Carol Anderson. 2015. Bourgeois Radicals: The NAACP and the Struggle for Colonial Liberation, 1941-1960

Abstract

Carol Anderson. 2015. Bourgeois Radicals: The NAACP and the Struggle for Colonial Liberation, 1941-1960. New York: Cambridge University Press. 372 pp. Anderson's book makes an essential contribution to Black Studies and its relation with the African diaspora and Third World countries. She analyzes the most crucial African-American rights organization, the NAACP, perhaps in its most difficult time, that of the Cold War and civil rights era through revealing its anti-colonial politics, internal struggles, its place and role in the African-American movements, its approach regarding the USSR and communism, and its stance on international affairs. In her analysis of the NAACP's anti-colonial struggle, Anderson implies that the organization was controversial but also had an important and powerful role in the African-American community's internal struggle for civil rights, equality and in its desire of challenging colonialism. As the title "Bourgeois Radicals" indicates, Anderson aims to show that the NAACP in its anti-colonial approach was unique regarding not only similar American organizations but also several international organizations, and institutions. As a "bourgeois" organization its agenda on US politics was constituted through preservation of the civil rights politics framework, and it put distance between itself and communism and communist groups. Meanwhile as a "radical" group, it challenged Washington's Cold War politics, "Jim Crow structure," and colonial administrations through the UN, the media, various alliances, and supporters within the US administration. She chooses to use the term "NAACP's anti-colonialism." However, Anderson cannot be certain in elaborating the organization's success in its struggle against colonialism and its articulation of anti-colonialism. She acclaims that international relations and colonialism were "unfamiliar" (p. 57) for the organization and that it did not want to take the lead in the struggle for colonial liberation. Rather, the NAACP aimed to be cooperative (p. 60) but to Anderson its mission was "helping destroy colonialism"(p. 268). Moreover she argues that its anti-colonial campaign was coherent. She also wants to indicate that it had some difficult accomplishments (p. 202) like challenging colonial administrations, having allies "closely working with the NAACP on UN issue" (p. 191). However Anderson accepts that the NAACP lost its role, effects, and had a "stalemate" (p. 56) on colonial liberation struggles. Its confusion was mainly based on hesitancy of a potential link with the USSR and radicals, Cold War politics, and turbulent domestic politics like the Eisenhower era (p. 290). The book also indicates that Anderson's analysis of the NAACP's anticolonial struggle includes comparison among African-American movements, left wing, and progressive groups. She makes a distinction between the NAACP and these groups especially in terms of their approach to communism and relations with the Soviets. Anderson highlights that in analyzing the NAACP is crucial to recognize the fact that African-Americans had different anti-colonial approaches. …