The Foreign Service Journal, June 2018

42 JUNE 2018 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL FS HERITAGE Christopher Teal, a Foreign Service officer since 1999, most recently served as consul general in Nogales. He is currently at Arizona State University while he completes his Una Chapman Cox Fellowship. In addition to overseas postings in Colombo, Guadalajara, Lima and Santo Domingo, he has served in Washington, D.C., and was a member of the Foreign Service Journal Editorial Board from 2004 to 2007. The following year, he published Hero of Hispaniola: America’s First Black Diplomat (Praeger, 2008), the first biography of this largely forgotten figure. Teal is working with filmmakers to complete his documentary, “A Diplomat of Consequence,” for release next year to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Bassett’s historic appointment as U.S. am- bassador to Haiti. More information can be found at www.facebook. com/EbenezerDBassett. EBENEZER BASSETT The Legacy of America’s First African-American Diplomat U ntil just a few years ago, Ebenezer Don Carlos Bassett ran the real pos- sibility of becoming entirely forgotten to history. As a young diplomat in 1999, I accidentally “rediscovered” Bassett when I began my first overseas tour in the Dominican Republic. While walking down the hall to the office of our ambassador for a courtesy call during my first week in country, I scanned the array of pic- tures on the wall depicting previous U.S. envoys to the island of Hispaniola. While I recognized a few, such as Frederick Douglass, I knew nothing about Bassett, one of the first figures portrayed. Nor did anyone else in the embassy seem to know anything about him. This pioneering diplomat foreshadowed the critical role of human rights in U.S. foreign policy. BY CHR I STOPHER TEAL JAMESE.TAYLOR -LIBRARYOFCONGRESS