1919: The Year of the Revolutionary Black Messiah

Virtual event description courtesy of McGill Libraries:

In the early 1900s, white mobs attacked African Americans throughout the United States, lynching and terrorizing hundreds per year. Without citizenship rights and state protections against anti-Black terror, even after shouldering arms for the Allies in World War One, Black people in the United States and Canada yearned for a leader—a deliverer of sorts—who would help redeem the “race.” The year 1919 marked a highpoint in anti-Black violence and Black resistance. In their yearnings, the Black masses, and some leaders, too, embraced a mystical and messianic form of Pan-Africanism. This presentation will explore the dimensions of this racial awakening for Black self-determination in the Atlantic World.