WASHINGTON — As the United States faces wars abroad, strained alliances, tariffs and deepening debates over its role in the world, Black political and civil-rights leaders are drawing on a tradition that stretches from W.E.B. Du Bois to Rev. Jesse Jackson: using the struggle for civil rights as a framework for American diplomacy.
That history is at the center of a new analysis by Asha Castleberry-Hernandez and Dr. Christopher Shell for the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation. It argues that the civil rights movement offers a blueprint for rebuilding American diplomacy. The piece traces a line of Black foreign policy leadership through W.E.B. Du Bois, Ralph Bunche, Malcolm X, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the Rev. Jesse Jackson, Andrew Young, and Rep. Barbara Lee.
“I believe our American foreign policy is in crisis,” Castleberry-Hernandez, a former Biden-Harris political appointee, said. “Our principles in foreign policy have eroded significantly.”
Black Leadership on the Global Stage
Black civil rights leaders and politicians met in New York City last week to attend the United Nations General Assembly. The event brought together global leaders to discuss pressing issues such as climate change, human rights, and the global economy. Rep. Jonathan Jackson (D-IL), Attorney Benjamin Crump, and Al Sharpton were some of the most notable attendees.
Castleberry-Hernandez reflected on the late Rev. Jesse Jackson’s legacy in foreign affairs and his influence with world leaders. Jackson served as President Bill Clinton’s envoy for democracy and human rights, helping end apartheid in South Africa. “He [Jackson] was probably the strongest in terms of diplomatic experience and efforts,” she said. Castleberry-Hernandez noted that many Black leaders like Malcom X and Dr. King were religious leaders. She argued that their faith shaped their worldview and suggests that an interfaith effort is needed to rebuild U.S. diplomacy.
She also argued that civil rights leaders often hold more sway abroad than career diplomats. “People around the world are really inspired by the civil rights movement [and] civil rights leaders,” she added.
Black civil rights leaders meet with World Leaders
During UNGA week, Castleberry-Hernandez represented the World House Network at a gathering with the presidents of Ghana and Liberia, Sharpton and attorney Ben Crump. Ghana led the discussion, which centered on land reform, economic justice and reparations. Leaders from Liberia, Cabo Verde and Trinidad and Tobago took part, along with European participants, she said, who acknowledged the issue and want to do more.
Asked whether economic justice meant reparations, Castleberry-Hernandez said “yes”. She described a global push that has gained momentum since the Biden administration, led largely by African nations. She said the current U.S. government is “not in favor of it at all,” but stakeholders outside it continue to work with the diaspora and European countries.
On tensions between the African Descendants of Slavery (ADOS) movement and African-led reparations efforts, she called for unity. “It’s asking for almost the same thing,” she said. She predicted reparations will return as an issue in the next U.S. presidential race.
Castleberry-Hernandez recently met with Sharpton and Trinidad and Tobago’s opposition leader, who pledged to support anti-gun violence work in the Caribbean.
Restoring Diplomatic Ties
Castleberry-Hernandez and Shell’s central recommendation is a task force spanning the Congressional Black Caucus, the private sector, think tanks, academia and civil rights organizations. Its job would be to restore U.S. relationships with allies from Canada and the Caribbean to Latin America and Africa that have been damaged by the current administration. The Task Force would also draft a new framework for American principles in the 21st-century international system grounded in civil rights and justice.
The CBC’s reach has been limited while Democrats hold the House minority, she said, but that changes if the chamber flips. Under a future administration, she wants the task force tied to the executive branch, possibly through a special envoy or ambassadorships for civil rights leaders.
“It has to have results and accountability,” she said. “I’ve seen in government where we create task forces, and nothing comes out of it.”
A thin U.S.-Africa policy
Castleberry-Hernandez was blunt about the current state of U.S.-Africa relations. She said the administration’s National Security Strategy gives the continent only about three paragraphs, focused almost entirely on trade and investment. She also noted the end of the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit that the Biden administration revived.
Asked why some African and Caribbean nations have accepted deportees from the United States, she pointed to the weight of American power. “They don’t agree with Trump,” she said, “but in person they have to.”
Governors and members of Congress are conducting their own “subnational diplomacy” and building diplomatic relationships directly with US allies. She pointed out Gov. Wes Moore’s trip to Japan to advance trade and investment in Maryland. Castleberry-Hernandez also raised concerns about federal diversity pipelines. Fellowships such as the Rangel and Payne programs, which prepare diverse candidates for the US diplomatic corps, are not placing fellows in government, she said. Rep. Gregory Meeks recently called on Secretary of State Marco Rubio to fix that.
Drawing on her time at the U.S. Mission to the UN, she said America’s diverse diplomatic corps was an asset at the Security Council. “We were able to come up with more effective solutions,” she said.
‘These issues do impact us here at home’
To those who say America should fix its own house first before focusing on foreign countries, Castleberry-Hernandez answered that the two can’t be separated. The war with Iran is driving gas prices, she said, and U.S.-China talks over AI (Artificial Intelligence) and data centers will shape the economy at home.
She noted that Americans made the Israeli-Palestinian conflict a domestic political issue. The same energy, she said, belongs to AI regulation, economic justice and global health.
Her advice to the next generation of Black leaders: build global awareness, engage civil society abroad, work with allies in Congress, and make the stakes clear to people at home.
“We need to quit thinking that only a certain elite group of policy thinkers who work at think tanks or on the Hill can effectively restore this,” she said.
