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"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. Davis
In 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.
"Through Chicagoan Prexy Nesbitt's life of organizing at the grassroots and crisscrossing the globe, we learn about long-forgotten efforts spanning decades to support the many liberation and peace struggles in southern Africa. 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. Davis, author of Freedom Is a Constant Struggle
"At this moment, when the lives of Bayard Rustin, Ella Baker, Claudette Colvin, and others are gaining fresh attention and new appreciation, Prexy Nesbitt's story is both relevant and necessary. A huge audience is eager for a deeper awareness of where we've come from, where we are today, and where we might go."—Bill Ayers, author of When Freedom Is the Question, Abolition Is the Answer
"The most consequential social movement to develop in the United States after the civil rights era of the 1960s was the movement to end apartheid in South Africa. Despite its significance, we know very little about it. And we know next to nothing about the amazing efforts of Black Americans like Prexy Nesbitt to address the colossal injustices facing the whole region of southern Africa. We Are Internationalists fills a long-standing void in our understanding of the vast and sometimes vacuous post–civil rights era."—Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, author of From #BlackLivesMatter to Black Liberation