Beyond Cold War Civil Rights: Decolonization, The New World of Negro Americans , and the Intellectual History of Global Antiracist Solidarities

Abstract: This article explores the intellectual history of global antiracist solidarities by examining an underutilized archive. In the late 1950s, the political scientist Harold Isaacs interviewed several dozen African American social, cultural, and political figures while gathering material for a book that would be published in 1964 as The New World of Negro Americans . The interview notes Isaacs kept offer a unique window on the way African American thinkers and activists saw decolonization as an opportunity to mobilize links with people of color throughout the world.