Eyes Off the Prize: The United Nations and the African American Struggle for Human Rights, 1944-1955

by Carol Anderson

As World War II drew to a close and the world awakened to the horrors wrought by white supremacists in Nazi Germany, the NAACP and African-American leaders sensed an opportunity to launch an offensive against the conditions of segregation and inequality in the United States. The "prize" they sought was not civil rights, but human rights. Only the human rights lexicon, shaped by the Holocaust and articulated by the United Nations, contained the language and the moral power to address not only the political and legal inequality but also the education, health care, housing, and employment needs that haunted the black community. The NAACP understood this and wielded its influence and resources to take its human rights agenda before the United Nations. But the onset of the Cold War and rising anti-communism allowed powerful southerners to cast those rights as Soviet-inspired and a threat to the American "ways of life." Enemies and friends excoriated the movement, and the NAACP retreated to a narrow civil rights agenda that was easier to maintain politically. Thus the Civil Rights Movement was launched with neither the language nor the mission it needed to truly achieve black equality. Carol Anderson is the recipient of major grants from the Ford Foundation and the American Council of Learned Societies, and numerous awards for excellence in teaching. Her scholarly interests are 20th century American, African-American, and diplomatic history, and the impact of the Cold War and U.S. foreign policy on the struggle for black equality in particular. Her publications include "From Hope to Disillusion published in Diplomatic History and reprinted in The African-American Voice in U.S. Foreign Policy.

Genres: History, Race, Nonfiction

318 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2003

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.

Carol Anderson is Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of African American Studies at Emory University. Professor Anderson’s research and teaching focus on public policy; particularly the ways that domestic and international policies intersect through the issues of race, justice and equality in the United States.

Reviews

[Andrea · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought I knew Eleanor Roosevelt, but what did I know? Nothing. This is the immensely detailed and extraordinarily well footnoted and quite horrifying story of the U.S. betrayal of the ideals behind the U.N. -- if there ever were any. The primacy of the Dixiecrats demanding that there be no international agreement that could possibly interfere with Jim Crow or the constant lynchings as part of the real politik of the Democratic party remaining in power is well documented here, along with the painful infighting with the NAACP (Du Bois and White primarily) and between the NAACP and the various incarnations of the NNC, CRC, AAC in all of its various levels of cooptation by the Communist Party. Essentially this is the story of how the NAACP abandoned the fight for human rights, took its 'eye off the prize' as it became 'entangled' in Democratic politics and facing anti-communist witch-hunts.

I love the distinction between civil rights -- that 'only speak to the overt political and legal discrimination that African Americans faced' -- and human rights, with 'the language and philosophical power to address not only the political and legal inequalities that African Americans endured, but also the educayion, health care, housing, and employment needs that haunted the black community' [2]. An important distinction, and I agree with Anderson that it is the second that we need to fight for.

She has unearthed some telling quotes -- this from President Truman to a group of Black Democrats:

I wish to make clear that I am not appealing for social equality for the Negro. The Negro himself knows better than that, and the highest type of Negro leaders say quite frankly that they prefer the society of their own people. Negroes want justice, not social equality' [2]

In all of the cold-war jockeying around the UN's formation, the US succeeded in defining minority as only a group wishing to secede from their country and with a distinct culture or language -- thus they argued that 'there probably are no national minorities in the United States' [75].

Eleanoer Roosevelt consistently put the party before African American rights, despite her place on the board of the NAACP, and consistently supported the Dixiecrat positions in every instance with a statecraft and political ability that was quite breathtaking. I had no idea she was so brilliant at political manouvering, but sadly it was certainly for evil. Of course, given her loyalties she didn't have much choice. In the words of George Kennan on the Declaration of Human Rights:

The staff has great misgivings as to the wisdom of the Executive branch negotiating declarations of this nature setting forth ideals and principles which we cannot be sure of being able to observe in the future, and which are in any case of dubious universal validity. It seems to us that this invites charges of hypocrisy against us' [132].

I had no idea that the Dixiecrats and their allies were so incensed and afraid of the possibility that there could exist an international organisation such as the UN with any ability--even if simply moral--to speak or act against Jim Crow (or other injustices within the U.S.), that they tried to push through legislation making it nearly impossible for any international treaties to be signed. The Bickers amendment would 'require all treaties and executive agreements first to be ratified by the 2/3 of the U.S. Senate, then by both houses of Congress with enabling legislation, and finally...by all 48 state legislatures' [220]. Crazy, right? No treaty or executive agreement would ever happen ever again, and this almost passed. Eisenhower managed to stop it, but by the skin of his teeth really. As part of this effort, however, he withdrew his support from things such as the Genocide Convention. Before he did so, while still trying fight the Bickers amendment, the author of the convention had argued that the South didn't really have anything to worry about because 'genocide occurred only when an intent existed to destroy an entire group, and those who committed lynchings lacked this requisite motivation'. He explained further that 'the basic policy of the South is not to destroy the Negro but to preserve that race on a different level of existence' [228].

There is one good story in here, of Reverend Carey chosen to be a token African American on the delegation as a sop given he worked alongside the powerful and bitterly racist James Byrnes. He refused to do as he was told and voted to approve the Genocide convention, causing immense consternation and anger and upset in the U.s. camp. That was a happy day. Of course they had no timetable for ratification...

There are more betrayals -- Max Yergan the worst, and I wonder how long he was in the pay of the government? But above all this is a lesson in strategy, what the long-term prize needs to be.

[ashwini · Rating 5 out of 5]

Carol Anderson makes the compelling case that the Civil Rights Movement's great failure was abandoning the human rights framework on which it was based. Due to many factors, but especially the Cold War and the lingering effects of McCarthyism, the Civil Rights Movement abandoned economic and social rights struggles. This abandonment led to a plateau in progress, and today, the struggles of people of color are very much within the realm of violations of economic and social rights. For real change to occur, we need to look beyond civil rights, to human rights.

[Alan · Rating 4 out of 5]

compelling read. meticulously researched. rich in qualitative data. A reminder that we focus on the fight for human rights abroad, much work is to be done at home.

[Luke · Rating 3 out of 5]

Eye-opening perspective on the creation of the UN and Commission on Human Rights, focused on the NAACP and related national civil rights groups' fight to (and retreat from) address Jim Crow violence and disenfranchisement as a human rights failure, a genocide, a parallel to the plight of colonized people globally. Casts a hollowing glare at the US vs USSR manipulations of UNCHR goals to claim superiority on whatever narrow form of human rights and non-intervention wouldn't expose liability for their documented internal failures. Damning quotes of Truman and Eleanor Roosevelt on placating the Dixiecrats from any federal oversight of lynching. Ultimately the NAACP's fear of any link to communism leads them to merely seek the most American of shallow equality.

[Erica (Cheekymama2) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book for class so isn’t a book I would choose on my own. I’m so glad I had to read it. I realized how little I know of our country’s history during WWII and after when it comes to civil rights. When black soldier went to Germany, they were treated like people. They could go in a restaurant and sit wherever they wanted. They could talk to white women. They were respected. Then they came back home and were treated like property again after putting their life on the line. I also learned about the history of the UN and genocide. Genocide occurred in our country then and it continues today for the black community. Although it jumped around a bit, I really appreciated the content and we everything I learned.

[Matthew Rohn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely amazing, both as a work of African American history and foreign policy history. Deeply researched examination of how Jim Crow shaped America's leading role in creating the United Nations, how Black advocacy groups tried pursue human rights within the new international legal order, and how Cold War concerns forced a retreat to legal civil rights. It's only two weeks into January but this is my book to beat for 2021

[Willie Kirschner · Rating 5 out of 5]

This well written and well documented history explains how the failure to assure black Americans of the benefits of democracy after WW2 led to the very limited success of the Civil Rights movement and failed to insure the necessary economic and social rights which we are still struggling to obtain for all people today. A reminder that the struggle for equality of opportunity is a continuing battle and that it does not exist here today, despite all our past struggles.

[Zoe Brett · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anderson has written an extraordinary, important, and compelling book on one of the great struggles of our time. It also serves as perhaps the most important critique of the civil rights movement. I think it’s worth noting that 5 years after she published this the NAACP went back to the UN to bring attention to voter disenfranchisement.

[Frank Scherrman · Rating 4 out of 5]

An eye opening explanation of how the Cold War and fear of communism hampered efforts to achieve basic human rights for African Americans after WWII. Those hurdles are still evident today. Only in American politics, could human rights be construed as anti-American.

[Rachel Eve · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great for understanding why we can't discuss human rights in U.S. governance. This is really detail-heavy, but the book overall is an excellent demonstration of the methods used to prevent minority progress. The parallels to current events are straight-up eerie.

[Brenda]

who knew eleanor roosevelt was such a disappointment??