Pan-African Congress
[3] Pan Africanists believed that both slavery and colonialism were built on negative attitudes towards people of African descent, which in turn, contributed to racism.
[9] During World War I, African American soldiers fought bravely overseas and people like Du Bois felt that they should not face racial violence when they return to the United States.
[10] Wilson's Fourteen Points plan gave Du Bois hope that there would be greater opportunities for Black people politically in a future marked by democratic and anti-colonial values.
[12] In addition, Du Bois wanted to oppose the influence of the United Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) and Marcus Garvey on any potential proceedings.
[14] In December 1918, Du Bois went to France as a representative of the NAACP at the same time the Paris Peace Conference was taking place at the end of WWI.
[8] Many majority groups, including Black people in Europe and Africa, felt that the creation of a League of Nations would lead to positive outcomes for them politically and socially.
[15] Du Bois wrote to President Wilson and asked to be a delegate for the Peace Conference to speak on behalf of Black people.
[24] Du Bois wanted to petition the Versailles Peace Conference held in Paris at that time to make a case for African colonies to become self-ruling.
[26]: 16 Unlike the International Council of Women, the Pan-African Congress was unable to send delegates to the Peace Conference, nor were members permitted to serve on commissions.
[30] There were 57 delegates representing 15 countries, a smaller number than originally intended because British and American governments refused to issue passports to their citizens who had planned on attending.
[44] Andrade, Diagne, Gratien Candace, Achille René-Boisneuf, and Joseph Lagrosillière all felt that there was "no room for a diasporan political consciousness because they saw the French Third Republic's empire as the best current opportunity for the realization of black rights within their constituencies.
[46] Helen Noble Curtis gave a speech called "The Use of African Troops in Europe" which described many racist experiences Black soldiers fighting in WWI encountered in hospitals and other institutions.
"[46] It was felt that Africa should be granted home rule and Africans should take part in governing their countries as fast as their development permits until at some specified time in the future.
"[57] Paul Otlet, a Belgian peace activist, wrote an article in La Patrie Belge proposing that European powers return German colonies to African people.
[56] When Du Bois wrote about the Congress in the Crisis and in his reports to the NAACP, he did not give a full view of actual nature of the speeches and implied criticism of the United States' racial problems that did not take place at the conference.
At the London session, resolutions were adopted, later restated by Du Bois in his "Manifesto To the League of Nations":[70][69] If we are coming to recognize that the great modern problem is to correct maladjustment in the distribution of wealth, it must be remembered that the basic maladjustment is in the outrageously unjust distribution of world income between the dominant and suppressed peoples; in the rape of land and raw material, and the monopoly of technique and culture.
Unconsciously and consciously, carelessly and deliberately, the vast power of the white labor vote in modern democracies has been cajoled and flattered into imperialistic schemes to enslave and debauch black, brown and yellow labor.The only dissenting voices were these of Blaise Diagne and Gratien Candace, French politicians of African and Guadeloupean descent, who represented Senegal and Guadeloupe in the French Chamber of Deputies.
They soon abandoned the idea of Pan-Africanism because they advocated equal rights inside the French citizenship and thought the London Manifesto declaration too dangerously extreme.
"[79] The smear campaign made many in Brussels see the meeting as a "gathering of dangerous agitators who, like their leader Marcus Garvey, were bent on freeing Africa from European rule.
However, in one of the reports he published in The Crisis, Du Bois drew on words spoken by Ida Gibbs Hunt and Rayford Logan to imply that the French Committee had sent delegates.
[87] According to Du Bois, an earlier plan to hold the 4th Congress in the West Indies, specifically Port-au-Prince, in 1925 did not pan out due to transportation and other issues.
[94][95] Other speakers at the opening session included Chief Nana Amoah, Reginald G. Barrow, Dantès Bellegarde, James Francis Jenkins, H. K. Rakhit, Adolph Sixto, and T. Augustus Toote.
[96] Later speeches were given by W. Tete Ansa, Helen Noble Curtis, Du Bois, Leo William Hansbury, Leslie Pinckney Hill, Georges Sylvain, and Charles H.
[106][107] Planning began in 1944 after Du Bois corresponded with Amy Jacques Garvey and Harold Moody on an idea for an "African Freedom Charter".
Adejumobi notes that "the new leadership attracted the support of workers, trade unionists, and a growing radical sector of the African student population.
Amy Ashwood Garvey chaired the opening session and Alma La Badie, a Jamaican member of the Universal Negro Improvement Association, spoke about child welfare.
However, Picture Post covered the 5th Pan African Congress in an article by war reporter Hilde Marchant titled "Africa Speaks in Manchester", published on 10 November 1945.
[126] This conference shifted the discussion about Pan-Africanism to focus more on African leaders and the people of Africa as "primary agents of change in the anti-colonial and anti-imperial struggles.
[63][135] Hill organized the North American delegates, focusing on ways that the Black community could work together to pool resources to aid in the Pan-African movement.
[148] Several men associated with Howard University, Neville Parker, Don Coleman, and Fletcher Robinson, all worked towards the development of a Pan African Center of Science and Technology during the congress.
