Exporting American Dreams: Thurgood Marshall's African JourneyThurgood Marshall became a living icon of civil rights when he argued Brown v. Board of Education before the Supreme Court in 1954. Six years later, he was at a crossroads. A rising generation of activists were making sit-ins and demonstrations rather than lawsuits the hallmark of the civil rights movement. What role, he wondered, could he now play? When in 1960 Kenyan independence leaders asked him to help write their constitution, Marshall threw himself into their cause. Here was a new arena in which law might serve as the tool with which to forge a just society. In Exporting American Dreams , Mary Dudziak recounts with poignancy and power the untold story of Marshall's journey to Africa. African Americans were enslaved when the U.S. constitution was written. In Kenya, Marshall could become something that had not existed in his own country: a black man helping to found a nation. He became friends with Kenyan leaders Tom Mboya and Jomo Kenyatta, serving as advisor to the Kenyans, who needed to demonstrate to Great Britain and to the world that they would treat minority races (whites and Asians) fairly once Africans took power. He crafted a bill of rights, aiding constitutional negotiations that helped enable peaceful regime change, rather than violent resistance. Marshall's involvement with Kenya's foundation affirmed his faith in law, while also forcing him to understand how the struggle for justice could be compromised by the imperatives of sovereignty. Marshall's beliefs were most sorely tested later in the decade when he became a Supreme Court Justice, even as American cities erupted in flames and civil rights progress stalled. Kenya's first attempt at democracy faltered, but Marshall's African journey remained a cherished memory of a time and a place when all things seemed possible. |
Contents
A Tricky Constitution | |
Writing Rights | |
Discriminating Friends | |
Anarchy Is Anarchy | |
Epilogue | |
Thurgood Marshalls Draft Bill of Rights for Kenya | |
Acknowledgments | |
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African Americans African nations Amistad Research Center argued Asians Berl Bernhard Bill of Rights Black Power Blundell Boynton British Central Decimal File civil rights lawyers civil rights movement Cold War Civil colonial Committee on Safeguards Constance Baker Motley Daily Nation Nairobi Decolonization Derrick Bell Desegregation discrimination Dudziak equality February federal Folder freedom Ghana Hoover Institute Human Rights Ibid Independence Constitution interview by author January Johnson Jomo Kenyatta Justice KANU Kenya Constitutional Conference Kikuyu Lancaster House conference land Law School leaders London Louisiana Macleod Marshall’s Martin Luther King Mau Mau Mboya Mboya Papers meeting minority NAACP Nairobi National Archives nationalists negotiations Negro Oginga Odinga police President Princeton property rights protect race racial Record rule Secretary segregation sitins Southern story struggle Telegram thought Thurgood Marshall tribe Tushnet U.S. government U.S. Supreme Court UDHR Article Uhuru United violence white settlers wrote York