We Are Internationalists : Prexy Nesbitt and the Fight for African Liberation

"Now more than ever, young Americans need to know that internationalism and solidarity with anticolonial struggles in the Global South have a deep history in the American Left, especially the Black Left."—Angela Y.

DavisIn the shadow of the Vietnam War, a group of Chicago activists redefined Black freedom as a global struggle against empire.

In this gripping account, Martha Biondi traces their efforts to build an internationalist movement dedicated to liberation everywhere, with a particular focus on ending colonialism and apartheid in Africa.  Among their leaders was Prexy Nesbitt. Steeped from an early age in stories of Garveyism and labor militancy, Nesbitt was powerfully influenced by his encounters with the exiled African radicals he met in Dar es Salaam, London, and across the United States.

Operating domestically and abroad, Nesbitt's cohort worked closely with opponents of Portuguese and white minority rule in Mozambique, Angola, and South Africa.

Rather than promoting a US conception of Black self-determination, they took ideas from African anticolonial leaders and injected them into US foreign policy debates.  The biography of a man but even more so of a movement, We Are Internationalists reveals the underappreciated influence of a transformative Black solidarity project.