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In the fall of 1948,
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a young African American lawyer
and his wife
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crossed an ocean to begin a new job.
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Edward R. Dudley had just been
named the United States Minister
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to the West African nation of Liberia.
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As the boat
docked on that very bright morning,
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two of us were standing at the rail,
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we saw thousands of people.
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It was rather an exhilarating experience.
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We could see the new frontiers opening up.
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It was a time of titanic struggles
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between competing ideologies:
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communism versus capitalism;
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white supremacy
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versus Black liberation;
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colonialism
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versus self-rule.
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A racially segregated United States
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was positioning itself as the leader
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of a mostly non-white world.
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It's difficult for us
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to fully conceptualize what
it meant to be Black
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in spaces of government during
that time period.
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Then to have to represent
U.S. interests
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and help cultivate the narrative
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of U.S. democracy
for non-U.S. publics.
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In the decades
to come, three Black diplomats...
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Edward R. Dudley,
Terence Todman, and Carl Rowan...
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would challenge the foundations
of American diplomacy
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and try to change the way
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America represented itself to the world.
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Sure, we're going to be criticized.
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It's because we're talking
about the things
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that the United States stands for,
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the things that the
United States seeks to be.
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They would challenge not only
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the State Department,
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but U.S. foreign policy itself.
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Washington got accustomed
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to my taking strong independent stands
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because the United States had a
revolution for our independence,
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and we should be supportive
of independence.
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These three diplomats
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would also challenge an unequal system
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that had long determined
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who should represent America overseas.
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If one was an ambassador,
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there was a feeling that
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this man was a true
representative of a country.
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For diplomats, you're fighting America
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so that it can live up to what
it says it is,
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while you're also fighting for America.
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That is no easy walk.
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On March 12, 1947,
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President Harry S. Truman
articulated a policy
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that would come to be known
as the Truman Doctrine.
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At the present moment
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in world history,
nearly every nation must choose
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between alternative ways of life.
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If we falter in our leadership,
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we may endanger the peace of the world,
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and we shall surely endanger
the welfare of this nation.
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This was the
cornerstone of American foreign policy
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in the Cold War with the Soviet Union,
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the idea that undemocratic
regimes anywhere
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were a threat to freedom everywhere.
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Truman promised that the United States
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would do everything in its power
to stop the spread of communism
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in any nation in the world.
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Already an iron curtain
had dropped around Poland, Hungary,
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Yugoslavia, Bulgaria...
menace to the security
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and institutions of democratic government.
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This truly a war of ideas.
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The post-war world
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was now a chessboard in
a high-stakes match between
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democracy and communism.
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The United States
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and the Soviet Union battled
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to win the hearts and minds
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of neutral nations
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all over the globe.
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In nations that are becoming
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independent, how do they
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maneuver in a world in which
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the U.S. and the
Soviet Union have demanded
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that people choose sides?
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At the heart of the Cold War
were struggles over narrative.
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The Achilles heel for the
United States is its history
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of racialized violence,
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oppression, and injustice against
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people of color in the
United States and elsewhere.
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How the United States treated
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its own citizens mattered diplomatically
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in a way that it hadn't before.
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Black veterans were coming back
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from the Second World War,
and they were demanding
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the democracy that they
had fought so hard for.
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There were a series of horrific
lynchings in 1946.
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and Truman is just absolutely horrified.
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Truman understood that
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if the U.S. wanted the world
to believe them
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when they said that they were
offering a democracy
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that would benefit all,
then they needed to show
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that they could offer that
democracy at home.
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In 1948, President Truman
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made a bold step:
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he issued executive orders
to desegregate the military
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and the civil service.
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With a tough re-election looming,
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he looked to strengthen his ties
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to the African American community.
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When the post of Minister
to Liberia became available,
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Truman's team asked Walter White,
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the head of the N.A.A.C.P.,
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the nation's most influential
civil rights organization,
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to recommend a candidate.
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White suggested a sharp
N.A.A.C.P. lawyer,
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Edward R. Dudley.
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At 37, Edward Dudley of Roanoke, Virginia,
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had already had a storied career.
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I was 23 years old.
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I came to New York, bright,
fresh, full of vinegar.
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I applied for a job as
an assistant stage manager
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at the Lafayette Theater in Harlem.
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Orson Welles came to work with us
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and directed a Haitian Macbeth.
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Lay on, Macduff!
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And damn'd be he who first
cries, "Hold, enough!"
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I saw no real future in New York theaters.
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Stagehands were not permitted
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to work below 125th Street.
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So I decided to go to law school.
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In 1943, Thurgood Marshall,
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the head of the N.A.A.C.P.'s
Legal Defense Fund,
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hired Dudley to assist with his strategy
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of dismantling inequality
one case at a time.
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For five years,
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the two men crossed the country,
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filing, and winning,
anti-discrimination lawsuits.
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But now, President Truman was
asking Edward Dudley
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to be the face of America in Liberia.
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In Liberia,
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the staff at the legation welcomed us.
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Shortly thereafter,
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we engaged in the task of diplomacy.
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We get in touch
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with the other members
of the diplomatic corps.
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There's a parade, view the troops.
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This is big diggins in small countries.
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And all of a sudden,
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you're catapulted into this kind of thing.
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And then you do the best you can.
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EDWARD DUDLEY, JR.:
My father was a risk taker.
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I was six when I first joined them
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in Liberia.
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My mother did most of the raising.
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My father was the disciplinarian.
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He was a very confident man.
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Like all political appointees,
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Dudley served at the
pleasure of the president.
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With the 1948 presidential election
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only a few months away
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and Truman trailing badly in the polls,
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Dudley believed his time in
Liberia would be short-lived.
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And we woke up and
Harry Truman was the president.
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Rather than stay a few months
in Africa, we stayed five years.
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Dudley's staff included
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a small community of
African American diplomats.
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Some had been in Liberia for years,
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and experienced more freedom
there than they could have
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in the segregated United States.
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They shared a commitment
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to institution-building and
felt pride in the knowledge
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that they were a part of
a pivotal moment in history
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in a rapidly changing Africa.
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A vital American ally in World War II,
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Liberia had provided
critical rubber supplies
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and the site for a military base.
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But now, American attention
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had shifted toward
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African countries on the brink
of independence...
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nations whose loyalties
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in the Cold War hung in the balance.
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Dudley faced a delicate task.
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President Tubman felt
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Liberia was being neglected
and is not getting
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the kind of foreign assistance
that it deserved.
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So Dudley's representing the United States
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when that traditional relationship
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is beginning to shift.
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To underscore
Liberia's importance as an ally,
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the United States elevated the status
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of the American Legation
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to an Embassy... a shift
that made Dudley a pioneer
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for Black diplomats.
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I became the first ambassador
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of color from the United States.
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Ambassador, being the highest
diplomatic rank in Liberia,
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this mantle fell upon my shoulders.
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When he was
raised to the ambassadorial level,
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he was not simply going to push papers
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and have photo ops, he wanted to do things
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in Liberia.
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There was heavy U.S. investment
in the country.
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Firestone and other American
companies that were there
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considered themselves almost as invaders
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that conquered pieces of land
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and used them as they wished.
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Ambassador Dudley's task was to balance
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American interests
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00:11:43,461 --> 00:11:46,222
with Liberian progress.
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The key was an initiative
called Point Four.
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Dr. Kwame Nkrumah,
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Prime Minister of the Gold
Coast, arrives in Liberia.
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A portion of his visit is spent surveying
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Point Four activity in Liberia.
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Point Four was
President Truman's ambitious
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international aid program.
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It sent American expertise,
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money, and supplies
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to developing nations,
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00:12:13,767 --> 00:12:15,044
demonstrating the considerable benefits
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of being an American ally.
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DUDLEY, JR.:
My father dove into this.
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We're going to help them with bridges,
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with roads, with health, education.
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My father could see
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the results and to see the change.
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The significance of Edward Dudley
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being the first
African American ambassador
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is huge.
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It is part of the struggle
of the recognition of merit.
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It had taken the United States 160 years.
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The State Department was created in 1789.
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Its diplomats, appointed by presidents,
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had always been the face
of America in foreign lands.
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00:13:04,749 --> 00:13:08,477
Yet the State Department
had a very limited vision
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of who should represent America
to the world.
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00:13:12,757 --> 00:13:15,656
During Reconstruction,
there were a few African Americans
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appointed as diplomats.
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00:13:18,798 --> 00:13:20,869
In 1869, Ebenezer Bassett
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was the first African American diplomat.
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He was sent as a minister to Haiti.
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Frederick Douglass was appointed
to that same position.
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So there were opportunities,
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00:13:30,257 --> 00:13:34,848
but they were very,
very small opportunities.
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The State Department
had the well-deserved reputation
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00:13:38,852 --> 00:13:40,992
of being extremely elitist.
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00:13:41,027 --> 00:13:45,652
It was the bailiwick of Boston Brahmins.
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00:13:47,240 --> 00:13:49,069
Pale, male, and Yale.
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00:13:51,244 --> 00:13:52,901
After World War I,
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00:13:52,935 --> 00:13:54,799
Congress attempted to professionalize
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00:13:54,834 --> 00:13:57,043
the diplomatic corps.
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The Rogers Act, 1924,
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00:14:00,529 --> 00:14:02,531
set up the Foreign Service exam
that had to be taken
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00:14:02,565 --> 00:14:03,981
by every candidate.
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00:14:06,259 --> 00:14:07,916
It was supposed to set up
a merit-based system.
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00:14:07,950 --> 00:14:09,987
The legislation seemed to be
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00:14:10,021 --> 00:14:13,749
a revolution in the making.
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00:14:13,783 --> 00:14:15,268
In theory, anyone who passed
the rigorous test
265
00:14:15,302 --> 00:14:17,960
could join the Foreign Service.
266
00:14:17,995 --> 00:14:22,413
And in 1925, a law clerk named
Clifton Wharton
267
00:14:22,447 --> 00:14:24,898
easily passed the written exam.
268
00:14:24,933 --> 00:14:29,282
So there was this wide
assumption that he was white.
269
00:14:29,316 --> 00:14:33,217
And then he came for
the oral part of his exam,
270
00:14:33,251 --> 00:14:36,668
and was very hastily sent off to Liberia.
271
00:14:36,703 --> 00:14:37,911
They didn't even send him
272
00:14:37,946 --> 00:14:39,119
to the Foreign Service school
for training.
273
00:14:41,881 --> 00:14:45,160
Only four more
African Americans were accepted
274
00:14:45,194 --> 00:14:50,475
into the diplomatic corps
over the next 25 years.
275
00:14:50,510 --> 00:14:55,308
The chairman of Foreign
Service personnel, Joseph Grew,
276
00:14:55,342 --> 00:14:58,967
stated very clearly that
African Americans, women,
277
00:14:59,001 --> 00:15:01,659
Jewish Americans would be quietly,
278
00:15:01,693 --> 00:15:04,455
but effectively, excluded.
279
00:15:04,489 --> 00:15:07,320
Even if they passed through
the written exam,
280
00:15:07,354 --> 00:15:11,634
they would be shuffled away
through the oral examination.
281
00:15:11,669 --> 00:15:14,810
As Foreign Service Officers,
282
00:15:14,844 --> 00:15:17,640
you are sample Americans,
283
00:15:17,675 --> 00:15:21,127
and many people abroad
284
00:15:21,161 --> 00:15:22,956
will think better or worse,
285
00:15:22,991 --> 00:15:26,235
of the United States because
286
00:15:26,270 --> 00:15:28,030
of what you do.
287
00:15:34,588 --> 00:15:36,659
I used to come back to Washington,
288
00:15:36,694 --> 00:15:38,316
in a circle with nothing but white people,
289
00:15:38,351 --> 00:15:39,628
and I'd be introduced as
290
00:15:39,662 --> 00:15:43,735
ambassador to Liberia.
291
00:15:43,770 --> 00:15:45,461
And none of them would ever hear that
292
00:15:45,496 --> 00:15:47,394
because they would turn to me and ask me,
293
00:15:47,429 --> 00:15:51,502
"How do you like our country?"
talking about America.
294
00:15:51,536 --> 00:15:54,056
The fact of the matter was,
they could never conceive that
295
00:15:54,091 --> 00:15:55,747
a Black man could ever be an ambassador.
296
00:16:02,030 --> 00:16:05,102
Dudley's sense
of doing good work in Liberia
297
00:16:05,136 --> 00:16:08,243
was soon tempered by the reality
for African American diplomats.
298
00:16:10,762 --> 00:16:14,456
He realized they were stuck
in an international loop
299
00:16:14,490 --> 00:16:16,906
that was limiting
their professional growth
300
00:16:16,941 --> 00:16:19,254
and their ability to advance.
301
00:16:22,153 --> 00:16:25,363
In Liberia, the
Black Foreign Service Officers
302
00:16:25,398 --> 00:16:28,263
had never had the opportunity
of serving anywhere else
303
00:16:28,297 --> 00:16:30,644
in the world, despite the fact that
304
00:16:30,679 --> 00:16:32,922
it was a State Department policy
305
00:16:32,957 --> 00:16:35,753
to rotate officers every two years,
306
00:16:35,787 --> 00:16:39,239
none had ever gotten outside
of a little triumvirate
307
00:16:39,274 --> 00:16:41,138
called Monrovia,
308
00:16:41,172 --> 00:16:42,415
Ponta Delgado,
309
00:16:42,449 --> 00:16:44,727
and Madagascar.
310
00:16:44,762 --> 00:16:47,040
And this had been going on for year
311
00:16:47,075 --> 00:16:49,318
after year, after year.
312
00:16:49,353 --> 00:16:51,320
The State Department had
313
00:16:51,355 --> 00:16:52,528
what they called the Negro Circuit.
314
00:16:54,427 --> 00:16:57,119
They put them in places where
there were already Black people.
315
00:16:59,570 --> 00:17:02,090
and Dudley looked at a system
that had been in place
316
00:17:02,124 --> 00:17:06,232
for decades and said, "No."
317
00:17:15,482 --> 00:17:18,796
We put together a memorandum documenting
318
00:17:18,830 --> 00:17:20,798
every Black in the Foreign Service
319
00:17:20,832 --> 00:17:23,214
over a long period of years.
320
00:17:27,115 --> 00:17:28,702
When they came into the service,
321
00:17:28,737 --> 00:17:30,359
how long they had been in,
322
00:17:30,394 --> 00:17:34,708
and the fact that they
had never been transferred.
323
00:17:34,743 --> 00:17:36,848
We added a class of white
Foreign Service Officers.
324
00:17:38,471 --> 00:17:39,989
In every instance,
325
00:17:40,024 --> 00:17:43,614
they had had four, five,
and six transfers,
326
00:17:43,648 --> 00:17:44,994
and had been in different posts
327
00:17:45,029 --> 00:17:46,444
throughout the world.
328
00:17:48,308 --> 00:17:50,759
You had these Foreign Service Officers...
329
00:17:50,793 --> 00:17:53,279
well-trained, highly educated...
330
00:17:53,313 --> 00:17:57,214
being placed simply in the Negro Circuit.
331
00:17:57,248 --> 00:17:58,767
It makes it really hard
332
00:17:58,801 --> 00:18:01,804
to do the work of America when
you know that you have been
333
00:18:01,839 --> 00:18:04,428
Jim Crowed by your own government.
334
00:18:06,154 --> 00:18:08,949
The former lawyer
quickly saw that the Negro Circuit
335
00:18:08,984 --> 00:18:13,609
directly violated the
Foreign Service Act of 1946.
336
00:18:13,644 --> 00:18:16,095
It was a law whose central purpose
337
00:18:16,129 --> 00:18:17,234
was to make the Foreign Service
338
00:18:17,268 --> 00:18:19,926
stronger and more efficient.
339
00:18:19,960 --> 00:18:22,791
But with Truman pushing for desegregation,
340
00:18:22,825 --> 00:18:24,965
the Act also stated a goal of
341
00:18:25,000 --> 00:18:27,485
"eliminating conditions favorable
342
00:18:27,520 --> 00:18:31,903
to inbred prejudice
and caste spirit."
343
00:18:31,938 --> 00:18:35,597
My entire background
had been with the National Association
344
00:18:35,631 --> 00:18:37,702
for the Advancement of Colored People.
345
00:18:37,737 --> 00:18:39,911
And I knew exactly what to do.
346
00:18:41,982 --> 00:18:44,813
I asked for an audience with
the Undersecretary of State,
347
00:18:44,847 --> 00:18:48,437
John Peurifoy, and sat in
his office while he read it.
348
00:18:50,681 --> 00:18:52,821
And he was visibly disturbed,
349
00:18:52,855 --> 00:18:55,168
and asked me what I was going
to do with it.
350
00:18:55,203 --> 00:18:58,102
I indicated that it was his responsibility
351
00:18:58,137 --> 00:19:01,174
to correct an unwholesome situation,
352
00:19:01,209 --> 00:19:05,109
but in my judgment, an illegal situation.
353
00:19:05,144 --> 00:19:10,563
Within six months, transfers came through
354
00:19:10,597 --> 00:19:11,874
and the number one Foreign Service Officer
355
00:19:11,909 --> 00:19:14,636
was sent to Paris, France.
356
00:19:14,670 --> 00:19:17,777
And this is the first time that
a Black Foreign Service Officer
357
00:19:17,811 --> 00:19:19,917
had ever served in Europe.
358
00:19:19,951 --> 00:19:25,198
A second Foreign Service Officer
was sent to Zurich, Switzerland.
359
00:19:25,233 --> 00:19:29,789
And a young lady of great talent
was sent to Rome, Italy.
360
00:19:34,621 --> 00:19:39,143
In 1952, Dwight D.
Eisenhower was elected president.
361
00:19:39,178 --> 00:19:43,699
Eisenhower was a war hero,
not a career politician.
362
00:19:43,734 --> 00:19:47,047
Raised in Kansas, he came from a world
363
00:19:47,082 --> 00:19:50,361
where segregation was the law of the land.
364
00:19:50,396 --> 00:19:53,122
His State Department
365
00:19:53,157 --> 00:19:58,438
is hostile, certainly,
to decolonizing nations
366
00:19:58,473 --> 00:20:02,442
and uninterested in any kind of meaningful
367
00:20:02,477 --> 00:20:04,651
African American diplomatic service.
368
00:20:06,688 --> 00:20:08,828
Eisenhower's election meant Dudley's time
369
00:20:08,862 --> 00:20:11,382
as ambassador was over.
370
00:20:11,417 --> 00:20:14,247
Before the new administration took office,
371
00:20:14,282 --> 00:20:16,974
Dudley officially documented
his strong objection
372
00:20:17,008 --> 00:20:19,079
to maintaining the status quo
373
00:20:19,114 --> 00:20:20,978
in his resignation letter.
374
00:20:21,012 --> 00:20:24,430
He argued, "Black Foreign Service Officers
375
00:20:24,464 --> 00:20:28,710
must have equal opportunity
for assignments worldwide."
376
00:20:28,744 --> 00:20:32,403
The Negro Circuit had to end.
377
00:20:34,750 --> 00:20:36,545
He made a Cold War argument
378
00:20:36,580 --> 00:20:40,066
that I'm not asking you just
as a moral imperative.
379
00:20:40,100 --> 00:20:41,309
You've got to do good
380
00:20:41,343 --> 00:20:43,207
for these three-quarters
of the world's people
381
00:20:43,242 --> 00:20:45,554
who are looking at America to see whether
382
00:20:45,589 --> 00:20:48,419
it will live up to its promise
of democracy and freedom.
383
00:20:48,454 --> 00:20:51,595
And here's a way to do it.
384
00:20:51,629 --> 00:20:53,976
In 1953,
385
00:20:54,011 --> 00:20:56,255
Dudley left the State Department,
386
00:20:56,289 --> 00:20:58,533
returning to the N.A.A.C.P.
387
00:20:58,567 --> 00:21:02,951
and the wider struggle
for Civil Rights in America.
388
00:21:06,126 --> 00:21:08,163
In the early 1950s,
389
00:21:08,197 --> 00:21:11,822
the United States rode a wave
of prosperity.
390
00:21:13,755 --> 00:21:15,688
But while the country was locked
391
00:21:15,722 --> 00:21:17,414
into a brutal war in Korea,
392
00:21:17,448 --> 00:21:19,278
the nation also agonized
393
00:21:19,312 --> 00:21:22,246
over the Soviet threat
of nuclear devastation,
394
00:21:22,281 --> 00:21:24,110
and a growing fear of communism
395
00:21:24,144 --> 00:21:26,388
within America.
396
00:21:29,460 --> 00:21:30,427
Holidays,
397
00:21:30,461 --> 00:21:32,394
vacation time, we must be ready
398
00:21:32,429 --> 00:21:33,602
to do the right thing
399
00:21:33,637 --> 00:21:35,259
if the atomic bomb explodes.
400
00:21:35,294 --> 00:21:37,365
Duck and cover!
401
00:21:40,575 --> 00:21:43,060
Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin
402
00:21:43,094 --> 00:21:44,786
sensationally claimed
403
00:21:44,820 --> 00:21:47,789
that hundreds of communist spies
had infiltrated
404
00:21:47,823 --> 00:21:50,136
the State Department.
405
00:21:50,170 --> 00:21:51,724
Plans have been discussed
406
00:21:51,758 --> 00:21:54,623
by the Soviet secret police
to obtain blank
407
00:21:54,658 --> 00:21:57,799
American passports from communists
408
00:21:57,833 --> 00:22:01,630
employed in the State Department.
409
00:22:01,665 --> 00:22:04,806
American government agencies
410
00:22:04,840 --> 00:22:07,636
and showboating Congressmen
411
00:22:07,671 --> 00:22:10,708
falsely linked civil rights
organizations with communism.
412
00:22:10,743 --> 00:22:12,917
For aspiring Black diplomats,
413
00:22:12,952 --> 00:22:15,299
this created yet another barrier
414
00:22:15,334 --> 00:22:18,440
to a career in the State Department.
415
00:22:18,475 --> 00:22:20,615
Secretary of State John Foster Dulles
416
00:22:20,649 --> 00:22:23,618
said none of these Negroes
can get through with
417
00:22:23,652 --> 00:22:24,791
"lily white" clearance.
418
00:22:27,587 --> 00:22:30,418
Think about what that is really saying.
419
00:22:30,452 --> 00:22:32,143
It's saying that
420
00:22:32,178 --> 00:22:37,390
Black folks can't be trusted
with American democracy.
421
00:22:37,425 --> 00:22:40,738
So we can't have them in our
mainline bureaucracies
422
00:22:40,773 --> 00:22:42,775
doing the work of America.
423
00:22:44,604 --> 00:22:48,332
One ambitious
young man refused to be deterred.
424
00:22:48,367 --> 00:22:52,785
In 1952, a 26-year-old
from the U.S. Virgin Islands
425
00:22:52,819 --> 00:22:57,099
named Terence Todman passed a
written federal service exam,
426
00:22:57,134 --> 00:23:00,309
and was offered a job
at the State Department.
427
00:23:00,344 --> 00:23:02,277
But then he arrived
428
00:23:02,311 --> 00:23:05,280
for his first day of work.
429
00:23:05,314 --> 00:23:07,696
The head of personnel said that
430
00:23:07,731 --> 00:23:11,907
we note your accent isn't
a hundred percent American,
431
00:23:11,942 --> 00:23:13,806
and we can't afford to have anyone
432
00:23:13,840 --> 00:23:16,153
in the Foreign Service who isn't
433
00:23:16,187 --> 00:23:19,087
immediately identifiable as American.
434
00:23:21,641 --> 00:23:26,128
The accent wasn't the defining reason.
435
00:23:26,163 --> 00:23:28,510
That was the expressed reason.
436
00:23:28,545 --> 00:23:29,753
The real reason is you...
437
00:23:29,787 --> 00:23:32,065
you're Black.
438
00:23:32,100 --> 00:23:36,898
You are not really fully American.
439
00:23:39,176 --> 00:23:40,971
But Todman persisted.
440
00:23:41,005 --> 00:23:45,285
He argued his case up the ladder
to the head of the office.
441
00:23:45,320 --> 00:23:47,736
Ambassador
Whitman said, there's a great deal
442
00:23:47,771 --> 00:23:50,532
of work to be done in this office.
443
00:23:50,567 --> 00:23:54,433
We cannot afford to hire
a "showpiece."
444
00:23:54,467 --> 00:23:59,127
I said, "Sir, if your job was
a showpiece, I wouldn't want it.
445
00:23:59,161 --> 00:24:03,027
I think too highly of myself
to take a job like that."
446
00:24:03,062 --> 00:24:05,478
And he said,
"Okay, we'll take you on."
447
00:24:13,728 --> 00:24:16,109
Terence was
born in St. Thomas, Virgin Islands.
448
00:24:18,664 --> 00:24:23,047
Race was not an issue.
449
00:24:23,082 --> 00:24:24,773
Just being raised in the Virgin Islands,
450
00:24:24,808 --> 00:24:26,948
it sort of gave you a sense
of who you are.
451
00:24:28,639 --> 00:24:31,746
He grew up very poor.
452
00:24:31,780 --> 00:24:34,127
We were in the same class.
453
00:24:34,162 --> 00:24:36,785
He's quite bossy, by the way.
454
00:24:36,820 --> 00:24:39,754
He was very, very smart.
455
00:24:39,788 --> 00:24:42,135
I remember my great-grandmother saying,
456
00:24:42,170 --> 00:24:45,173
"That young man, whoever he is,
is going places."
457
00:24:46,968 --> 00:24:49,971
In 1945, at age 19,
458
00:24:50,005 --> 00:24:51,455
Todman had been drafted
459
00:24:51,490 --> 00:24:54,527
into the Army.
460
00:24:54,562 --> 00:24:57,150
He took the officer's candidate
exam in Spanish and English,
461
00:24:57,185 --> 00:24:58,876
and passed both.
462
00:24:58,911 --> 00:25:01,741
Then he was shipped out to Japan,
463
00:25:01,776 --> 00:25:03,950
where he discovered his calling.
464
00:25:06,228 --> 00:25:09,093
I learned to speak Japanese,
465
00:25:09,128 --> 00:25:11,717
and I spoke to my fellow officers
466
00:25:11,751 --> 00:25:14,133
and heard the misconceptions
467
00:25:14,167 --> 00:25:15,962
they had about the Japanese.
468
00:25:15,997 --> 00:25:21,554
And I would tell them
what the Japanese were like.
469
00:25:21,589 --> 00:25:23,556
And speaking to the Japanese,
470
00:25:23,591 --> 00:25:25,869
the misconceptions
they had about Americans
471
00:25:25,903 --> 00:25:29,044
Were so great, that I found myself
472
00:25:29,079 --> 00:25:30,252
telling the Japanese
473
00:25:30,287 --> 00:25:32,565
about Americans.
474
00:25:32,600 --> 00:25:34,533
And I realized that a lot of
difficulties arose
475
00:25:34,567 --> 00:25:39,296
from people not knowing about each other.
476
00:25:39,330 --> 00:25:41,885
And that became critical to my thinking
477
00:25:41,919 --> 00:25:43,887
about what I would do afterwards.
478
00:25:43,921 --> 00:25:47,235
This was the eye-opening experience
479
00:25:47,269 --> 00:25:50,928
that propelled his interests
into Foreign Service.
480
00:25:50,963 --> 00:25:54,967
If he could be as successful
481
00:25:55,001 --> 00:25:57,728
as a communicator in the military,
482
00:25:57,763 --> 00:26:00,628
why not seek an opportunity
483
00:26:00,662 --> 00:26:03,216
to apply those skills as a diplomat?
484
00:26:05,702 --> 00:26:08,014
Terence Todman began as a Foreign Service
485
00:26:08,049 --> 00:26:10,396
desk officer in Washington D.C.,
486
00:26:10,430 --> 00:26:14,193
monitoring U.S. relations
with three Asian nations.
487
00:26:14,227 --> 00:26:17,714
From the beginning,
his colleagues didn't know
488
00:26:17,748 --> 00:26:20,199
what to make of his presence.
489
00:26:20,233 --> 00:26:23,927
When they came to
speak to the Nepal desk officer,
490
00:26:23,961 --> 00:26:28,069
they'd walk in, see me behind a desk,
491
00:26:28,103 --> 00:26:30,450
and wonder, what are you doing there?
492
00:26:30,485 --> 00:26:33,764
There'd be real amazement,
just to the idea
493
00:26:33,799 --> 00:26:38,113
of an African American
in an officer position.
494
00:26:38,148 --> 00:26:42,842
Being a
diplomatic wife was a full-time job.
495
00:26:42,877 --> 00:26:46,743
There was so much work
dealing with three countries,
496
00:26:46,777 --> 00:26:50,367
India, Ceylon, and Nepal.
497
00:26:50,401 --> 00:26:53,301
He'd bring the newspapers
home for me to read.
498
00:26:53,335 --> 00:26:55,579
I would underline
499
00:26:55,614 --> 00:26:57,477
what was important
500
00:26:57,512 --> 00:27:00,446
and give him a briefing.
501
00:27:00,480 --> 00:27:03,932
I was a part of it.
502
00:27:03,967 --> 00:27:07,867
Todman's first
overseas assignment was India.
503
00:27:07,902 --> 00:27:10,387
But first, he had
to take language training
504
00:27:10,421 --> 00:27:13,735
in Hindustani at the
Foreign Service Institute.
505
00:27:13,770 --> 00:27:17,739
This was Virginia in 1957,
506
00:27:17,774 --> 00:27:19,845
where segregation was legal.
507
00:27:19,879 --> 00:27:24,056
My first day, the white officers
508
00:27:24,090 --> 00:27:27,128
went across the street into a restaurant.
509
00:27:29,958 --> 00:27:32,064
And I was not allowed to go there because
510
00:27:32,098 --> 00:27:36,413
Black Americans couldn't
go into their restaurants.
511
00:27:36,447 --> 00:27:38,277
So I went to the
State Department and said,
512
00:27:38,311 --> 00:27:40,210
"This can't go."
513
00:27:40,244 --> 00:27:42,419
State Department said,
"These are Virginia laws,
514
00:27:42,453 --> 00:27:45,042
"a lot of people have come here
515
00:27:45,077 --> 00:27:46,699
and haven't said
anything about it."
516
00:27:46,734 --> 00:27:48,736
And I said, "Well, I'm not other people,
517
00:27:48,770 --> 00:27:52,291
and you're doing
something that's not right."
518
00:27:52,325 --> 00:27:55,639
And he said to the
Department of State, "You have a problem.
519
00:27:55,674 --> 00:27:57,054
"I don't have a problem.
520
00:27:57,089 --> 00:27:58,366
This is not about me."
521
00:27:59,885 --> 00:28:01,645
Todman later said,
522
00:28:01,680 --> 00:28:03,716
"I was considered a troublemaker,
523
00:28:03,751 --> 00:28:06,201
and that was all right."
524
00:28:06,236 --> 00:28:08,928
Todman knew that institutional culture
525
00:28:08,963 --> 00:28:11,206
wasn't going to change on its own.
526
00:28:11,241 --> 00:28:13,381
It was going to change
by being confronted,
527
00:28:13,415 --> 00:28:16,177
by being embarrassed.
528
00:28:16,211 --> 00:28:18,179
And he kept up such a firestorm of protest
529
00:28:18,213 --> 00:28:20,043
that eventually the Department of State
530
00:28:20,077 --> 00:28:23,736
rented half of the restaurant.
531
00:28:23,771 --> 00:28:26,843
There finally was a desegregated cafeteria
532
00:28:26,877 --> 00:28:30,570
for Foreign Service Officers.
533
00:28:30,605 --> 00:28:33,125
While Terence
Todman was confronting racism
534
00:28:33,159 --> 00:28:34,885
inside the State Department,
535
00:28:34,920 --> 00:28:37,267
the U.S. government
was confronting
536
00:28:37,301 --> 00:28:39,718
a Soviet information campaign
focused on highlighting
537
00:28:39,752 --> 00:28:43,273
America's racial violence.
538
00:28:43,307 --> 00:28:45,516
A large part of the Cold War
539
00:28:45,551 --> 00:28:47,104
was a battle of public relations.
540
00:28:47,139 --> 00:28:51,764
Which side would be
better at selling itself?
541
00:28:54,146 --> 00:28:57,252
To counter Soviet propaganda worldwide,
542
00:28:57,287 --> 00:29:01,532
Eisenhower created the United
States Information Agency,
543
00:29:01,567 --> 00:29:05,951
the U.S.I.A.
544
00:29:05,985 --> 00:29:10,887
As a one-stop shop
for American foreign policy information,
545
00:29:10,921 --> 00:29:15,754
U.S.I.A. has an astonishing
range of outlets.
546
00:29:15,788 --> 00:29:17,825
It had Voice of America radio.
547
00:29:22,277 --> 00:29:24,832
It had libraries.
548
00:29:24,866 --> 00:29:29,802
It gets U.S.I.A. material in
front of millions of people
549
00:29:29,837 --> 00:29:32,840
and is a tremendous part of how
550
00:29:32,874 --> 00:29:35,256
the United States
551
00:29:35,290 --> 00:29:38,086
is perceived in the world.
552
00:29:38,121 --> 00:29:41,538
The crucial
audiences for the American message
553
00:29:41,572 --> 00:29:44,575
were countries that hadn't
taken sides in the Cold War,
554
00:29:44,610 --> 00:29:47,578
the non-aligned nations.
555
00:29:47,613 --> 00:29:50,271
Terence Todman was sent
to the most important
556
00:29:50,305 --> 00:29:55,172
neutral nation of all... India.
557
00:29:55,207 --> 00:29:57,796
India had been one of the countries
558
00:29:57,830 --> 00:30:01,351
most critical of the
United States' race relations.
559
00:30:01,385 --> 00:30:05,631
It was a country that was
independent of the Soviets.
560
00:30:05,665 --> 00:30:08,807
It was a very influential country.
561
00:30:08,841 --> 00:30:12,603
Indian opinion was important.
562
00:30:12,638 --> 00:30:15,399
As the Todman family looked to India
563
00:30:15,434 --> 00:30:17,574
for their first overseas posting,
564
00:30:17,608 --> 00:30:19,610
the eyes of the world were focused
565
00:30:19,645 --> 00:30:22,441
on Little Rock, Arkansas.
566
00:30:28,378 --> 00:30:32,002
One of the interesting aspects
567
00:30:32,037 --> 00:30:34,418
of the Civil Rights controversies
568
00:30:34,453 --> 00:30:35,626
of the late '50s was
569
00:30:35,661 --> 00:30:37,421
they were televised.
570
00:30:37,456 --> 00:30:39,458
Little Rock, Arkansas.
571
00:30:39,492 --> 00:30:41,632
The white population are
determined to prevent
572
00:30:41,667 --> 00:30:43,255
colored students from going to the school
573
00:30:43,289 --> 00:30:45,429
their own children attend.
574
00:30:45,464 --> 00:30:48,812
This was one of the first times
575
00:30:48,847 --> 00:30:52,954
in U.S. history
when racial violence
576
00:30:52,989 --> 00:30:55,508
could be seen all over the world.
577
00:30:57,372 --> 00:30:59,858
You've got nine Black honor students,
578
00:30:59,892 --> 00:31:01,790
just trying to go to school,
579
00:31:01,825 --> 00:31:03,758
just trying to get an education.
580
00:31:03,792 --> 00:31:06,450
We see white mobs, angry mobs,
581
00:31:06,485 --> 00:31:08,901
trying to get at the kids.
582
00:31:13,733 --> 00:31:19,567
The "Times
of India" tracked it day by day.
583
00:31:19,601 --> 00:31:21,914
Race was undermining the ability
584
00:31:21,949 --> 00:31:25,711
of the United States to appeal
to emerging new nations.
585
00:31:25,745 --> 00:31:27,747
And it raised questions...
586
00:31:27,782 --> 00:31:30,095
"Why should we be your ally when
587
00:31:30,129 --> 00:31:32,373
you treat people who
look like me this way?"
588
00:31:34,547 --> 00:31:38,517
The governor of
Arkansas sent in the National Guard
589
00:31:38,551 --> 00:31:42,003
to block the Black students
and keep the school segregated.
590
00:31:42,038 --> 00:31:45,006
For three weeks, the president
591
00:31:45,041 --> 00:31:49,045
of the United States did nothing at all.
592
00:31:49,079 --> 00:31:52,186
The Soviets were all on top
593
00:31:52,220 --> 00:31:54,913
of the explosion at Little Rock.
594
00:31:56,984 --> 00:32:00,504
You see the frustration
in the administration,
595
00:32:00,539 --> 00:32:03,645
in the State Department,
calling it propaganda.
596
00:32:03,680 --> 00:32:07,546
It is a way for them
to strip it of its truth.
597
00:32:07,580 --> 00:32:09,548
It's not propaganda if it's true.
598
00:32:09,582 --> 00:32:12,965
Our enemies are gloating
over this incident
599
00:32:13,000 --> 00:32:17,521
and using it everywhere to
misrepresent our whole nation.
600
00:32:17,556 --> 00:32:19,730
Little Rock will return
601
00:32:19,765 --> 00:32:24,597
to its normal habits of peace and order.
602
00:32:24,632 --> 00:32:26,737
Thus will be restored
603
00:32:26,772 --> 00:32:29,119
the image of America and of all its parts.
604
00:32:30,879 --> 00:32:34,573
Eisenhower deploys federal troops.
605
00:32:34,607 --> 00:32:36,747
He ultimately does it for these questions
606
00:32:36,782 --> 00:32:40,061
of American credibility
in international coverage,
607
00:32:40,096 --> 00:32:42,719
not because it's the right thing to do.
608
00:32:45,135 --> 00:32:48,173
As America continued
to reveal its faults to the world,
609
00:32:48,207 --> 00:32:50,865
it was a frustrating time
for Terence Todman
610
00:32:50,899 --> 00:32:53,626
to be a Foreign Service Officer abroad.
611
00:32:53,661 --> 00:32:55,732
"We were putting out a lot of information,
612
00:32:55,766 --> 00:32:57,458
which no one paid any attention to,"
613
00:32:57,492 --> 00:32:59,011
he would later say.
614
00:32:59,046 --> 00:33:02,325
"If we assigned a couple of Black officers
615
00:33:02,359 --> 00:33:04,154
"to positions in those embassies,
616
00:33:04,189 --> 00:33:06,915
"their very presence, as Black Americans
617
00:33:06,950 --> 00:33:09,711
in official positions, would
tell the story far better."
618
00:33:11,886 --> 00:33:14,268
And for Doris Todman,
619
00:33:14,302 --> 00:33:16,856
it was difficult to be overseas
620
00:33:16,891 --> 00:33:19,031
watching the Civil Rights struggle unfold
621
00:33:19,066 --> 00:33:22,207
half a world away.
622
00:33:22,241 --> 00:33:24,243
Well, I would say, "Why am I here?
623
00:33:24,278 --> 00:33:26,107
I should be out there marching," you know.
624
00:33:26,142 --> 00:33:29,214
And he said, "Look,
we serve a purpose, too.
625
00:33:29,248 --> 00:33:32,044
We're showing what
America could be."
626
00:33:34,081 --> 00:33:38,257
He was concerned
that we represent the truth
627
00:33:38,292 --> 00:33:42,917
and not painting over of
American culture and society.
628
00:33:45,195 --> 00:33:47,094
He had a job to do,
629
00:33:47,128 --> 00:33:48,888
to represent the United States of America,
630
00:33:48,923 --> 00:33:51,098
the good, the bad, and the ugly.
631
00:33:51,132 --> 00:33:53,548
And if it was ugly, he said it's ugly.
632
00:33:55,102 --> 00:33:57,414
By the late 1950s,
633
00:33:57,449 --> 00:33:59,520
people throughout Asia and Africa
634
00:33:59,554 --> 00:34:01,522
were fighting for self-determination
635
00:34:01,556 --> 00:34:05,112
against colonial powers.
636
00:34:05,146 --> 00:34:07,735
But Eisenhower failed
to see a connection between
637
00:34:07,769 --> 00:34:09,564
liberation movements in Africa
638
00:34:09,599 --> 00:34:13,051
and civil rights in America.
639
00:34:13,085 --> 00:34:15,674
He saw action against colonial governments
640
00:34:15,708 --> 00:34:18,918
as communist-inspired.
641
00:34:18,953 --> 00:34:21,921
Deeply embedded in U.S. values
642
00:34:21,956 --> 00:34:25,373
in the 1950s was an understanding of
643
00:34:25,408 --> 00:34:28,583
white people at the top of a heap of worth
644
00:34:28,618 --> 00:34:31,207
and capability, and
645
00:34:31,241 --> 00:34:36,246
Black people, Asians, you know,
Indigenous people
646
00:34:36,281 --> 00:34:37,765
controlling their own destinies,
647
00:34:37,799 --> 00:34:41,493
would mean chaos and upheaval,
648
00:34:41,527 --> 00:34:43,840
is deeply rooted in
racialized understandings
649
00:34:43,874 --> 00:34:46,118
of who has the capacity
for self-government.
650
00:34:46,153 --> 00:34:50,398
While serving on U.S. delegations,
651
00:34:50,433 --> 00:34:53,229
I noticed the United States going along
652
00:34:53,263 --> 00:34:57,129
with what the British
and French were doing
653
00:34:57,164 --> 00:34:59,890
in dragging their feet
and not keeping up to
654
00:34:59,925 --> 00:35:02,307
their sacred trust of bringing
655
00:35:02,341 --> 00:35:04,309
these countries to self-government.
656
00:35:04,343 --> 00:35:07,760
And I kept insisting
that the U.S. policy
657
00:35:07,795 --> 00:35:10,522
should be in keeping with our own history
658
00:35:10,556 --> 00:35:12,317
and our own principles,
659
00:35:12,351 --> 00:35:15,768
and that we should not be going along
660
00:35:15,803 --> 00:35:18,185
with what these colonial
powers were doing.
661
00:35:20,635 --> 00:35:22,189
Todman represented
662
00:35:22,223 --> 00:35:24,018
the sort of young lions coming in,
663
00:35:24,052 --> 00:35:27,021
confronting this idea within
the State Department
664
00:35:27,055 --> 00:35:30,542
that the real experts on Africa
are the old colonialists.
665
00:35:33,200 --> 00:35:37,100
In 1960, liberation
movements in Asia and Africa
666
00:35:37,135 --> 00:35:39,965
were transforming global politics.
667
00:35:39,999 --> 00:35:41,553
That year alone,
668
00:35:41,587 --> 00:35:44,038
17 African nations won
669
00:35:44,072 --> 00:35:47,110
their struggle for independence.
670
00:35:47,145 --> 00:35:51,356
Eisenhower left office in 1961,
just as the movement
671
00:35:51,390 --> 00:35:55,153
for civil rights at home was
growing stronger by the year.
672
00:36:01,711 --> 00:36:03,816
In his winning campaign,
673
00:36:03,851 --> 00:36:06,336
John F. Kennedy
had promised to support
674
00:36:06,371 --> 00:36:10,685
both civil rights
and African independence.
675
00:36:10,720 --> 00:36:13,343
The great battleground
for the defense and expansion
676
00:36:13,378 --> 00:36:17,209
of freedom today is the whole
southern half of the globe...
677
00:36:17,244 --> 00:36:20,247
Asia, Latin America,
678
00:36:20,281 --> 00:36:22,007
Africa, and the Middle East,
679
00:36:22,041 --> 00:36:24,561
the lands of the rising people.
680
00:36:26,908 --> 00:36:28,324
But for all his rhetoric,
681
00:36:28,358 --> 00:36:29,773
the new president
682
00:36:29,808 --> 00:36:32,742
mainly focused on one problem...
stopping the expansion
683
00:36:32,776 --> 00:36:35,607
of communist power.
684
00:36:35,641 --> 00:36:38,230
Now he looked for someone he could trust
685
00:36:38,265 --> 00:36:40,922
to communicate his policies to the world.
686
00:36:43,718 --> 00:36:46,100
Oh, New Year's Day of 1961,
687
00:36:46,134 --> 00:36:48,309
I was lying in bed in Pasadena waiting
688
00:36:48,344 --> 00:36:50,346
for the Rose Bowl game to start,
689
00:36:50,380 --> 00:36:53,107
when I got a telephone call
asking if I'd come down
690
00:36:53,141 --> 00:36:57,007
to Washington as Deputy
Assistant Secretary of State.
691
00:36:57,042 --> 00:36:59,596
Wow, that must've been an exciting call.
692
00:36:59,631 --> 00:37:03,290
Well, it, uh... there
were a lot of days
693
00:37:03,324 --> 00:37:05,015
during those four-and-a-half years
694
00:37:05,050 --> 00:37:07,501
when I wished I'd never gotten the call.
695
00:37:10,814 --> 00:37:12,402
By the time he received that call,
696
00:37:12,437 --> 00:37:16,717
Carl Rowan was already a
nationally known journalist.
697
00:37:16,751 --> 00:37:19,409
During the 1960 campaign,
698
00:37:19,444 --> 00:37:21,722
he'd written a series of articles for
699
00:37:21,756 --> 00:37:23,413
a Republican-owned newspaper
700
00:37:23,448 --> 00:37:27,210
on Democratic candidate John
F. Kennedy that Kennedy found
701
00:37:27,245 --> 00:37:29,661
surprisingly fair.
702
00:37:29,695 --> 00:37:32,388
Six months later,
the new president offered
703
00:37:32,422 --> 00:37:35,425
the young journalist the job
of Deputy Assistant
704
00:37:35,460 --> 00:37:39,049
Secretary of State for Public Affairs.
705
00:37:39,084 --> 00:37:41,880
Carl Rowan would communicate
Kennedy's policies
706
00:37:41,914 --> 00:37:45,228
to journalists around the world.
707
00:37:45,263 --> 00:37:47,886
He wanted his voice to be heard.
708
00:37:47,920 --> 00:37:50,371
He wanted a seat at the table
709
00:37:50,406 --> 00:37:51,959
in both domestic
710
00:37:51,993 --> 00:37:53,892
and international policy making.
711
00:37:55,618 --> 00:37:57,896
The appointment
made Rowan the highest-ranking
712
00:37:57,930 --> 00:38:01,071
African American official
in the State Department.
713
00:38:01,106 --> 00:38:03,557
It was a remarkable accomplishment,
714
00:38:03,591 --> 00:38:06,180
especially for someone
who'd grown up in a family
715
00:38:06,214 --> 00:38:09,425
of five in a small house
with no electricity
716
00:38:09,459 --> 00:38:12,013
in McMinnville, Tennessee.
717
00:38:12,048 --> 00:38:15,534
His mother was a cleaner for houses
718
00:38:15,569 --> 00:38:19,711
and his dad really didn't
bring in a consistent income.
719
00:38:19,745 --> 00:38:24,060
That led to squabbles between his parents.
720
00:38:24,094 --> 00:38:27,477
Those were very difficult times for him.
721
00:38:27,512 --> 00:38:29,237
From the beginning,
722
00:38:29,272 --> 00:38:33,000
Carl Rowan was driven to succeed.
723
00:38:33,034 --> 00:38:36,279
He was valedictorian
of his high school class,
724
00:38:36,314 --> 00:38:39,420
and went to Tennessee State University.
725
00:38:39,455 --> 00:38:43,286
Then he became one of the first
African American officers
726
00:38:43,321 --> 00:38:46,082
in the history of the U.S. Navy.
727
00:38:46,116 --> 00:38:49,568
But when he came back home to Tennessee,
728
00:38:49,603 --> 00:38:51,846
he was still a second class citizen.
729
00:38:56,126 --> 00:38:58,025
He decided to become a journalist.
730
00:38:58,059 --> 00:39:02,961
He would tell the ugly truth
about racism in the South.
731
00:39:02,995 --> 00:39:04,721
In 1948, I got a job with
732
00:39:04,756 --> 00:39:06,758
the "Minneapolis Tribune"
733
00:39:06,792 --> 00:39:09,899
at a time when very few daily newspapers
734
00:39:09,933 --> 00:39:12,660
were hiring Negroes as writers.
735
00:39:12,695 --> 00:39:14,490
In 1951,
736
00:39:14,524 --> 00:39:16,526
I suggested to the editors
737
00:39:16,561 --> 00:39:20,012
that we had a responsibility
to tell the people
738
00:39:20,047 --> 00:39:22,083
of this state something about
739
00:39:22,118 --> 00:39:24,431
the Negro citizens of this nation.
740
00:39:24,465 --> 00:39:27,295
The 18-part series called
741
00:39:27,330 --> 00:39:31,161
"How Far From Slavery?"
was a sensation,
742
00:39:31,196 --> 00:39:33,750
and made Rowan's career.
743
00:39:33,785 --> 00:39:37,651
Rowan portrayed the
racial problems in a very specific way.
744
00:39:37,685 --> 00:39:41,206
That really all we're talking
about are a few Southern states,
745
00:39:41,240 --> 00:39:44,036
these holdouts, who
don't really agree with
746
00:39:44,071 --> 00:39:47,177
the vast majority of Americans.
747
00:39:47,212 --> 00:39:50,077
He had a viewpoint that
748
00:39:50,111 --> 00:39:52,562
working class people,
when given opportunity,
749
00:39:52,597 --> 00:39:54,564
can participate
750
00:39:54,599 --> 00:39:56,911
in ideals of American citizenship.
751
00:39:59,086 --> 00:40:01,882
In 1954, Rowan took his idea
752
00:40:01,916 --> 00:40:04,885
of the American dream overseas to India,
753
00:40:04,919 --> 00:40:06,749
as part of a lecture series
754
00:40:06,783 --> 00:40:09,372
sponsored by the State Department.
755
00:40:09,407 --> 00:40:12,168
Part of the agenda is for him to represent
756
00:40:12,202 --> 00:40:14,170
someone who has
been able to uproot themselves
757
00:40:14,204 --> 00:40:15,861
from abject poverty.
758
00:40:15,896 --> 00:40:18,519
He's there to represent possibilities
759
00:40:18,554 --> 00:40:21,177
of life in the United States.
760
00:40:21,211 --> 00:40:26,009
It perpetuates the kind
of dominant U.S. ethos
761
00:40:26,044 --> 00:40:30,945
of individualism, which completely negates
762
00:40:30,980 --> 00:40:33,569
the reality that Rowan was an anomaly.
763
00:40:33,603 --> 00:40:38,056
One evening, an
Indian journalist introduced Rowan
764
00:40:38,090 --> 00:40:41,646
as an "excellent
propagandist for America,"
765
00:40:41,680 --> 00:40:44,890
saying, "We are all
interested in how a man
766
00:40:44,925 --> 00:40:47,652
"with a Black skin,
who has been unable to know
767
00:40:47,686 --> 00:40:52,450
freedom, can talk so learnedly
about a free society."
768
00:40:52,484 --> 00:40:54,382
It was an uncomfortable moment,
769
00:40:54,417 --> 00:40:58,386
and it reconstructed
Rowan's view of the world.
770
00:40:58,421 --> 00:41:01,251
Rowan believed that these
attacks were communist inspired.
771
00:41:01,286 --> 00:41:04,151
That's what he was facing...
772
00:41:04,185 --> 00:41:07,534
misconceptions, lies, distorted stories.
773
00:41:07,568 --> 00:41:10,813
"I was not a State Department lackey,"
774
00:41:10,847 --> 00:41:12,539
Rowan would later write.
775
00:41:12,573 --> 00:41:16,370
"I simply went from Darjeeling,
to Patna, to Cuttack,
776
00:41:16,404 --> 00:41:20,270
"to Madras, saying good
things about my country
777
00:41:20,305 --> 00:41:23,550
"because I believed that
the society that had given me
778
00:41:23,584 --> 00:41:25,552
"a break was in the process of taking
779
00:41:25,586 --> 00:41:29,521
great strides toward
racial justice."
780
00:41:29,556 --> 00:41:31,903
The first
word for him is "patriot."
781
00:41:31,937 --> 00:41:34,457
And that's a complicated thing for
782
00:41:34,492 --> 00:41:38,323
a Black man to be in the mid-1950s.
783
00:41:38,357 --> 00:41:42,638
So he is critical of the U.S.,
784
00:41:42,672 --> 00:41:44,329
but he also sees promise,
785
00:41:44,363 --> 00:41:47,159
he believes that American democracy
786
00:41:47,194 --> 00:41:49,507
would be good for the world,
787
00:41:49,541 --> 00:41:52,544
and for decolonizing nations.
788
00:41:58,895 --> 00:42:00,932
Rowan became friendly
789
00:42:00,966 --> 00:42:04,798
with Vice President
Lyndon Johnson on a 1961 trip
790
00:42:04,832 --> 00:42:07,248
through Asia, including Vietnam,
791
00:42:07,283 --> 00:42:09,078
where the U.S.
792
00:42:09,112 --> 00:42:12,046
was already becoming entangled in a war.
793
00:42:16,395 --> 00:42:19,226
Their friendship fueled Rowan's ambition,
794
00:42:19,260 --> 00:42:22,436
but it led to frustration, as well.
795
00:42:22,470 --> 00:42:25,853
"I suppose it's natural that
796
00:42:25,888 --> 00:42:29,236
"anyone who travels with
and advises a vice president
797
00:42:29,270 --> 00:42:32,273
would develop some sense
of self-esteem," he later wrote.
798
00:42:32,308 --> 00:42:35,207
"I took on a sense of self-importance that
799
00:42:35,242 --> 00:42:37,589
"had nothing to do with reality.
800
00:42:37,624 --> 00:42:39,764
I forgot," he wrote,
801
00:42:39,798 --> 00:42:43,664
"that I was just another Negro."
802
00:42:43,699 --> 00:42:45,390
He describes the State Department
803
00:42:45,424 --> 00:42:47,875
as a virtual plantation.
804
00:42:47,910 --> 00:42:51,085
It's very much a kind
of white male culture.
805
00:42:51,120 --> 00:42:56,159
And this is a space that he
is forced to make sense of.
806
00:42:56,194 --> 00:42:58,886
He does push for more,
you know, people of color,
807
00:42:58,921 --> 00:43:00,578
Black people, to be hired.
808
00:43:01,786 --> 00:43:03,097
The fact that I'd come in
809
00:43:03,132 --> 00:43:06,549
as the first deputy assistant secretary,
810
00:43:06,584 --> 00:43:08,827
we launched a mighty campaign
811
00:43:08,862 --> 00:43:10,691
to integrate the
Foreign Service to the point
812
00:43:10,726 --> 00:43:13,211
that it looked reasonably like
813
00:43:13,245 --> 00:43:16,248
the population of the United States.
814
00:43:16,283 --> 00:43:20,011
But the pace of change was slow.
815
00:43:20,045 --> 00:43:21,909
After two years,
816
00:43:21,944 --> 00:43:25,188
Rowan was ready to leave the department.
817
00:43:25,223 --> 00:43:28,813
Instead, Kennedy offered
him an ambassadorship
818
00:43:28,847 --> 00:43:32,402
to Finland, and Rowan took it.
819
00:43:32,437 --> 00:43:37,097
The currency of diplomacy is optimism.
820
00:43:37,131 --> 00:43:40,341
You have to be optimistic as a diplomat.
821
00:43:40,376 --> 00:43:44,000
And that leads to seeing
issues as opportunities.
822
00:43:50,179 --> 00:43:51,663
And now you're
here and we hope that you will
823
00:43:51,698 --> 00:43:53,803
like to stay here with us.
824
00:43:53,838 --> 00:43:55,494
I know we're going to enjoy it immensely.
825
00:43:55,529 --> 00:43:58,394
And we look forward to seeing all of this
826
00:43:58,428 --> 00:44:01,742
country and as many of
Finland's people as possible.
827
00:44:04,020 --> 00:44:08,715
The Finns did magazine articles galore.
828
00:44:08,749 --> 00:44:11,994
I remember one in one of
the big Finnish magazines,
829
00:44:12,028 --> 00:44:15,273
the most colorful ambassador in Finland.
830
00:44:17,413 --> 00:44:22,245
They were talking
about the unorthodox style
831
00:44:22,280 --> 00:44:25,007
that I brought to the job,
in the sense of traveling
832
00:44:25,041 --> 00:44:28,010
more than any American had before,
833
00:44:28,044 --> 00:44:30,702
and going out bowling
with the Finnish people.
834
00:44:34,119 --> 00:44:36,812
People would walk up to us and stare,
835
00:44:36,846 --> 00:44:40,263
but it wasn't a kind of racist staring.
836
00:44:40,298 --> 00:44:42,507
They were just curious
because they had never
837
00:44:42,541 --> 00:44:45,268
really seen people of color before.
838
00:44:47,236 --> 00:44:49,721
For Rowan, being a Black ambassador
839
00:44:49,756 --> 00:44:51,861
in Finland had a subtext.
840
00:44:51,896 --> 00:44:55,140
He wrote, "I could belie the notion
841
00:44:55,175 --> 00:44:58,730
that my country was
hopelessly racist."
842
00:44:58,765 --> 00:45:01,871
Rowan said, "My coming to Finland would
843
00:45:01,906 --> 00:45:04,425
"hasten the day when American Negroes are
844
00:45:04,460 --> 00:45:07,843
playing the role they ought to
play in our Foreign Service."
845
00:45:07,877 --> 00:45:11,225
Finland was a critical country for
846
00:45:11,260 --> 00:45:12,917
a president preoccupied with
847
00:45:12,951 --> 00:45:16,334
drawing the line against Communism.
848
00:45:16,368 --> 00:45:19,544
The Soviet Union loomed
large on Finland's border.
849
00:45:19,578 --> 00:45:21,995
Ambassador Rowan was now
850
00:45:22,029 --> 00:45:25,688
on the frontlines of the Cold War.
851
00:45:25,723 --> 00:45:27,828
Finland was a hotspot.
852
00:45:27,863 --> 00:45:29,588
Finland was seen as sort of a nation
853
00:45:29,623 --> 00:45:31,521
on the fence in the Cold War.
854
00:45:31,556 --> 00:45:34,317
This was a nation we really
had to curry their favor.
855
00:45:34,352 --> 00:45:36,734
We know the Soviets were also
trying to curry their favor.
856
00:45:40,082 --> 00:45:42,049
The U.S. and
the Soviet Union had enough
857
00:45:42,084 --> 00:45:46,088
nuclear weapons to destroy
the other many times over.
858
00:45:46,122 --> 00:45:48,435
Kennedy urged the world's leaders to sign
859
00:45:48,469 --> 00:45:50,851
a partial test ban, and Kennedy's
860
00:45:50,886 --> 00:45:53,267
directive to Rowan was clear...
861
00:45:53,302 --> 00:45:56,236
persuade Finland's president,
Urho Kekkonen,
862
00:45:56,270 --> 00:45:59,204
to support an international treaty.
863
00:45:59,239 --> 00:46:01,966
Let us call a truce to terror.
864
00:46:02,000 --> 00:46:05,314
The logical place to begin is a treaty
865
00:46:05,348 --> 00:46:08,489
assuring the end of nuclear tests
866
00:46:08,524 --> 00:46:12,321
of all kinds, in every environment.
867
00:46:14,564 --> 00:46:16,946
Rowan succeeded
in getting Kekkonen to join the effort.
868
00:46:19,362 --> 00:46:23,884
This was his greatest
accomplishment as an ambassador.
869
00:46:23,919 --> 00:46:25,610
But his stay was cut short...
870
00:46:25,644 --> 00:46:28,751
on November 22, 1963.
871
00:46:36,103 --> 00:46:38,243
In winter's darkness,
872
00:46:38,278 --> 00:46:40,383
all men await the new
president's guidance.
873
00:46:40,418 --> 00:46:44,525
His cabinet puts before him a
Congress deadlocked in debate,
874
00:46:44,560 --> 00:46:47,666
the torment of a nation
on the edge of racial clash.
875
00:46:47,701 --> 00:46:52,671
With steadying certainty,
Lyndon Johnson takes over.
876
00:46:52,706 --> 00:46:55,605
When Lyndon Johnson became president,
877
00:46:55,640 --> 00:47:00,162
he entered office with an
ambitious civil rights agenda.
878
00:47:00,196 --> 00:47:02,889
The first step would be to appoint
879
00:47:02,923 --> 00:47:04,373
African Americans to high office.
880
00:47:04,407 --> 00:47:06,409
I, Carl T. Rowan,
do solemnly swear...
881
00:47:06,444 --> 00:47:08,032
He named Rowan the director
882
00:47:08,066 --> 00:47:10,828
of the United States Information Agency.
883
00:47:10,862 --> 00:47:12,588
That I will support...
884
00:47:12,622 --> 00:47:14,521
The fact that here is
885
00:47:14,555 --> 00:47:15,833
a very accomplished African American
886
00:47:15,867 --> 00:47:17,662
who has been put into this position
887
00:47:17,696 --> 00:47:19,837
and has the confidence
888
00:47:19,871 --> 00:47:22,184
of the president of the United States,
889
00:47:22,218 --> 00:47:23,426
it was a major fanfare
890
00:47:23,461 --> 00:47:24,772
as I was growing up
891
00:47:24,807 --> 00:47:27,051
in African American publications,
892
00:47:27,085 --> 00:47:29,985
because it was unprecedented.
893
00:47:30,019 --> 00:47:34,817
But it wasn't easy to
be head of the U.S.I.A. in the 1960s.
894
00:47:34,852 --> 00:47:38,234
America's racial unrest intensified,
895
00:47:38,269 --> 00:47:40,823
while the country spiraled deeper into
896
00:47:40,858 --> 00:47:44,585
what many viewed as an unjust war.
897
00:47:44,620 --> 00:47:49,832
It was Rowan's job to protect
America's image overseas,
898
00:47:49,867 --> 00:47:52,731
a position that often put him at odds
899
00:47:52,766 --> 00:47:54,837
with civil rights leaders.
900
00:47:54,872 --> 00:47:58,082
Carl Rowan,
901
00:47:58,116 --> 00:48:01,257
I would say, played it
too close to the vest.
902
00:48:01,292 --> 00:48:04,467
There is an insurgency
in the Black community.
903
00:48:04,502 --> 00:48:09,162
And so the kind of quiet,
patient gradualism
904
00:48:09,196 --> 00:48:13,028
isn't playing to that insurgency.
905
00:48:17,515 --> 00:48:20,656
It was a difficult time to
be a representative of a country
906
00:48:20,690 --> 00:48:25,212
that still kept most of your
fellow African Americans
907
00:48:25,247 --> 00:48:27,870
in second-class citizenship.
908
00:48:27,905 --> 00:48:31,701
Well, which United States
do they represent?
909
00:48:31,736 --> 00:48:34,566
Do they represent the United States that
910
00:48:34,601 --> 00:48:36,223
they are supposed to represent,
911
00:48:36,258 --> 00:48:39,054
as the paragon of freedom,
democracy, and justice,
912
00:48:39,088 --> 00:48:42,402
or do they represent the America which is
913
00:48:42,436 --> 00:48:44,024
a segregated, divided,
914
00:48:44,059 --> 00:48:48,201
and sometimes racially violent society?
915
00:48:53,723 --> 00:48:58,038
As the debacle in Vietnam consumed LBJ,
916
00:48:58,073 --> 00:49:00,558
Rowan felt increasingly cut out
917
00:49:00,592 --> 00:49:03,423
of the decision-making process.
918
00:49:03,457 --> 00:49:08,255
His relationship with
the president deteriorated.
919
00:49:08,290 --> 00:49:12,190
In 1965, Rowan resigned.
920
00:49:14,158 --> 00:49:16,850
There were people I knew who did resign.
921
00:49:16,884 --> 00:49:19,818
As a country, we lost their talent.
922
00:49:19,853 --> 00:49:24,168
We lost their thinking on policy issues.
923
00:49:24,202 --> 00:49:26,204
It's hard to quantify what you've lost,
924
00:49:26,239 --> 00:49:28,689
but you do lose that voice at the table.
925
00:49:31,451 --> 00:49:34,005
It's easy to enter an institution
926
00:49:34,040 --> 00:49:36,145
and think you're going to change it.
927
00:49:36,180 --> 00:49:38,734
But if it's just you or just a few of you,
928
00:49:38,768 --> 00:49:41,047
how do you keep in mind the
purpose that you entered with
929
00:49:41,081 --> 00:49:43,566
and how do you fulfill that purpose?
930
00:49:45,879 --> 00:49:47,570
Both Carl Rowan
931
00:49:47,605 --> 00:49:49,296
and Edward R. Dudley returned
932
00:49:49,331 --> 00:49:52,575
to illustrious careers outside diplomacy.
933
00:49:56,924 --> 00:50:01,032
But Terence Todman dedicated
his life to the Foreign Service.
934
00:50:01,067 --> 00:50:04,725
In 1989, the State Department honored him
935
00:50:04,760 --> 00:50:07,038
with the rank of Career Ambassador,
936
00:50:07,073 --> 00:50:10,317
the first African American diplomat
937
00:50:10,352 --> 00:50:12,526
to receive that distinction.
938
00:50:12,561 --> 00:50:16,047
He served as an ambassador for 23 years,
939
00:50:16,082 --> 00:50:18,636
learned six languages,
940
00:50:18,670 --> 00:50:22,226
and held six ambassadorial positions.
941
00:50:22,260 --> 00:50:24,400
That means that on six occasions,
942
00:50:24,435 --> 00:50:27,300
Ambassador Todman
received Senate confirmation.
943
00:50:27,334 --> 00:50:29,716
On six occasions, you had the confidence
944
00:50:29,750 --> 00:50:31,718
of the president of the United States.
945
00:50:31,752 --> 00:50:33,858
That is... that is highly unique.
946
00:50:35,687 --> 00:50:38,069
We felt we were proving a point
947
00:50:38,104 --> 00:50:40,382
because we had penetrated
948
00:50:40,416 --> 00:50:43,419
an impenetrable area
949
00:50:43,454 --> 00:50:45,766
in America, in diplomacy.
950
00:50:45,801 --> 00:50:48,631
We felt that was important.
951
00:50:48,666 --> 00:50:52,325
If we look at the
late 1940s with Edward Dudley,
952
00:50:52,359 --> 00:50:54,051
moving on through Terence Todman,
953
00:50:54,085 --> 00:50:57,088
moving up to the career
of Carl Rowan and beyond,
954
00:50:57,123 --> 00:51:00,091
the question of progress,
it's a difficult one.
955
00:51:01,610 --> 00:51:03,094
Has there been progress?
956
00:51:03,129 --> 00:51:04,820
There has been progress.
957
00:51:04,854 --> 00:51:07,133
But it's been an uphill battle.
958
00:51:07,167 --> 00:51:09,169
The folks who are in these bureaucracies,
959
00:51:09,204 --> 00:51:12,138
which are often very hostile places,
960
00:51:12,172 --> 00:51:16,003
slowly chipping away
961
00:51:16,038 --> 00:51:19,041
at the structures of inequality,
962
00:51:19,076 --> 00:51:21,561
the structures that suppress merit,
963
00:51:21,595 --> 00:51:24,529
that just see your Blackness
964
00:51:24,564 --> 00:51:27,118
and not your brilliance,
965
00:51:27,153 --> 00:51:30,811
to have those folks
quietly doing that work,
966
00:51:30,846 --> 00:51:34,229
this is that kind of
967
00:51:34,263 --> 00:51:38,716
institutional systemic work
that creates change.
69861
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