The Foreign Service Journal, September 2004

72 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / S E P T E M B E R 2 0 0 4 ver since the Reconstruction era, when President Ulysses Grant appointed the first black U.S. envoys to Haiti and Liberia, African-American diplomats have represented the United States with distinction abroad. To the limited extent that diplomatic historians have recog- nized these men’s contributions and achievements, attention has traditionally been paid to the small number who served as U.S. ministers — precursors of ambassadors — to those two nations. Yet the last decade of the 19th century and the first of the 20th also found African-Americans performing consular duties at more than a dozen foreign posts, both in indepen- dent nations like Brazil, France, Honduras, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Russia and Venezuela, and in a number of European colonies in Africa and the Caribbean, including the Danish and French West Indies, Jamaica, Madagascar, Senegal and Sierra Leone. In all, at least 20 black consuls served during the Republican administrations of William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt, between 1897 and 1909, with eight of them remaining abroad for a decade or more. One consul trained an African queen in the equestrian arts and later became a fixture in French society circles for two decades; another, in his seventies, helped trap wild ani- mals for shipment to the U.S. national zoo. A third held off rebel troops until U.S. troops could arrive to protect a Central American president from being overthrown, while a fourth received commendations from foreign governments for humanitarian and collegial efforts during two Asian wars. Almost all were college graduates, many with profession- al degrees. A century later, however, these pioneering fig- ures are scarcely known (partly because many of their posts no longer exist, long ago absorbed into larger consulates and embassies). But several of them have dramatic stories high- ly deserving of inclusion in the annals of diplomatic history. Sharing the Spoils Almost from his first week in office, Pres. McKinley was besieged by crowds of Republican applicants for con- sular positions and other federal patronage jobs, after the four-year Democratic hiatus under Cleveland. African- American office-seekers were especially persistent, visit- ing the White House on nearly a daily basis in March and April 1897, according to “At the White House,” a column in the Washington, D.C., Evening Star . They were well aware that only a few applicants could receive the presi- dential favor they sought, due to the limited number of posts available. Even a strong recommendation by the nation’s only black congressman, Rep. George Henry White, R-N.C., was not enough, as Capt. John Leach, rec- ommended for the consulship at Victoria, British Columbia, discovered. Perhaps the most celebrated failure was that of Chicago politician and journalist Cyrus Field Adams, a much-touted candidate for a high diplomatic post. Adams sought appointment in June 1897 as the first black U.S. minister to Bolivia, boasting exceptional linguistic skills — he spoke flu- ent Spanish and three other languages — and strong rec- ommendations. But his resumé could not overcome histor- ical and political obstacles. McKinley was keenly aware that the 1894 nomination by Grover Cleveland of Charles Henry James Taylor (1856-1899), briefly minister to Liberia in Cleveland’s first term, to head the U.S. mission to Bolivia had ended badly — Senate opposition had forced Taylor to A FRICAN -A MERICAN C ONSULS A BROAD , 1897-1909 A T LEAST 20 BLACK CONSULS SERVED DURING THE R EPUBLICAN ADMINISTRATIONS OF W ILLIAM M C K INLEY AND T HEODORE R OOSEVELT , WITH EIGHT OF THEM REMAINING ABROAD FOR A DECADE OR MORE . H ERE ARE SOME OF THEIR STORIES . B Y B ENJAMIN R. J USTESEN E