50 years ago a group of African Americans declared themselves sovereign and established their government - the Republic of New Africa or RNA. The group had numerous objectives, they engaged in a wide variety of tactics toward that end, the group involved hundreds of black nationalists from around the US, there were some wins but there were important losses. The US government (with 14 different organizations) was quickly up and running to try and identify as well as counter whatever the group put forward. At the time of the anniversary, I'm drawing on my book How Social Movements Die as well as the extensive archive that was partially employed within the book to retell the story as it unfolded.
As conceived, the RNA was not interested in carving out a little bit of the US for black folk. Rather, they were interested in a more fundamental shift in terms of governance and governing structure (a form of participatory, democratic-socialism with a strong dose of bureaucracy). They also articulated a different vision for what New Afrikans could be. We will address the later in another blog.
Note: the quality of a few of the pages is poor but a cleaner version is available here. Part of my effort here is to highlight the documents that are contained in my archive but I also want the information to be clear.
As conceived, the RNA was not interested in carving out a little bit of the US for black folk. Rather, they were interested in a more fundamental shift in terms of governance and governing structure (a form of participatory, democratic-socialism with a strong dose of bureaucracy). They also articulated a different vision for what New Afrikans could be. We will address the later in another blog.
Note: the quality of a few of the pages is poor but a cleaner version is available here. Part of my effort here is to highlight the documents that are contained in my archive but I also want the information to be clear.
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