Immigration and the Making of African America

FAIN: RZ-266114-19

University of Maryland, College Park (College Park, MD 20742-5141)
Julie Greene (Project Director: December 2018 to October 2022)

Preparation of a conference and a publication on how immigrants from Africa, the Caribbean, and Latin America have influenced African American culture and society since the mid-20th century. (12 months)

Immigration and the Making of African America will explore the largely untold history of African diasporic immigrants to the United States and their relations with native-born African Americans over the last 150 years. Black immigrants developed distinctive strategies for assimilating, even while maintaining ties with their countries of origin. They have profoundly influenced the social, political, and cultural history of the United States. In exploring these themes and by connecting immigration and African American history and culture, this conference will bring together scholars across the humanities to rethink the standard narratives of both fields, demonstrate that scholars in each area must be in dialogue with one another, and illuminate in new ways the complexity of blackness in historical and contemporary America.

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