“Confraternity Among All Dark Races”
“Confraternity Among All Dark Races”
Mittie Maude Lena Gordon and the Practice of Black (Inter)nationalism in Chicago, 1932–1942
This essay examines the political activities of Mittie Maude Lena Gordon (1889-1961) in Depression-era Chicago. A former member of the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA), Gordon established her own organization, the Peace Movement of Ethiopia (PME), in 1932. While her decision to form the PME was largely driven by her interest in West African emigration, she also believed that the plight of African Americans was similar to other nonwhites globally and envisioned her organization as a vehicle to unite members of the “dark races.” Building on Garveyism while implementing new strategies of her own, she used her organization as a site for collaboration and exchange with individuals from various parts of the globe. Her activities illuminate the entangled histories of twentieth-century Black nationalism and internationalism.
Keywords: Mittie Maude Lena Gordon, black nationalism, black internationalism, Garveyism, Africa, Ethiopia, Liberia, Afro-Asia, Pan-Africanism, Chicago
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