The Howard School of International Affairs: Theory and Practice

Session Submission Type: Full Paper Panel

Session Description

The panel revisits the work of African American scholars based at Howard University during the interwar and post-World Wars era when totalitarianism, fascism, and racism threatened democratic principles and institutions worldwide. As wartime conditions intensified the minority situation of blacks, Jews, and colonial groups, the Howard scholars, who include Alain Locke, Ralph Bunche, Merze Tate, Rayford Logan, E. Franklin Frazier and others, were unique among their contemporaries in specifically tying the dangers to democracy to the practices and aspirations of empire. Furthermore, their theses on interracial (and indeed international) relations, and for what must be done to safeguard democracy, advocated for policies of co-existence against dominant policies and practices of cultural containment. Through the efforts of these scholars, Howard University served as an intellectual hub for the investigation of the interdependence of imperialism and racism, and its impact on democratic institutions domestically and internationally. Forerunner to contemporary Postcolonial International Relations theorists that today increasingly emphasize the prevalence of racialized bases of power in the international system, the Howard scholars contributions to IR have largely been erased and forgotten from political science canon.

Themes that animate from their work include an analysis and redefinition of democracy that distinguishes between and emphasizes social, economic and cultural democracy; the importance of civic education and the education of social citizens with ‘world-mindedness’ to the strength of democratic institutions; misgivings of states’ ability to guarantee the rights of marginalized groups, and instead the promotion of non-state actors and a vibrant civil society.

Deep analysis of the work of the Howard School reveals enduring patterns of polarization and fault lines in Western democracies, and their underlying economic, social and cultural drivers. The papers on this panel not only offer a close reading of these scholars works, but also reveal their continuing relevance to understanding present fissures in Western democracies and the interdependence between domestic and international drivers.

Sub Unit

• Theme Panel

Cosponsor

• Division 43: International History and Politics

Individual Presentations

• Alain Locke: Imperialism, Race and the International Order - Owen Rhys Brown, Northwestern University

• The Howard School of African Diaspora Studies - Errol A. Henderson, Pennsylvania State University

• Ralph Bunche, UN Trusteeship, and the 1947 HU Conference on Trusteeship - Pearl T. Robinson, Tufts University

• Merze Tate: Imperialism and the White Man’s Blunders - Krista Johnson, Howard University

Chair

• Robert C. Smith San Francisco State University

Discussant

• Robert Vitalis University of Pennsylvania