties African-Americans serving the country abroad faced. We were regularly confronted by for- eigners who challenged America’s right to criticize other countries for their human rights records while denying civil rights to 20 percent of the U.S. population on the basis of race. As a diplomat in China in 1985, for instance, I constantly had to bal- ance my awareness that America was not without problems against my sworn duty to support national policy. Though some of the essayists recount the numerous injustices many African- American diplomats have suffered while serving their country over the past 150 years (and continue to experience in some cases), others remind us of the gains that have been made in recent years—and their very real contributions to formulating and implementing U.S. foreign policy. For all these reasons, African-Amer- icans in U.S. Foreign Policy is a valuable resource for anyone seeking a fuller understanding of minority participation in American foreign policy since the Civil War. n Charles A. Ray retired from the Foreign Service in 2012 after a 30-year career that included ambassadorships to Cambodia and Zimbabwe. These contributions are of value not just to our minority diplomats, but to every individual involved in the conduct of American diplomacy.