The Second Emancipation

Journalist and author Howard W. French shares his book The Second Emancipation: Nkrumah, Pan-Africanism, and Global Blackness at High Tide

TPL and Toronto Metropolitan University present acclaimed journalist and author Howard French in conversation with Sanjay Ruparelia at the Toronto Reference Library's Appel Salon.

As a distinguished professor of journalism at Columbia University and former foreign correspondent who has reported from across Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean, Howard French brings unparalleled insight into one of history's most transformative yet overlooked periods: the moment when African decolonization and the American civil rights movement converged to reshape global politics.

In his groundbreaking book The Second Emancipation: Nkrumah, Pan-Africanism, and Global Blackness at High Tide, French recovers a crucial chapter of the 1960s, a time when Pan-Africanism and anti-colonial movements across the Global South forged powerful alliances with Black Americans fighting for civil rights. This was an era of extraordinary possibility, when newly independent African nations and emboldened activists imagined a world freed from racial hierarchy and imperial domination. Yet this "high tide" of global Blackness was systematically undermined by Western powers that destabilized African democracies and severed emerging transnational solidarities.

As we witness renewed authoritarian interventions in African politics, the resurgence of great power competition, and ongoing struggles for racial justice worldwide, French's work offers vital perspective on the continuities between past and present. How do the unfinished projects of decolonization and civil rights shape contemporary movements for democracy and equality? What can today's activists learn from the strategies, and the betrayals, of this pivotal moment? How might we reclaim the radical vision of solidarity that once connected liberation struggles across continents?

Drawing from meticulous research and decades of frontline reporting, French illuminates how understanding this hidden history is essential to advancing democracy and justice in our own turbulent era.

Question and answer session and book signing to follow. Books available for purchase.